2024 French IT Sourcing Study
The 2024 French IT Sourcing Study, conducted by Whitelane Research in collaboration with Timspirit, provides an in-depth analysis of the IT sourcing landscape in France. Based on feedback from over 200 top IT-spending organisations, it evaluates over 700 unique IT-sourcing relationships and more than 600 cloud-sourcing relationships, making it one of the most representative studies on the French market for this topic.
External IT Spending Expected to Decline in France
In 2024, only 23% of French organisations plan to increase spending on external IT providers, down from 31% in 2023 and the lowest rate across Europe. Meanwhile, 40% of respondents anticipate no change in spending (up from 32% in 2023), and 18% plan to spend less (up 5% from last year). Uncertainty has slightly decreased, with 19% unsure about plans compared to 24% in 2023. The financial services sector leads in spending growth, with 31% planning increases—8% above the national average. In contrast, the manufacturing and chemicals sector predicts the highest spending cuts, with 27% of organisations planning reductions and only 21% planning increases.
Key Drivers for Increased Spending: Focus on Core Business and Cost Reduction
The top reason for increasing spending on external providers in 2024 is to enable a focus on core business activities, cited by 53% of respondents—a notable 8% rise from last year. Cost reduction remains a key driver (48%), followed by service quality improvements (40%). Additionally, reliance on external providers for innovation has increased, with 38% of organisations seeking advanced solutions, up by 11%.
Top 3 Drivers for spending more on external providers
Growing Popularity of Nearshore Outsourcing
Nearshore outsourcing shows significant potential, with 35% of organisations planning to expand its use. Only 6% expect reductions, while 59% foresee no changes, highlighting the growing appeal of nearshoring as a cost-effective and geographically convenient solution.
AI and Generative AI: Future Productivity Gains
Although only 13% of organisations report significant impacts from AI or Generative AI today, optimism for future productivity gains is evident. Over the next two years, 32% of respondents expect 10-20% productivity gains. Application services are predicted to experience the most significant impact (71%), followed by digital transformation (60%) and workplace services (59%).
Record-High Client Satisfaction with IT Providers
This year’s survey reveals that 67% of the 711 IT sourcing relationships evaluated received a ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ rating, a ten-percentage-point increase from last year. The most significant shift occurred in the ‘satisfied’ category, which rose from 42% in 2023 to 51% in 2024.
2024 Satisfaction
67%
2023 Satisfaction
57%
2024 General Satisfaction Ranking
This year’s general satisfaction ranking includes 30 IT service providers. TCS leads at 83%, followed by EY and DXC Technology (82%), and Orange Cyberdefense and Wipro (80%).
France’s overall average satisfaction score reached a record-high 75%, up three points compared to last year.
2024 General Satisfaction Ranking (Top 5)
Exceptional Performers
Nine IT service providers have achieved exceptional performance in one or more IT service towers, with satisfaction scores exceeding the market average and above the standard deviation:
General Satisfaction: Computacenter, DXC Technology, EY, Orange Cyberdefense, TCS and Wipro.
Application Services: Cognizant, EY, TCS and Wipro.
Digital Transformation: Cognizant, Deloitte and TCS.
Cloud & Infrastructure Services: DXC Technology and Fujitsu.
Workplace Services: Computacenter and TCS.
Security Services: Orange Cyberdefense.
Cloud Providers Lag in Satisfaction
Among the 612 cloud platform relationships evaluated, only 56% received ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ ratings—11 percentage points lower than IT service providers. AWS leads the infrastructure cloud rankings at 76%, followed by Google Cloud Platform (75%) and Microsoft Azure (73%). For software cloud platforms, Microsoft Dynamics 365 ranks first with 75%, followed closely by ServiceNow (74%) and Salesforce.com (72%).
2024 French IT Sourcing Study – Final Report
The 2024 final report encompasses the latest sourcing and governance trends for France. It includes rankings by five IT service towers, Key Performance Indicators spanning four dimensions, and cloud platform provider rankings. For further details, please contact info(@)whitelane.com (available in both French and English).
