US-based IT services vendors continue to track better revenues than their Indian counterparts. While revenue of Indian companies grew 38 per cent in 2007, earning only 4.1 per cent of revenue tracked, US-based vendors dominated with 55.4 per cent.

Worldwide IT services revenue totalled $748 billion in 2007 (around Rs 3,141 crore), a 10.5 per cent increase from 2006 revenue of $677 billion, says a report by Gartner, an IT research and advisory firm.

The domestic IT Services market grew 18 per cent in 2007 (in Indian Rupee terms) outperforming overall Asia/Pacific IT Services growth rate, the report states.

"While cost remains a key consideration in the outsourcing services market in India, operational efficiency and business agility is driving most IT services engagements," said Arup Roy, senior research analyst, Gartner.

Across all IT services, IBM continued to be the global market leader, dominating 7.2 per cent of the market. IBM and Accenture delivered strong growth rates of 12.2 per cent and 19.7 per cent respectively.

"This strong growth, combined with strong first quarter results for market leaders, runs counter to the gloomy and widespread economic concerns arising in the United States," said Kathryn Hale, research vice-president, Gartner's worldwide IT services group.

The report says that vendors headquartered in India are ranked lower than the top 20 but performed well as a group in 2007, with a growth rate of 38 per cent.

This is more than three times the market average. Tata Consultancy Services [Get Quote], ranked 28th, is the highest-ranked Indian provider.

"To build on their success in 2007, service providers should focus on selling services that will deliver visible returns in 2008; either in cost, speed to market, or business impact. Apart from that, they should also focus on growing sales in emerging markets that enjoy faster-growing economies and high growth rates," said Hale.