Businesses in many different markets are increasingly looking for IT outsourcing, in spite of recent global economy concerns.

A study by research firm EquaTerra found that demand was especially strong in the European, Middle East and Asian (EMEA) markets and throughout all major industries.

Although outsourcing in the financial services sector may slow down in the short term, companies will focus on strategic functions in the long term and look to reduce operating costs.

Stan Lepeak of EquaTerra said: "While buyers still experience challenges with their outsourcing efforts, overall results have met or exceeded expectations, which has enabled outsourcing to become a commonplace tool that - regardless of broader economic and market conditions - buyers employ in an effort to improve their process delivery and reduce operating costs."

The research found that 51 per cent of advisors found that demand for outsourcing services was up in the third quarter of 2007.

Further, their outlook for next year was optimistic.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'