Making the most of the global workforce
From Computing
While cost reduction remains the single biggest driver for sourcing IT functions overseas, gaining access to skills that are difficult to find at home is an increasingly important motivating factor for many organisations.
EquaTerra, an independent outsourcing advisory firm, recently published its annual outsourcing service provider performance study. It found that more UK firms are looking to offshore than in previous years – 63 per cent in the 2008-2009 survey compared with 54 per cent in 2007-2008.
Significantly, it also reported that of the UK companies polled, 40 per cent cited access to skills as the primary driver for outsourcing.
When looking for access to skills, India is an obvious choice. It was the primary offshoring location for 85 per cent of those questioned.
Moreover, 55 per cent of EquaTerra respondents said the main opportunity brought by increasing globalisation of IT services is access to skilled labour abroad, while 53 per cent cited lower labour costs.
For the most part, the type of IT skills commonly being offshored remain those that companies have been farming out to third-party providers since the earliest days of outsourcing.
Application development, software testing, frontline IT helpdesk support and business process management all continue to figure heavily. According to EquaTerra, application management (76 per cent), infrastructure management (80 per cent), user management (53 per cent) and business process management (34 per cent) are the skills and processes that are offshored most frequently.