2021 Swiss IT Sourcing Study Results Published
The 2021 Swiss IT Sourcing Study, conducted by Whitelane Research in collaboration with Navisco AG – Sourcing Professionals, investigates more than 300 unique IT sourcing relationships as well as more than 300 cloud sourcing relationships held by 125 participants of the top IT spending organisations in Switzerland.

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Participants
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IT/Cloud Service Providers
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Cloud sourcing relationships
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IT sourcing relationships
Key findings from the 2021 Swiss study:
Over the next two years, 70% of all respondents confirm they will outsource at the same rate or more, with 40% citing that they are planning to outsource more. Insourcing plans remain stable with one in five organisations planning to outsource less. This is currently the highest level in Europe where this study is conducted. For the second year in a row the number one factor for organisations intending to insource is faster time to market and improved quality outcomes.
By industry, the life science and pharmaceuticals sector are planning to increase their outsourcing the most in the next two years (48%) while only 10% will outsource less (half the overall average for Switzerland). In contrast, only 30% of manufacturing and chemicals organisations are planning to increase their level of outsourcing, while more than half (52%) say there will be no change. The financial services sector has the highest percentage of participants planning to insource with 32% (up 7% from 2020 and 14% overall since 2019).
70%
Cost reduction is once again the number one driver for organisations in Switzerland planning to outsource more (up 10%). Focus on core business is also ranked first following a significant increase of 13% in importance.
Overall, respondents are satisfied with their IT service provider(s), with 89% of all 310 IT sourcing relationships being rated as satisfactory. Of the 15 IT outsourcing providers, TCS achieves first place on the ranking for general satisfaction with a score of 81%, jointly followed by Cognizant and EPAM (both at 80%) and Capgemini (78%). TCS also tops the applications ranking, while HCL is number one for both data centre and end-user services.
Top 4 only (Switzerland 2021)
More than 300 cloud sourcing relationships have been evaluated this year with 94% of all relationships being rated by clients as satisfactory – 5% higher than the overall percentage of satisfaction for the IT service providers. For infrastructure cloud platforms (e.g., IaaS/PaaS), Amazon Web Services (AWS) achieves first place for a second consecutive year with a score of 83% while Microsoft 365 remains top of the ranking for Software Cloud Platforms (SaaS) with 81%.
Across the nine Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), cloud capability overtakes account management quality for the first time to have the highest average score (78%) with new entrant EPAM topping the ranking. In contrast, innovation remains the lowest performing KPI for another year with an average score of 64%.
Service delivery quality has been largely unaffected by COVID-19 with 65% of clients confirming there has been no change, while 18% said the quality had improved and 17% believe it had declined (up from just 4% in 2020). In addition, 39% of respondents say that public cloud usage will increase because of the pandemic while one in five reveal that it will increase their use of nearshore or offshore models.
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Cloud Capability
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Innovation
31% of participants currently outsource managed cybersecurity services, with 81% declaring themselves to be satisfied to very satisfied with their providers. However, 62% of service providers indicate that very significant improvements are required for client cybersecurity management skills. This compares to the client self-assessment of 22%, suggesting progress can be made in this increasingly important area.
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satisfaction with cybersecurity providers