This IDC study provides a five-year forecast for the Benelux IT outsourcing market from 2012–2016. It highlights and discusses the main market trends and expectations for the five IT outsourcing foundation markets (i.e., application management, IS outsourcing, network and desktop outsourcing services, hosted applications management, and hosted infrastructure services).

"The stresses on the Dutch and Belgian economy, combined with low business confidence and stalled GDP growth, are expected to limit the growth in the Benelux IT outsourcing market. Although cutting costs is still one of the most important drivers, Benelux organizations are looking for IT outsourcing engagements as a way of transforming the IT environment with new technologies (e.g., virtualization and mobility) and new service delivery models (e.g., private and public clouds)," said Jeroen Wortel, director of research and consultancy, IDC Benelux. "Traditional outsourcers need to understand how cloud services will impact their current business models at several levels, ranging from financial factors (e.g., revenue, pricing, and cost structure), cultural environment, delivery methods, and the necessary skills/talent required for the ecosystem of partners and branding of services. The IT outsourcing market is structurally changing, and the service providers in the Benelux need to address this as soon as possible."