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The Cleveland Police Authority in Northern England is paying Groupe SCA to help manage the control room of the 2,200-strong force, allowing Chief Constabl to "concentrate on policing."
The 211 million-euro ($295 million), 10-year contract to take calls, assist in preparing criminal case files and manage payroll, recruitment and expenses became effective Oct. 1. Price and other first-time customers seeking to simplify back-office operations or upgrade rickety computer systems are helping information technology services companies such as Steria, and Technology Solutions Corp grow faster than the economies they serve.
"Outsourcing used to be a bit of a dirty word," Price said in an interview. "I don't think that's the case anymore." France's Cap Gemini and Teaneck, New Jersey-based Cognizant have raised their outlooks this year, while India's Infosys Technologies Ltd and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd have signaled rising demand from corporate clients.
The companies are gaining as corporations revive spending postponed by the global economic crisis while also looking to cap costs.
"IT is doing better than the economy," Francois Enaud, chief executive officer of Velizy, France-based Steria, said in an interview. "The crisis forced companies in many industries to reconsider the way they do business and their cost model."
About 53 per cent of public- and private-sector organizations in surveyed by Gartner Inc plan to outsource more this year, while 40 per cent plan to increase spending on IT services, the research firm said Sept. 7.
Gartner also found that 14.7 per cent of organizations with IT budgets of less than 1 million euros expressed interest in outsourcing, compared with 6.1 per cent last year.
In the Cloud
The recovery in spending has been slower at large corporations, postponing the rebound at companies such as International Business Machines Corp, the world's largest computer-services provider. The Armonk, New York-based company this month posted its third straight quarterly decline in new contracts. Its services signings fell 7 per cent to $11 billion in the third quarter.
"Very large corporate IT projects of the type that would get involved in aren't recovering to the same extent as smaller pieces of work, which are more significant to smaller companies," said Gianluca Tramacere, an analyst with Gartner in
These large contracts have traditionally been multi-year commitments with a fixed base of servers and personnel. While those are harder to come by, smaller companies are increasingly able to outsource some operations.
'Pay as you need'
That's in part thanks to the spread of cloud computing services, which shrink the footprint necessary for upgrades to IT infrastructure by storing data and applications online.
Providers including Steria and Cap Gemini are promoting "pay as you need" cloud-based services, challenging the industry's use of long-term contracts.
"The cloud should enable entry into these services faster," for smaller companies, said Patrik Karrberg, a researcher in the School of Economics' Information Systems and Innovation Group. "The promise of the cloud is more flexibility."
That's helping cloud services grow faster than more traditional IT. Worldwide cloud services revenue is expected to reach $68.3 billion this year, up almost 17 per cent from 2009, while overall global IT spending may rise about 4 per cent, according to Gartner.
Emerging markets
Tata Consultancy this month reported a quarter-on-quarter increase in revenue of 12 per cent, the biggest jump in more than four years. Infosys raised its full-year revenue forecast to about $6 billion, compared with a July estimate of as much as $5.81 billion.
Steria reported an 8 per cent gain in third- quarter revenue to 402 million euros. At Cap Gemini, Europe's largest IT services provider, second-quarter revenue climbed 1.9 per cent to 493 million euros in France and 6.6 per cent in and Europe outside of France, the UK, and the Benelux countries. Sales in the UK and slid almost 9 per cent.
Cap Gemini spent 233 million euros for 45 per cent of Brazilian provider CPM Braxis in September. India's HCL Technologies Ltd and Wipro Ltd have suggested they may do deals in Europe to expand their services on the continent.
In France, companies are "much more open to considering the outsourcing of non-core business" than before the economic crisis, Steria's Enaud said.
Pent-up demand
Still, demand driving many corporate clients to spend more on their IT systems will eventually slow, some executives said.
"There was a surge in pent-up demand that we saw in the first and second quarter," Cognizant CEO Francisco D'Souza said.
First-half revenue at Cognizant surged 35 per cent to about $2 billion as deferred spending returned, the company said Aug. 3. Demand later in the year is unlikely to be "quite as strong, as we return to a more normal situation," D'Souza said.
IT providers also face a battle to safeguard revenue from cuts in government spending in US and Europe. In the UK, the government said last week departments will cut their budgets by an average 19 per cent over four years, with police budgets falling by 14 per cent.
Longer term, the cost-cutting efforts may help computer services companies, said the LSE's Karrberg. "The problem for many governments it that they don't have enough competent in-house people," he said. "There will be a response among the providers to create more efficient services, and it's a big opportunity at the moment."
