Plenty has changed in the field of offshore outsourcing, which has evolved from a little-used practice to a mature industry in less than a decade. And plenty of change lies ahead.

Here are some noticeable key developments in the global practice of offshoring.

Use of Collaborative Tools

Greater communication capability via the Internet was the initial driver of the offshoring trend, according to the Forrester report. With such remote networking techniques now coming into play, there is a movement away from manual and travel-intensive processes, according to cfo.com.

Discrepant India

On the one hand, India continues to lead the way as an offshore destination, ranking at the top of A.T. Kearney’s 2007 Global Services Location Index. But on the other hand, it is loosing its appeal. The reason U.S. companies went to India in the first place was to cut down on costs but over the past year the value of the dollar dropped notably in relation to the Indian rupee. Moreover, significant wage increases in India have further shaved the cost advantage.

Onshore and Nearshore

Offshore outsourcing companies are setting up their onshore development centers to be closer to clients in locations with better cultural and geographical compatibility.

Blended Contracts

As CIO Today says, clients will engage in blended contracts¬ – a combination of offshore, onshore and even local outsourcing.

Nipping at India’s Heals

Geographies are changing as the space matures. Behind India in the offshoring race is China, Latin America. Russia and eastern European countries are also in the game showing robust growth of IT services due to their high qualified human resource pool and the ability to accomplish complex creative software engineering tasks.