Nearly 50% of IT firms in UK are ready to relocate jobs overseas, with India favoured as the top offshore destination, according to a study conducted by Contractor UK, a portal for IT contractors, and the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD).
The survey revealed that of all the employers in the UK that had plans to offshore jobs, only a fifth of the total were manufacturers. In contrast, about 44 percent stemmed from the computing and IT industries.
Another trend that is propping up in the outsourcing scene is outsourcing to Brazil in Latin America, IT outsourcing in Philippines, and outsourcing to China and Vietnam. The CIPD said that companies were seeking to balance the right skills, cost savings and quality of goods and services and that this was not just about doing business in India.
Nonetheless, CEOs of UK IT firms that plan to offshore jobs, irrespective of their motivations, will be assured that India is ready to meet their demands on the heels of a recovery in the offing.
Incidentally, Indias industry body NASSCOM said at a major IT conference that it expects a whopping 150,000 IT jobs to be created in 2010. This is despite warnings of a slow recovery in other sectors.
NASSSCOM said that Indias healthcare, retail and utility industries are picking up pace at a rapid rate – almost thrice as fast as core markets. This is an indication that these sectors will be quick to create IT jobs.
Analysts at TechMarketView commented that western IT firms are scurrying to get a piece of the Asian pie after India has dominated the outsourcing landscape for two decades. Chairman of Dell Services consulting wing, Jim Champy, said that Asian firms are likely to spend more money on IT outsourcing than Western counterparts. This translates to a reversal of the existing trend of more U.S. and European firms purchasing computer services than those in India.
UK IT services firm Steria has begun utilising the companys offshore services unit, after acquiring Xansa in order to tap Indias domestic market. Experts say that other Western majors are likely to follow so they too can tap into the growing appetite for IT outsourcing prevalent in the region.
NASSCOM has said that Asia will reel in more than a 25 percent of global consumption of BPO and IT services within the next ten years. That figure is up 20 percent from current targets.
Source:http://chaisamosa.net/index.php/business/201002181941/half-of-uk-it-firms-open-to-offshoring-india-most-favoured-destination/menu-id-360html
