According to a study last month by IDC, a global research and market intelligence provider, Russia’s IT service market is believed to have grown by just 11% to $6.58 billion in 2012 – a fairly faint-hearted advance when compared to a robust 27% upsurge the year before.
Outsourcing, driven by contracts with western companies, was particularly important in 2012, IDC said.
Dwarfed by other segments with its modest 15.7% of the market, it was nonetheless found to be the primary locomotive of market growth. The IT infrastructure outsourcing sub-segment in particular gained strong momentum with 60% growth.
Systems integration, still the biggest segment of the Russian IT market, and contractual software development inched last year up to 28.5% and 26.3% of the total, respectively, thus showing negligible headway.
In 2012, the largest consumers of IT services in Russia were financial organizations, followed by telecom and media companies and government customers.
There will be no boom in Russia’s IT market in years to come, IDC believes. IDC’s analysts estimate that Russian IT services will grow at a conservative CAGR of about 12% between now and 2017, reined in by a lethargic GDP growth rate, capital flight, and contraction in production capacity.
