Innovation and skills drive UK’s love affair with IT outsourcing

That's chief among findings of research commissioned by Patni Computer Systems, and released today. Indeed, it suggests that 75% of manufacturers believe outsourcing continues to deliver good value, compared with 72% in last quarter's Patni survey. It also reveals that 44% of UK manufacturing IT directors plan to increase their use of outsourcing, while a further 33% will maintain current levels of investment – compared to 28% and 32% three months ago. The study shows that a key driver of outsourcing remains access to skills – a requirement cited by 59% of UK IT leaders. They say, quite simply, that the talent delivered by outsourcing is difficult to create in house. 57% of manufacturers surveyed now believe that the number of skilled IT staff available in the UK has decreased – compared with just 29% three months ago. That said, 49% of respondents also agreed that an increase in innovation was a factor in increasing their confidence in outsourcing – up from 37% just one quarter ago. The report also shows that board-level individuals – other than IT directors – are having a much stronger, positive influence when it comes to outsourcing. Just three months ago, only 4% of IT directors reported that the influence of other board members was giving them confidence in outsourcing; now that figure is 22%. Brian Stones, executive vice-president for Patni, EMEA, says: "The innovation and higher value work outsourcing can bring is often critical to competitive success and it now falls to the outsourcing industry to highlight its successes in these cases. Our development of technology in product engineering environments is a good example."