73% of these companies anticipate this growth to be realised by investing in new offshore locations – countries where they do not currently have operations centres, management centres, subsidiaries or headquarters. 35% of companies named the UK as the first choice location for realising offshore growth, followed by Western Europe with 17% and USA with 13%.
By comparison, UK-based outsourcing vendors are far more reticent about the potential growth from new offshoring operations than their international counterparts. Despite almost three quarters of global vendors (73%) expecting growth from new offshore locations, just 50% of outsourcing solutions providers currently operating within the UK expect to expand into new offshore locations within the next twelve months.
Tim McLucas, Director at OutsourceWorld said: “We commissioned this research to create a global map of outsourcing trends and growth hot-spots from a vendor-eye view. It’s interesting to note not only the positive expectations for growth across the board from all ten countries surveyed, but also an opportunity for countries to attract inward investment from overseas vendors looking to establish outsourcing operations in new offshore destinations.
“It’s a common assumption in the UK that outsourcing means one-way traffic to India, but this study confirms that is a very dated view. Our research shows that the global outsourcing phenomenon can just as easily bring new business into a country from near or offshoring organisations, and the UK in particular is well placed to capitalise on this global outsourcing opportunity.”
The survey also revealed differences of opinion for expected growth in the global outsourcing industry depending on the size of the organisation. Large outsourcing solutions vendors with turnover greater than ? 250 million recorded more conservative growth forecasting; only 50% of companies within this segment expected to grow revenues within 12 months, compared to 73% of all companies questioned. Companies with turnover between ? 50 – ? 250 million were most bullish, with 90% forecasting growth.
The inaugural OutsourceWorld Survey was designed by Nelson Hall, the leading BPO analyst firm and distributed to 5,000 international outsourcing solutions providers across 10 countries by FreshMinds, the research consultancy. Responses were recorded from representatives of 1,131 outsourcing solutions and service provider organisations based in the UK, USA, China, Eastern Europe, Egypt, Western Europe, India, Asia, Dubai and the Ukraine.
