This IDC study provides an in-depth analysis of the 100 largest outsourcing deals signed in, or covering, Western Europe during 2005. It ranks these contracts in terms of total contract value, and analysis is conducted on a range of variables (e.g. lead vendor, vertical market, aggregate contract value, run rate, country of signing). It is the perfect source for readers keen to understand how the European outsourcing market developed during 2005 and where it is going in 2006 - particularly IT professionals, outsourcers and other service providers, large end users, and the investor community. Key findings include:

"The total value of the top 100 deals decreased slightly from $42.1 billion in 2004 to $40.5 billion in 2005 - confirming a leveling out of the market and the overall trending down of total contract values. However, with a total aggregate value above $40 billion, strong demand for outsourcing continues. Significantly, the largest deals in 2005 got bigger, dispelling the myth of the fall out of favor of the megadeal, as well as confirming the emergence of large-scale multisourcing, with five out of the nine megadeals awarded by two government agencies," said Jennifer Thomson, research manager, IDC European Services. "While megadeals get larger in value they are getting shorter in length, as customers are less willing to be tied into contracts for long periods and are less willing to outsource everything to a single vendor; but they are prepared to outsource more. Without the long contract lengths vendors must engineer cost savings in a much shorter time period, while at the same time developing collaborative go-to-market strategies."