Horses for Sources and the London School of Economics Launch Groundbreaking Study Into Cloud Business Services

Study Will Uncover Real Dynamics Within Organizations to Determine How the Move Towards Cloud Business Services Will Impact the Future of Work


MIDDLETOWN, NJ--(Marketwire - September 14, 2010) -  Horses for Sources (HfS), the leading analyst advisory firm covering business process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology outsourcing (ITO), today launched a significant study to understand the dynamics and intentions of enterprises to adopt Cloud Computing models. The Outsourcing Unit at the London School of Economics (LSE) will work with the HfS analyst team to interpret the data and produce a seminal industry report on the study findings that will discuss the impact of Cloud on the future of work.

HfS will leverage its growing network of 34,000 subscribers and 120,000 monthly web-visitors to collect adoption intentions and attitudes towards Cloud Business Services across both business and IT professionals. HfS' access and influence to senior buy-side decision makers of business and technology services is unrivalled in industry.

Key dynamics being surveyed will include those aspects of Cloud that appeal to both business and IT professionals, inhibitors that are holding back adoption, current intentions and future plans, intended use of third party service providers and consultants, and determination of specific organization functions where Cloud will have the most impact. 

CEO of HfS Research, Phil Fersht, who will co-lead study, commented, "There's been so much noise focused on the technology implications of Cloud, and not enough attention placed on how business executives intend to apply Cloud services within their own business environments. At the end of the day, some firms will succeed in driving down IT infrastructure costs using Cloud models, but the real momentum will come from the business processes that can be delivered to organizations that have all the associated application workflow and infrastructure already provisioned in the Cloud. This study will be the first in industry to draw out these dynamics to help us visualize the future of work."

Professor Leslie Willcocks, Professor of Technology Work and Globalisation at the LSE, and renowned expert and author on global outsourcing and technology dynamics, is leading the initiative for the LSE. He added, "In our 2002 book Netsourcing, we predicted a strong move towards renting applications, services and infrastructure over the Net. It seemed to peter out with the bursting of the e-business bubble but in fact we are now witnessing the ten year convergence of streams of technology and capability that pose the question: how do we leverage this strategically for business advantage? That is one thing we want to investigate. The other is the longer game -- is this going to be a dominant trend, the only game in town, or, if not, what sort of hybrid futures are likely?'

The online study can be accessed by clicking here

About Horses for Sources

Horses for Sources (HfS) is the foremost advisory analyst firm and social networking community, focused on helping enterprises make complex decisions with their business process and IT outsourcing strategies.

With 34,000 subscribers, HfS provides the most impactful and frequently-visited global collaborative community platform in the global services industry, providing rapid and insightful commentary, analysis and debate of enterprise outsourcing dynamics. The organization is unique in the fact that it integrates personable social networking with market research and advisory services.

HfS' mission is to provide a unique environment for collective research, opinion, experience and knowledge across the global outsourcing industry to help enterprises explore new performance thresholds. Led by industry expert Phil Fersht, the HfS team is a multi-disciplinary group of analysts across North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific regions, with deep domain knowledge in Business Process Outsourcing, Information Technology Services and Cloud Business Services. 

Launched in 2007, the HfS blog has more than 100,000 monthly visitors across the global outsourcing industry, and is widely recognized as the leading destination for collective insight, research and open debate of industry issues and developments. The HfS LinkedIn community is thriving with over 10,500 industry professionals sharing views and information daily. More information about Horses for Sources can be accessed at www.horsesforsources.com. The company can be followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/horses4sources and LinkedIn by joining "The BPO and Offshoring Best Practices Forum group."