New sourcing report on customer satisfaction and…

Read the article in Danish here.

PA Consulting's sourcing expert, Henrik Ringgaard, discusses the Danish results of the 2021 Nordic IT Sourcing Study from Whitelane Research, in collaboration with PA Consulting.

Cost minimisation, better scalability and lack of talent are the primary reasons why 38 percent of Danish companies plan to outsource more and 25 per cent plan to maintain the current level of outsourcing in the coming years.

62 per cent of the Danish companies surveyed said cost savings were the reason for outsourcing more, while increased scalability was mentioned by 52 per cent. In addition, 38 percent cited increased opportunity to focus on core business and a similar number mentioned improved opportunity to access talent, double the number compared with last year.

A mature market with high satisfaction levels

Part of the explanation for the great support for outsourcing among Danish companies is high levels of satisfaction with suppliers.

According to the survey, as many as 91 percent of Danish companies say that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their supplier.

At the same time, the study shows that Danish companies are very happy with cloud solutions. Henrik Ringgaard, sourcing expert and partner at PA Consulting, believes that optimism about cloud can help to challenge the existing and more traditional suppliers in the field. He says:

“The understanding of what it takes to succeed with a cloud conversion is increasing and customers have matured their approach. However, there are still challenges for both customers and suppliers with integration to existing systems, concerns regarding security and privacy and a fundamental lack of experience, competencies and familiarity with the cloud platforms.”

According to Henrik Ringgaard, almost all companies are making progress this year. He estimates that this may be a sign that customers are rewarding suppliers for delivering their products in an otherwise hard coronavirus-impacted year.

"Satisfaction with suppliers has generally increased during the coronavirus pandemic, and there are almost no suppliers who have seen reduced satisfaction compared to last year," he says.

He believes that the positive trend indicates that there has been a greater maturity in the market.

“We see that suppliers often have different strengths. Some are good at handling the big business transformations, while others are better at operating. It is my impression that customers have become better at finding the suppliers that match their needs,” he says.

Significant progress for Accenture

One of the suppliers that has made significant progress is Accenture, which ranks first among Danish customers.

Henrik Ringgaard notes, however, that Accenture has not seen the same progress in the other Nordic countries and saw a decline in customer satisfaction in Norway.

“Accenture has increased by three percentage points in the Nordic region, but by 12 percentage points in Denmark. This indicates that Accenture has had lifted the performance of its Danish delivery arm, after previous years' investigations had shown the company’s problems living up to customer requirements,” he says.