Pliezhausen, 10 October 2023. The current study on “The Market for IT Sourcing Consulting in Germany” by market research institute Lünendonk in cooperation with DATAGROUP shows the ongoing trend towards cloud and hybrid IT landscapes. 31 IT sourcing consultancies and 121 user companies in Germany have been surveyed for the study.

The trend towards cloud continues unabated among user companies. Most of the companies take a hybrid approach, i.e. they migrate a couple of applications to the cloud or purchase software-as-a-service applications. These hybrid models present numerous challenges for companies, which are reflected in their sourcing strategy. Cloud governance and orchestration are critical success factors here. Many companies also have the topic of data sovereignty on their mind on the way to the cloud. Furthermore, automation potential in hybrid environments is often not fully used yet. When choosing sourcing consultancies and IT service providers, a comprehensive knowledge of cloud models and change management is therefore very important for user companies. To this end, they are also prepared to increase their budget for IT sourcing projects in 2024.

Alongside cloud migration and transformation, the topics of IT infrastructure and cybersecurity have been an integral part of tenders in 2022/2023. These topics will remain very important in the future, but also areas such as artificial intelligence and data & analytics.

Very high expertise is paramount for both consultancies and user companies when it comes to choosing an IT service provider. With its CORBOX portfolio, DATAGROUP covers the whole range of IT and can provide both full IT outsourcing and selective outsourcing, e.g. cloud services, thanks to the modular design. Especially when dealing with trend topics around the cloud such as a successful orchestration or data security and data sovereignty, DATAGROUP is an excellent point of contact. DATAGROUP’s portfolio is in a continuous state of development – not only in the area of cloud but especially in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence in IT operations, DATAGROUP has been actively building its portfolio and will continue to do so over the next few years. As such, the company is perfectly positioned to assist user companies and sourcing consultancies as a competent partner.

Selected findings of the study

• Multi-cloud is one of the most in-demand operating models in 2023.
• User companies expect IT service providers to have an in-depth expertise in IT architecture, cloud governance, compliance and security as well as a high degree of industry and expert knowledge.
• For most of the user companies, cloud governance and orchestration represent the main challenge in hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
• IT sourcing consulting will massively gain in importance going forward.