City becoming wary of large outsourcers?

Smaller companies specialising in outsourcing and IT services are finding a niche in the City as some larger providers make a bad name for themselves.

According to a survey of 200 companies in the financial centre by Comunica, over two-thirds said they are being influenced by at least one of three factors: rising budgets, poor service quality and expanding timescales.

The integrator, which itself concentrates on SMEs as well as having contracts with some bigger names such as HSBC and JP Morgan Fleming, reckons there is a growing trend towards larger outsourcers working alongside smaller specialists.

It said that unless a user organisation is itself large, a larger outsourcer is likely to put more important customers first.

Unsurprisingly, this is not the view of many of the larger outsourcers. But in a recent interview, Ismail Amla, senior VP at CSC UK, pointed out 'smart sourcing' - also commonly known as 'multisourcing' - is the way forward, as it involves several partners normally with different areas of expertise working together on a single large contract.

silicon.com will be bringing you more on so-called outsourcing mega-deals and multi-sourcing next week. If you have a view on the kind of large deals that frequently hit the headlines, email editorial@silicon.com