The number of IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) deals looks just as likely to rise in 2012 as it did in 2011, but pay-as-you-go services look set to dominate the market.

That's according to Duncan Aitchison, the president of ISG North Europe, who said that software as a service solutions like cloud hosting will probably account for the largest number of BPO deals in 2012, following on from trends seen last year.

According to the latest Information Services Groups (ISG) TPI index, outsourcing was popular in 2011; particularly in Europe where there was a record-breaking spend, up 27 per cent on 2010. The value of these outsourcing deals was valued at 44 million Euro and encouragingly, 60 per cent of global outsourcing deals last year were conducted in Europe.

Adding, Aitchison commented on ChannelWeb.co.uk: "Despite the hype and expectations set around cloud and utility computing, there has been relatively little change to date in the structure of outsourcing contracts.

"Looking ahead, we believe that far more business will be written using new pricing dynamics by vendors aggressively offering true 'pay-by-the-drink' pricing."

ComputerWeekly.com additionally reports that the UK could play a large role in the success of outsourcing in the year ahead. That's because in the last quarter of 2011, there were 15 per cent more contracts signed off when compared to 2010. Typically the value of these contracts was around 40 per cent higher, too.