Bluewolf's State of IT Outsourcing Report: Rising Elastic Workforce Could Save U.S. Business

NEW YORK, August 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Bluewolf (www.bluewolf.com), the global consulting firm, today released its "State of IT Outsourcing Report" for 2012 to 2013, now available. Based on a survey of CIOs and other IT decision makers, and enhanced by intelligence from thousands of technology staffing placements, cloud deployments and managed services contracts, Bluewolf found that CIOs, directors, and managers are shifting away from traditional staffing methodologies. Most notably, they're embracing an "elastic workforce" by increasing their reliance on multi-sourcing models to deliver agile talent and capabilities to their businesses.

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"The growing importance of the speed with which a business leverages new technologies is creating a new form of outsourcing in which finding the right people at the right moment is paramount," said Michael Kirven, Co-founder, Bluewolf. "CIOs are looking to the elastic workforce to access not only more talent, but also a specialized pool of workers at the top of their game that offer an outsider's perspective."

The report makes a much needed distinction between the act of outsourcing, and the more controversial move to offshore jobs to workers outside of the United States. "It's unfortunate that outsourcing is so often equated with offshoring, because businesses are creating economic stability by leveraging an elastic ecosystem of experts and managed service providers that can be called on as-needed," said Kirven. "In actuality, they're giving employees greater freedom and keeping jobs close to home."

As organizations adopt technologies that can be scaled and iterated to meet real-time challenges, Bluewolf's research shows greater reliance on outsourced talent with specialized skills that can flex just as readily in response to ever-changing market demands. Previously associated with cost-cutting during economic uncertainty, IT outsourcing is evolving into a strategic tool that reflects today's rapidly changing business and technology landscape. Its use will continue to grow as CIOs increase emphasis on customer service, employee engagement, and the overall role human beings play, alongside technology, in driving innovation.

Focusing on the frequency of IT services being outsourced for application and infrastructure needs, and the sourcing models used, Bluewolf's survey found:

• The IT outsourcing market is growing: 32% of respondents will increase IT outsourcing investments, and 48% will hire more contractors, rather than full-time staff, in the next 12-18 months.
• On average, 48% of outsourcing budgets are allocated towards application services.
• 17% of all outsourced data center operations are managed in the cloud.
• Cloud computing is partially driving outsourcing growth, as more companies use applications from the likes of Salesforce, Google and Workday.
• Managed services is the #1 outsourcing strategy for Disaster Recovery, Web/eCommerce and IT Security services.
• SMB's outsource infrastructure services more frequently in order to leverage economies of scale

"CIOs dealing with cloud, big data, social enterprise and mobile face the challenge of not being able to find top talent fast enough," continued Kirven. "Companies who don't modernize both their technology and how they access talent face the possibility of extinction."

About Bluewolf

We make enterprises agile, and unite IT and the business under one mission -- Innovation. As a global agile consultancy, Bluewolf provides services across the customer life cycle, IT resourcing, managed services and training. Trusted by businesses across diverse industries, Bluewolf is translating today's unique business environment into opportunities for growth. With Bluewolf, businesses are able to deliver results that benefit the customer, the workforce, and the bottom line.

To view client success stories, visit http://www.bluewolf.com/success-stories. Join the agile conversation on Bluewolf Twitter and Bluewolf Facebook.

SOURCE Bluewolf