European IT Outsourcing Deals: Financial Services Review, 2004 To 2006

In the three years from 2004 to 2006, the financial services industry stabilized its spending on infrastructure outsourcing and increased its spending on application management and desktop services. The UK is still the major outsourcing market for this industry, but countries like the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy are increasing their share as well. While the financial services sector used to be good for at least a couple of megadeals each year, we didn't see any in 2006. The most popular deal size is still between €10 million and €20 million. Deal length choices showed a patchy picture; both short and long deals gained traction, while the most popular deal length — five years — lost share. The financial services sector showed a strong preference for bundled deals in 2006, in contrast to other industries in that year. IBM brought home most of the euros that were spent in the financial services sector, while EDS captured the most deals.