"When you call an offshored helpdesk or call center, you realize that nothing will be done and customers just end up dealing with their own problems. Offshore work barely lives up to the Service Level Agreements (SLA) without any responsibility.

"If large companies offshore the IT department, then smaller, local companies have a chance at the [outsourcing] dollars as many [SMBs] cannot manage a local support desk anyway."

Michael Houlahan, information technology director for the University of Western Sydney, said the strong trend to offshore what used to be in-house software development will lead to greater use of off-the shelf packages.

Despite Gartner's claims, Houlahan said it is hard to believe IT will become so commoditized or so simple that it can all fit into an offshored model.