CIOs will turn their attention to ensuring that outsourcing arrangements can deliver quality services, with outsourcing firmly entrenched in many business’s cost-cutting strategies.

A worldwide survey of 758 CIO-level executives found that two-thirds regard IT quality as a critical challenge for 2005.

But this challenge is made more difficult by the continuing trend to outsource parts of the IT function.

Cost pressures are forcing 60% of British CIOs to consider outsourcing, the survey reports; but 62% worry about diminished quality of services from outsourcing.

The question is no longer about whether to outsource but how to do it effectively, and this is the case despite the potential for outsourcing, said Gareth Lofthouse of the Economist Intelligence Unit, which conducted the survey on behalf of IT optimisation company Mercury.

“New models for IT outsourcing create the need for tighter alignment between IT strategy and business results,” he added.

The first nine months of this year saw $18.6 billion worth of global outsourcing contracts signed compared to $12.9 billion in the corresponding period of 2003.