Top five outsourcing trends for 2008

Top five outsourcing trends for 2008

Watch out for social responsibility, global talent wars and shakeup of power

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Global Talent Wars

Attracting, developing and retaining talented employees will become a major challenge for both outsourcing service providers and businesses building their internal capabilities as outsourcing increases in developing countries, especially India.

“The global talent wars will further widen the economic gap between the cost of talent management and expected cost baseline,” Dalal said in looking ahead.

Power Shifts from Dominant Players

Outsourcing industry leadership will move from a small group of U.S.-based service companies who have dominated the industry since its inception, including IBM, EDS, CSC and Accenture, to include foreign companies that are growing, such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro.

“The landscape is shifting, with large U.S. companies becoming major ‘offshore’ players while offshore players are establishing U.S. footholds through acquisitions and by establishing their own facilities,” Corbett said.

IAOP is seeing this trend in its annual ranking of the world’s best outsourcing service providers, Global Outsourcing 100. For the past two years IBM has remained at the top of the list but increasingly, Indian-based companies are rising in the top 10 ranks.

Globalization: A Race to the Finish Line

While businesses race to build their global talent portfolio, the best will all have their basics in place by the end of 2008. What was until just recently a new strategy for companies to offer competitive differentiation is now required of all. Any company not already well into the outsourcing game is at serious risk in today’s economy.

“Although the ink may be barely dry on the first revision of Tom Friedman’s book, The World is Flat, the globalization end-game is already in sight,” Corbett said.

©CIOL Bureau

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