This study draws from the results of IDC's European Vertical Market Survey, carried out in March/April 2005 in the top 5 Western European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K.), among 1,150 companies with more than 20 employees. Of these, 728 were small and medium companies with less than 500 employees. This study looks at SMBs' outsourcing strategies, with results broken down by company size (20?49, 50?99, 100?249, and 250?499 employees).

"One of the drivers propelling the growth of IT outsourcing is the desire to lower costs. However, many SMBs still believe that outsourcing prices are high," said Laura Converso, senior research analyst, European Small and Medium Business.