Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) Consulting and Systems Integration 2008-2012 Forecast and Analysis: Emerging Challenges of Aligning IT with Business

This IDC study looks at the evolving market for consulting and systems integration (SI) services in the region, while identifying key buying trends and market opportunities. By 2012, IDC expects the Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) or APEJ consulting and SI market to increase from US$13.47 billion to US$22.58 billion with a CAGR of 9.1% between 2007 and 2012. The markets of the People's Republic of China (PRC), India, and Korea will primarily drive this growth.

SMBs will increasingly be attractive, but only the players with the right channel and delivery strategy will be able to succeed. Some of the key drivers for C&SI growth in the region include datacenter virtualization and consolidation, service-oriented architecture (SOA), software as a service (SaaS), and "productization" of services.

"The key challenge for IT service providers is the evolving buying behavior of CIOs as they question the business value of IT spending. Therefore, services players need to build vertical-specific and business-consulting capabilities into their IT service offerings to gain a favorable perception in the market," says Mayur Sahni, senior market analyst, IT Services Opportunities program, IDC Asia/Pacific.