72% of the companies outsource part of their IT

IDC reveals that 64% of CIOs and 77% of CFOs are positive about selective IT outsourcing, but over three-quarters of board-level IT and finance directors would not want to outsource their IT in its entirety. Managing risk is the key concern. The most popular part of an IT function to outsource is the network/communications infrastructure (50%), followed by security services (32%) and server management (32%).

When selecting an outsourcing provider for the network/communications infrastructure CIOs rate telecommunications specialists highest (54%), followed by generalist IT companies (32%) and then local outsourcing providers (14%). They typically entrust their communications infrastructure to a specialist in order to drive down costs and focus on core business functions. Of the organizations polled in the research, 72% had already outsourced certain elements of their IT. The most common benefit, cited by a quarter of the CIOs interviewed was the ability to focus more on core business functions.