India outsourcing braces for change

The sub-continent's outsourcing industry is on the cusp of a significant change, shifting to knowledge-intensive and value-added services that call for a new way of functioning, according to The Times of India.

India still leads the global IT outsourcing market, the report says, and its advantages over other regions are still distinct. The Indian domestic market has undergone a transformation over the past decade - rising from the periphery to emerge as a viable, high-potential opportunity for the country's IT-business process outsourcing (BPO) sector.

Labour or cost arbitrage does not drive the domestic BPO market like in the global outsourcing market, according to the report. “It's the need to scale rapidly, greater focus on core competencies, enhanced productivity, heightened competition and reduced time to market that is driving domestic demand.”

Outsourcing will be high on the priority lists of government departments in 2011, with cloud computing being used as a way to reduce IT expenditure, reports Outsourcery.

That is according to Jessica Hawkins, an analyst at Ovum, who says funding cuts will force government departments to look for ways to reduce their outgoings.

Ovum's report, entitled '2011 Trends to Watch: Government Technology', studies the government technology market and how it can be utilised fully while cuts are in place.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has become the latest organisation to agree a major IT outsourcing deal, reveals iHotdesk.

Soca has decided to delegate responsibility for its IT infrastructure to a third party in a £157 million, 10-year deal.

The move has been made in light of the government's £81 billion public spending cuts, with many public-funded institutions turning to outsourcers to provide increased IT efficiencies.