What is the most popular area of IT outsourcing? According to one study, it is and has been application development for the past 3 years, but it is declining. In 2009, 33 percent of 200 companies surveyed by Irvine, CA-based research firm Computer Economics outsourced application development. Those numbers are down roughly 20 percentage points from the previous two years (53 percent in 2008; 52 percent in 2007).
"Such a precipitous drop indicates the overriding factor driving the downturn was the deepening recession, which caused many organizations to curtail spending on new initiatives and delay ongoing projects where possible," wrote Computer Economics on its website on the report IT Outsourcing Statistics 2009/2010: Outsourcing Trends and Cost Experiences for 11 Key IT Functions. "As application development is project-based, application development outsourcing activity is far more subject to swings in the economic cycle than outsourcing of data center, help desk, or other IT functions. Outsourcing activity declined across the board last year, but no single function declined more than application development."
