Gulf News Dubai. By A Staff Reporter

Gulf News
Dubai. By A Staff Reporter

Intense cost pressures, increased competition and regulatory requirements are among many factors that will boost IT outsourcing by retail financial institutions in the GCC and Levant region over the coming few years.

A newly-released report by Middle East North Africa Financial Network (Menafn) Research indicates that leading retail Arab banks currently outsource discrete, well-defined tasks that are commodity-like and constitute a relatively small percentage of the overall IT budget.

The most common IT functions being outsourced today are web site development and hosting, and end user support. Going forward, the report finds, IT executives within leading retail Arab banks are looking to outsource more complex, inter-dependent, and large scale IT functions such as telecom and network management.

The report found that 40 per cent of surveyed institutions will increase expenditure on IT outsourcing in 2003.

An additional 30 per cent will keep expenditure levels the same as in 2002. The remaining 30 per cent will decrease their expenditure on IT outsourcing in 2003. The report looks at IT outsourcing within the leading retail financial institutions in the GCC and Levant region.

It identifies the drivers that are pushing regional IT executives to outsource, details IT functions currently outsourced, and outlines what leading retail financial institutions plan to outsource in the coming year.

Moreover, the report looks at how much is being spent on outsourcing and whether expenditure will grow.

Finally, the report outlines some of the factors used by IT executives to select outsourcing providers and highlights the challenges faced by those executives when making IT outsourcing decisions.

Menafn is the leading provider of online financial technology solutions and online/wireless financial content and tools to large institutions in the region. Clients include the National Commercial Bank, Riyad Bank, Arab National Bank, Arab Bank PLC, Mashreqbank UAE, Citibank, American Express Middle East, and many others.