European Niche Capabilities Driving Demand, According to GS

Europe certainly can’t compete with offshore destinations like India and Philippines on the cost front, but when it comes to innovation and high-end technology solutions, it is very often seen as the best bet.

Major Strengths That Define Europe

Talent Pool

Europe has a vast talent pool, engineering expertise, and high standard of education. Dmitry Loschinin, President and CEO, says “Confidence is quickly rebuilding and more and more companies are turning to Eastern Europe in particular for technology services expertise. Reason: The region’s talent pool has never been stronger.”

Multilingual Skills

Multiple language capabilities differentiate the European market from most other destinations. There is probably no other such destination that can support six to seven languages at one place. This has enabled the growth of BPO operations and has attracted numerous service providers to the region.

ITO or BPO- Which is Hotter? 

According to Forrester report Market Overview: European IT Infrastructure Outsourcing (2011), cloud-based services are dominating the infrastructure outsourcing market. As concerns over security issues prevail, private dedicated clouds and hybrid solutions are being offered by service providers. Forrester expects that resistance will change as more business professionals push for the flexible capabilities that cloud enables.

Inside the Midmarket: a 2011 Perspective

Today’s midsize firms must reconcile seemingly opposing strategic mindsets – keeping costs down and increasing efficiency while reshaping business models and infusing them with intelligence. The findings of the 2011 IBM Worldwide Study reveal that midsize firms are, in fact, able to juggle these dual priorities to focus on what will offer the most value to their organizations. When asked about their strategic mindset, 79% cited customers, innovation, and growth as their major priorities, with 21% primarily focused on reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
Comparisons between findings from this study and those from 2009 reveal a broadening midsize businesses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To advance these priorities, more than 70% of midsize firms are seeking a consultative, versus purely transactional, relationship with their primary IT provider. And whether they are part of the two-thirds who view themselves as advanced when it comes to IT adoption or among those who lag, all midsize firms cite product reliability, product performance, and competitive pricing as the top reasons for choosing their primary IT vendor.

 

Although midsize businesses clearly want to adopt new, innovative business strategies, make changes required to improve their performance, and partner with an IT provider who can help advance their business strategy, they still face substantial challenges to executing against those goals. Not surprisingly, a key barrier, despite increasing budgets, is cost. This is cited by 58% of respondents as being one of the top barriers to achieving their key IT priorities. Difficulty implementing new technology also represents a top challenge worldwide.

 

Source: “Inside the Midmarket: a 2011 Perspective,” IBM Worldwide Study 2011

 

The Ukraine’s Best IT Employer 2011

The Community of the Ukrainian Developers (Developers.Org.Ua) has recently announced the winners of its “Best IT Employer 2011” contest. Among the contestants were 32 Ukrainian companies that competed in 5 headcount-based nominations: less than 80, 80-200, 200-800 and 800+. Each participating company was assessed by its own employees in terms of: projects and teamwork, compensation, career growth, office facilities and management. Here’re the winners of the headcount-based nominations:

• Less than 80 – Itera Consulting
• 80-200 – Sitecore
• 200-800 – Dataart
• 800+ – Ciklum

More nominations and winners are available at http://dou.ua/lenta/articles/itogi-konkursa-best-employer-2011/

IT Sourcing Europe to Survey Norway’s IT Outsourcing Market 2011

IT Sourcing Europe announces the launch of the Norwegian IT Outsourcing (ITO) and In-House Software Development Survey being conducted in the frames of the 2d Annual Pan-European ITO research 2011. Norway is the last country in IT Sourcing Europe’s 2011 research agenda. The survey aims to explore:

• current demand for IT outsourcing services across Norway’s industries
• current level of adoption of the outsourced development / IT across Norway’s industries
• key trends and challenges facing Norwegian outsourcing and in-house development companies
• most effective problem solving techniques / best practices used
• how actual annual incurred costs compare to the expected (contracted) ones
• circumstances in which companies will consider outsourcing their web/software solutions and/or IT function(s) in the future etc

Each survey participant will be able to see most of the survey results right after participation (without providing any contact information) and will receive 2 thank you gifts: a complimentary copy of the 2011 Central and Eastern European IT Outsourcing Landscape Review and the present survey results compiled into a comprehensive Norwegian IT Outsourcing Intelligence Report 2011 (to be received last week of November 2011).

Communication is the key issue facing ITO buyers in Austria

As shown by the preliminary results of the 2011 Austrian IT Outsourcing and In-House Software Development Survey, poor communication with vendor’s project teams and management is the major challenge facing Austrian companies that outsource their IT / software development to third parties.

IT Sourcing Europe, a UK-based market intelligence company, is about to close its 2d Annual Austrian IT Outsourcing (ITO) and In-House Software Development Survey 2011 that has been in progress since early October. While the final findings are yet to be analyzed and released, the preliminary results allow picturing some of the key hallmarks of today’s Austrian ITO landscape.

According to the survey, the top three ITO challenges in Austria are: poor communication with vendor’s project teams and management (reported by over 40% of survey respondents), lack of appropriate resources on vendor’s side (reported by over 38% of participants) and change management (reported by over 30% of respondents).

Of those companies that point to poor communication with ITO vendors, around 70% engage via the project-based outsourcing models (fixed-price, time-and-material) and only around 3% – via the own software team model. Of those companies that report poor resource pool on vendor’s side, more than 60% partner with small ITO vendors (less than 50 by headcount) and only less than 5% – with large providers (1000 and more). Change management is the biggest issue for almost 75% of small companies and less than 10% of large companies.

Overall, the prevailing majority of survey participants – more than 55% – believe that outsourcing their development / QA functions has been the right decision, while less than 10% are very dissatisfied with their outsourcing engagements.

To date, the base survey sample is comprised of the 312 outsourcing companies. The survey will be available online until October 28, 2011. The final results will be compiled into a comprehensive Austrian IT Outsourcing Intelligence Report 2011.

Product innovation requires more flexible software delivery

Product innovation requires more flexible software delivery – IBM United Kingdom Limited – IThound.com.

Product development leaders are fervently seeking more innovation, and software is playing an increasingly central role in that innovation. As the pace of product innovation increases, the need for better ways to harness and integrate software innovation in the overall product development life cycle drives product development professionals to challenge traditional approaches to software delivery.

Forrester conducted a study to better understand the increasingly important role of software innovation in product development. This white paper shares the findings.

Five myths of cloud computing

 

 

 

Five myths of cloud computing – HP – IThound.com.

Overview

Many admit to the haze surrounding cloud computing. This white paper separates fact from fiction, reality from myth, and, in doing so, will aide IT executives as they make decisions around cloud computing.

While dispelling cloud computing myths, we will answer tough questions: How hard is it to adopt a private or hybrid cloud? How difficult is it to maintain and secure a cloud? How will the cloud transform my business? Do I have the right skill sets in place? What are some of my cost considerations?

Drupal Resource Kit from Acquia

Acquia, a commercial open source software company providing products, services, and technical support for the open source Drupal social publishing system, has recently released 2 new white papers: “The Drupal-Powered Enterprise” and “Drupal Commons for Building Enterprise Social Communities”.

Inside the papers:

• How Drupal delivers as the platform that drives a scalable content infrastructure
• Three distinct approaches for producing multiple web experiences
• Calculating the Drupal difference
• The underlying drivers for social business software
• How Drupal Commons meet the requirements of a social solution for organisations
• Examples of how Drupal is being used in enterprise-grade social business sites and more

Download the white papers below:

Building Social Communities

Drupal-Powered Enterprise

Bekanntgabe: Studie für österreichisches IT-Outsourcing 2011

IT Sourcing Europe analysiert auch in diesem Jahr wieder die Trends, Herausforderungen, Kosten und  allgemeine Entwicklung der IT-Outsourcing-Industrie in Österreich. Die Analyse basiert auf:

a) einer Befragung von Unternehmen, die Ihre IT-Funktion / Softwareentwicklung an Drittunternehmen offshore (in weit entfernte Laender), nearshore (in nahe gelegene Laender) bzw onshore (innerhalb Österreichs) übergeben;

b) einer Befragung von Unternehmen, die Ihre Softwarelösungen im eigenen Haus entwickeln.

Die Ergebnisse werden wie bereits im Jahr 2010 in einem umfassenden ”IT Outsourcing Intelligence Report 2011″ aggregiert.

Alle Outsourcing/IT-Manager(innen) und Entscheidungsmacher aus Österreich werden eingeladen, an der Befragung teilzunehmen. Als Dankeschön für die vollständige Beantwortung der Fragen erhält man sofort nach der Teilnahme einen “Zentral- und Osteuropaischen IT Outsourcing Landscape Report 2011″ und im November 2011 - eine Zusammenfassung der zentralen Umfrageergebnisse - “Austrian IT Outsourcing Intelligence Report 2011″.

Details über die Studie kann man hier finden.

Der Befragungslink – https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/austrian_survey_2011  (die Umfrage wird in Englisch durchgefürt, ca. 8-12 Minuten)

European Gaming & eGambling Outsourcing Review: 1Q 2011