Rise in outsourced IT operations

Over a third of IT departments in the UK have offshored more than half of their operations over the last six months, according to research, says Computing.co.uk.

Some 79% of the companies that opted for offshoring moved their IT functions to India, while 64% of the 298 companies surveyed have shipped some of their IT set-up abroad.

Half of those polled by recruitment firm The IT Job Board said their companies were planning to offshore over the next six months, and 79% of respondents said this would affect software developer jobs, followed by programmer roles (cited by 71%) and IT support jobs (67%).

Recent movement in the outsourcing market appears to indicate that Sony plans to source more of its digital still cameras (DSCs) from Taiwan contract manufacturers, reports Digitimes.

Joanne Chien, a senior analyst with Digitimes Research, has noted that Sony has placed orders with one of Taiwan's top DSC makers, Ability Enterprise, with shipments expected to begin in November or December. The products will be part of the vendor's Spring 2010 product line-up.

Sony actually selected Ability as a partner in late 2008 in a bid to expand its partnerships in Taiwan beyond Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry). This move is part of Sony's process of overhauling its DSC business, as it looks to lower manufacturing costs.

Digital River is outsourcing its customer service operations and realigning other resources internally, in a reorganisation that will eliminate 120 positions globally, states InternetRetailer.

At the same time, the e-commerce platform and services vendor says it plans to add new positions to support sales and product development.

The company will outsource customer service, starting in September, to Sitel, a Tennessee-based, global business process outsourcing vendor with more than 150 facilities worldwide.

China is increasing its share of IT outsourcing, as the recession encourages tech companies to turn to outsourcing for product development cost savings, according to Investor's Business Daily, writes Cabot Wealth Advisory.

China's total offshore IT services industry draws about $1 billion, well short of India's $60 billion, but its is growth still in the low double-digits, unlike other tech sectors where there is a decline, IBD reported.

VanceInfo, which launched in 2004, is one of the larger Chinese players. According to IBD, the company's total revenue broke $100 million for the first time last year.