The Norwegian outsourcing market grew a modest 4.2% in 2003 but strong growth of 16% is estimated for 2004. Total value reached 6.5 B NOK in 2003 and is estimated to 7.5 B NOK in 2004. The mega deals of 2003 form a large part of the growth, but also the number of smaller contracts on discrete areas such as application management and managed security services experienced a lot of growth.

"Acceptance of IT outsourcing is widespread" says research manager Mette Ahorlu, IDC. "We see outsourcing being accepted in medium sized and smaller companies as well. The smaller companies largely go for full-scale outsourcing combining servers, networks and desktop management in one agreement. In the very large accounts it is especially application management that is on the agenda today after outsourcing of the infrastructure is completed in many companies. "

IDC expects even higher growth rates for 2005 and 2006 because of new mega-deals and for the period 2003-2008 a CAGR of 13.9% is forecasted.