2026 IT Sourcing Study – BeLux
The 2026 BeLux IT Sourcing Study is the most comprehensive assessment of IT service and cloud platform providers in Belgium and Luxembourg. Based on input from nearly 350 of the country’s largest IT-spending organisations, the study evaluates more than 850 IT sourcing relationships and over 1,200 cloud platform relationships.
Outsourcing demand is stable as insourcing gains momentum.
Over the next two years, 29% of organisations plan to increase spending on external IT providers, while 41% expect no change. At the same time, nearly a quarter (23%) intend to reduce external expenditure—up from 17% in 2025 and more than doubling since 2022. Most of these organisations plan to bring parts of previously outsourced work back in-house, signalling a continued shift toward insourcing. Uncertainty has also declined, with only 7% of organisations remaining undecided, indicating greater confidence in sourcing decisions.
Flexibility and innovation are the main drivers for outsourcing.
Scalability is the primary driver behind the rising use of external IT providers, cited by 57% of respondents. Access to emerging technologies comes in second at 53%, while almost half (49%) mention a greater emphasis on core business activities. Cost reduction is the least important driver overall—the lowest level recorded to date (31%)—although it remains among the top three reasons for outsourcing in the financial services sector.
Top 3 Drivers for Outsourcing More
Knowledge retention and cost efficiency motivate increased insourcing.
Organisations mainly reduce reliance on external providers to keep critical knowledge in-house (66%). Nearly half (47%) view insourcing as more cost-effective than outsourcing, and 38% intend to increase workloads within captive delivery centres.
Top 3 Drivers for Insourcing
Nearshore remains popular with clients.
Thirty-six percent of organisations plan to increase their use of nearshore delivery, compared to only 7% planning to decrease it. Offshore delivery is also projected to expand (+25%), while onshore outsourcing continues to decline, with 27% of organisations intending to reduce it. Nearshore remains appealing because it offers cost efficiency, regulatory alignment, lower risk, and cultural proximity.
Nearshore Delivery Plans
AI adoption is widespread, but its business impact remains uneven.
AI and Generative AI are now commonly used across the BeLux region, mainly driven by standard, off-the-shelf tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot (42%). While adoption is maturing—17% of organisations are experimenting with in-house GenAI and 25% already report limited business impact—only 10% see significant effects, and just 1% report transformative outcomes, indicating that large-scale transformation remains uncommon.
Business Impact of AI Adoption
Captive adoption remains limited, but knowledge retention adds value.
Most organisations in the BeLux region do not operate a captive IT delivery centre, with 56% reporting no captive presence. When captives are utilised, nearshore and hybrid models are preferred over offshore-only approaches, reflecting a balance between proximity and cost. The main advantages of captives are improved knowledge retention (62%), followed by cost savings (54%) and enhanced team stability (41%).
Benefits of Captive Adoption
Competition intensifies among the Top 10.
The general satisfaction ranking features 36 service providers, including three newcomers: AT&T, EPAM and EY. Computacenter leads with 85%, followed by Deloitte and GTT at 84%, while Accenture, Kyndryl, Cronos, Cegeka, EPAM, Hexaware, and Stefanini each score 83%. The 2026 results reveal a much more competitive market, with only two percentage points separating the top 10 providers, compared with a 10-point gap in 2025. Despite this intensified competition, overall satisfaction remains stable, with the average score unchanged at 78%.
2026 Average Satisfaction
78%
Clients highlight the lack of challenge from their providers.
A lack of challenge from service providers is the most commonly cited weakness, identified by 37% of respondents. Additionally, 26% report that providers do not act as true partners, while 24% cite insufficient business knowledge. Together, these findings suggest that many providers are still perceived as delivery-focused rather than as proactive, business-oriented partners.
Top 3 Service Provider Weaknesses
Azure ranks first among cloud infrastructure platforms, while Office 365 and Google Workspace lead in software satisfaction.
In the infrastructure cloud platform services category, Microsoft Azure ranks first with a score of 76%, narrowly ahead of AWS (75%) and Google Cloud Platform (73%). In the software cloud platforms category, Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace lead with a joint score of 80%.
IaaS/PaaS
SaaS
2026 Final Report – BeLux
Whitelane’s final report offers key insights into IT sourcing and governance trends, featuring rankings of IT service providers across five IT service towers and four key performance indicators (KPIs). It also includes rankings of the leading cloud platform providers for both IaaS/PaaS and SaaS. For more information, contact info(@)whitelane.com
