The ‘offshoring’ of IT services to Asian and eastern European economies has enjoyed a steep and sustained growth curve in recent years, but can the good times continue to roll amid changing commercial priorities and economic volatility?
Like Marmite, Jeremy Clarkson, and the last Indiana Jones film, the concept of IT and Business Process offshoring tends to somewhat polarise popular opinion. You either love it or you hate it. And the camp into which you fall depends largely on your point of view.
The horrid, spirit-sucking, soul-crushing, rather-eat-your-own-flesh-than-ever-go-through-it- again nightmare of dealing with your high street bank’s foreign call centre offers one, albeit restricted, perspective. The undoubted commercial allure of cheap, flexible, skilled, and cost- and efficiency-effective external infrastructure and resource provides quite another.
While both pigeonholes have their appeal, the fact is that neither makes any odds in the real world – where the offshoring bandwagon hit top gear years ago and has been steadily gaining pace and momentum ever since.
They do however, add some spice to the question of how the sector might cope now that, for the first time in its short history, it has hit some serious traffic – to whit, the worldwide economic downturn. Will the juggernaut find an alternative route, go cross-country and somehow manage to maintain course and speed, or will it become just another victim of the global economic tailbacks?
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