The 2018 Dutch IT Outsourcing Study, conducted by Whitelane Research in cooperation with Quint Wellington Redwood, investigates more than 520 unique IT outsourcing contracts held by over 200 of the top IT spending organizations in the Netherlands. All industry sectors are represented. The Dutch study is part of Whitelane’s annual IT outsourcing studies. We interview sourcing executives (CIOs/CFOs or their direct reports) about their outsourcing plans and their opinions on service providers. The survey shows the main outsourcing trends, evaluates and ranks the main IT service providers based on a set of key performance indicators (KPIs), and analyses trends in outsourcing governance and the impact of new technologies.
Key findings from the 2018 Dutch study
- There is still an appetite for outsourcing among companies in the Netherlands with 81% of participants confirming that they will continue to outsource IT at the same rate or more. One out of 10 clients say they will outsource less in the coming two years while future plans to outsource more have decreased by 11% in comparison with 2017.
- Public cloud has moved to become an established phenomenon. The larger public cloud providers such as Microsoft (Office 365, Azure), Amazon (AWS), SAP, Salesforce, Google and Oracle are now also strongly represented in the survey results with a total of over 100 significant contracts in the Netherlands.
- The main objectives to outsource among Dutch organisations are: focus on core business, improvement of service quality and cost reduction. In contrast, service providers in the Netherlands place twice as much emphasis on business transformation (55% compared to 25% of clients) and underestimate the importance of access to resources (18%compared to 41% of clients). Although innovation is picking up, clients still feel they are not getting sufficient innovation from their outsourcing contracts and this is a key area (also reflected by the low KPI average) where providers and clients should work together.
- Overall, respondents are satisfied with their IT service provider(s), with 86% of the 521 IT outsourcing contracts being evaluated as satisfactory.
- TCS is the highest ranked IT service provider (80%) followed by Cognizant (77%) and Centric (76%).
- Amazon (80% with its AWS IaaS platform) is the highest ranked public cloud provider followed by Salesforce.com (77%with its SaaS platform) and Microsoft (74% with its Office365 SaaS platform and Azure IaaS platform)
- With regard to technology trends, we see a strong adoption of DevOps and Public Cloud.
- Robotics and Artificial Intelligence are primarily used in the business domain to automate back- and mid-office processes (29% of respondents indicate use in this domain versus 25% in applications or IT infrastructure). However, it still appears to be in early days as clients indicate a lack of awareness, capabilities and maturity of these technologies.
FIGURE 1: What are your organisation’s plans for the coming years with regards to outsourcing?
FIGURE 2: What does your organization want to achieve by outsourcing its IT services – what are the objectives?
FIGURE 3: General satisfaction across all contracts (overall)
FIGURE 4: General satisfaction with outsourcing contract
About Quint Wellington Redwood
Quint focuses on two major changes that are taking place in the world today: digital transformation and the ever-increasing need for sustainability. In our vision, technology is not the only decisive factor. It is also especially important to have in place the knowledge, leadership and an organizational culture that enable relevant technology to be recognized and converted into value for our clients and their environment. Quint supports companies with the design and operationalization of their digital strategy. Together, we develop a strategy that enables our clients to adapt quickly and effectively in anticipation of – or in response to – opportunities or threats. We bring technology – and especially its application – to life. For more information about Quint visit www.quintgroup.com.
About Whitelane Research
Whitelane Research is an independent organization that is dedicated to out(sourcing) research and events. It conducts extensive IT outsourcing studies in 13 European countries and interviews CIOs of the largest organizations about their plans for outsourcing and selecting service providers. Whitelane also organizes end-user and service provider events. The purpose of these events is for end-users and service providers to exchange ideas about different outsourcing topics and how to achieve better sourcing relationships. Moreover, Whitelane hosts best practices groups for end-users in the form of a forum exclusively designed for executives who use sourcing as a fundamental part of their business strategy. For more information visit www.whitelane.com.
Contact for the Press
Sarah Scurr (Whitelane) sarah.scurr@whitelane.com
Jeroen Raijmakers (Quint) j.raijmakers@quintgroup.com