The worldwide IT services market is on track to grow 9%
this year to £365bn, according to analyst Gartner.
Despite the slowing US economy, growth in IT services is
expected to remain solid among end users, with an 8.7% increase on
last year, said Gartner.
"While many businesses remain focused on improving internal
processes and reducing costs, investing in innovation is more
widespread than in recent years," said Kathryn Hale, an analyst at
Gartner.
Core
outsourcing - IT
management and process management - remains the highest growth area
in the market. In 2007, core outsourcing services are on track to
represent 41% of total worldwide IT services end-user spending.
Process management services are typically funded outside of IT
budgets and IT management services replace internal IT spending, so
growth in these outsourcing segments often occurs even in the face
of restricted growth in IT budgets, said Gartner.
The development and integration segment continues to exhibit
steady growth, fuelled by regulatory and compliance initiatives,
and a continued push for improved business change management and
agile architectures driven by merger and acquisition
activities.
Gartner said the worldwide D&I segment is forecast to reach
£113bn in 2007, up 9% on 2006.