While business spending on all telecommunications services is expected to grow in single-digit percentages over the next six years, global spending on managed services is expected to grow at an annual compounded rate of 14.7 percent over the period, according to the latest market study from Insight Research.

The market research report notes that in this period of slow economic growth and reduced spending on basic telecommunications and IT services, many enterprises will find that purchasing managed services is a cost-effective alternative to increasing internal staffing. The study predicts that revenues associated with the managed services market will nearly double from nearly $140 billion in 2012 to $266 billion in 2016.

"Stability has returned to the telecommunications industry and with the continued shift to wireless and cloud-based services we are forecasting strong revenue growth in the managed and outsourcing services segments," says Fran Caulfield, Research Director for Insight Research.

"As enterprises shift their applications to the cloud and as more users access these applications via mobile devices, the level of complexity involved in managing these moving targets increases. Buying a suite of Managed Services can get the enterprise around the complexity -- the local IT manager can outsource the most difficult tasks to a service provider, and probably get the job done faster and at a lower cost," Caulfield concluded.