In summer 2010 IT Sourcing Europe initiated the German IT Sourcing and In-House Software Development Survey as part of its ongoing All-European ITO Research 2010. We reached our vast network of German business contacts and invited corporate IT decision makers to complete our online Survey and share their outsourced software/web development experiences with a broader business community both within and outside of Germany. As a result, 258 companies kindly responded to our invitation and filled out the online questionnaire.
Study Goals and Objectives
The German IT Outsourcing study 2010 aims to:
- Explore factors that drive companies to outsource their software development function, challenges associated with offshore/nearshore outsourcing and problem solving strategies;
- Find out which practice works best with the outsourced software development and how
- Help German companies increase awareness of how their market competitors act with regards to software development (SD) outsourcing;
- Help companies determine the best practices used to overcome challenges of the outsourced software development;
- Benchmark prospective destinations for the future software development outsourcing;
- Identify the key criteria to be used by future outsourcers in determining the cost effective engagement models, selecting ITO services providers and gaining the long-term benefits from the outsourcing practices.
Study Methodology
This study is based solely on the results of the online ITO survey conducted by IT Sourcing Europe between April and June 2010. In order to reach as many companies as possible, IT Sourcing Europe used its own database of business contacts in respective countries and sent out a survey invitation letter to each company’s decision makers (C-level executives, IT managers, directors, heads of software development etc).
Additionally, outbound marketing initiatives were launched in order to attract more companies to participate in the respective surveys. In the frames of this initiative the following steps were taken:
Online press release distribution;
- Close interaction with social media such as survey announcement and advertising in respective business and country-specific groups on LinkedIn, XING, Facebook, Twitter, Blogged.Com etc;
- Survey invitation campaigns in event management systems such as Amiando.Com;
- Reaching companies using contact forms on such B2B and B2C web portals as Europages.Com etc.
All data obtained were analyzed in the form of industry aggregates. The answers to open-end questions received were organized by their relativity to the study goals, treated as the option “other” at the graphic level (charts and pictures) and cited and elaborated on at the findings’ discussion level.
