IBA Group participated in the 2008 European Outsourcing Summit that was organized by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) from October 16 to October 17 in Barcelona, Spain. A part of IAOP’s Outsourcing World Summit® Conference Series, the summit was designed to meet the educational and business development needs of outsourcing professionals in Europe.

The program included keynote sessions, educational sessions, panel discussions, an exhibition, and networking events with various sponsorship opportunities. IBA served as an exhibition sponsor of the summit.

Speakers at the summit argued that despite the current economic recession, the outsourcing industry keeps a steady pace. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, there is “no indication that growth will slow”. Their last year’s study “Outsourcing comes of age: the rise of collaborative partnering”, showed that “the ever–tighter labour market makes it necessary to outsource abroad” and “trade unions — a typically European phenomenon — are gradually reducing their resistance to outsourcing”.

David Barrett, founder and CEO of PROCURiTAS Limited (UK), said that the European IT and e–services outsourcing market amounts to US$9.7 billion or 55 percent of the respective world market. The growth is accelerating in Europe (by 67%) and declining in the US (by 70%).