According to the survey, by far more people—58% of the total—said they are still at the initial assessment stage.
What’s more, within that assessment stage, 37% said they are still defining the outsourcing strategy. Another 13% said they are deciding which functions to outsource while just 8% said they are organizing the outsourcing process.

This pattern is very similar across all company sizes, especially among medium-sized companies. At companies with 5,000 to 9,999 employees, 66% reported they are still at the assessment stage.

Even more significant, the gap between the number of people who said they are currently at the assessment stage—the first phase of outsourcing—and the second stage—sending out the RFP—is enormous.
Just 12% of outsourcing buyers said they are at that RFP stage, and most of those people reported that they are still gathering data for the document. Just 10% of the people who are currently at the RFP stage report having issued the document to service providers.

“When firms reach the RFP phase of the sourcing process they have normally completed a thorough assessment of their options and the marketplace. Otherwise they would be using a different tool, say an RFI or RFQ,” insists Bob Rosetta, senior sourcing manager with the strategic technology sourcing organization at JPMorgan Chase.

In addition, only 12% of the respondents are currently at the third stage—selecting the outsourcing partner.

These developments are potentially great news for vendors. They suggest there is tremendous pent-up demand for their outsourcing services, especially among larger companies.

However, Sam Albert of Scarsdale, NY-based Sam Albert Associates, an independent management consulting firm that specializes in the information technology industry, says all bets depend upon the state of the economy. “If CEOs are willing to spend money to improve processes, they will spend money on outsourcing and consultants,” he adds.