One of the most frequently sited reasons that an organization outsources services is to save money. But according to an article in Information Week, companies may not be saving as much money by outsourcing as has previously been thought.

In fact, the average savings realized by outsourcing is slightly less than 15 percent, says Technology Partners International (TPI). TPI puts out a quarterly status report on the outsourcing marketing that looks at growth in the market, where companies are investing their outsourcing dollars, and what services are being outsourced most frequently.

Here's the interesting part of all of this. According to TPI's numbers, the savings from outsourcing may not be what we're led to believe, but outsourcing is still growing at a steady rate. Um, why?

Truth is, the value in outsourcing might not be all in the amount of money that a company can save (to reinvest into something else). There are other issues to consider. For example, staff is a major issue. Many organizations can't find the appropriate IT staff to man their technologies.

And then there's market movement--companies planning to move into another market sometimes outsource to get closer to the market segment. Or even consolidation. If you can send five services/solutions to a single outsourcer, why would you keep any of those services/solutions in-house? It would only complicate matters.

So, outsourcing is morphing from a savings strategy to a business strategy.Finally. This business value has always been a part of outsourcing, but many companies come to it with a "cut the budget" mindset. It's not until getting involved in an outsourcing relationship that those same companies realize that cutting the budget is a small part of a larger picture.

If you're looking to cut the budget, then, outsourcing might give you some relief, but don't expect major savings. If, however, you're looking to improve your business strategy, then outsourcing could well be an option that you should consider.