However, Australian IT managers said companies that are in the middle of, or currently contemplating outsourcing or offshoring IT work, will learn the hard way.

They are quietly confident that when customers do deal with an outsourced provider, the parent company soon brings the service back in-house because of poor quality work.

Edward Hore, IT manager for automotive specialists Bob Jane Group, said in the next three to five years companies will realize that offshoring is a bad idea and bring it all back in-house.

Hore said Gartner is "usually on the ball", but this particular claim about IT departments shrinking or disappearing is ridiculous.

"Offshore support will clearly start to come back in house ... in 1999 Gartner said all support desks will be outsourced but in the last three years we have seen the exact opposite as IT departments are growing rapidly," Hore said.