Most IT companies to adopt outsourcing by 2005

Stamford-based META Group Inc. predicts that most information technology companies will adopt outsourcing by 2005.

META Group said spending for IT outsourcing is rarely discretionary, and the outsourcing market is growing at 15 percent to 20 percent annually.

"Outsourcing often involves

mission-critical operations, and vendor evaluations are often based on the comfort level of executives with vendors' reputation and proven performance," said Dean Davison, vice president with META Group's service management strategies service. "Outsourcing can enable business to move faster, become more efficient, or sometimes reduce support costs, but vendor choice and contract structures must be carefully calculated and negotiated."

METAspectrum, a new methodology designed to help IT executives navigate the changing IT vendor landscape, has been hailed in user demonstrations as the industry's most rigorous approach for assessing IT software, hardware and services vendors.

The outsourcing services METAspectrum evaluates are vendors that provide a full range of technology services for IT organizations, primarily within Global 2000 corporations. Outsourcing services often comprise a combination of missioncritical operations and backoffice capabilities.