A newly released study by Duke University’s Offshoring Research Network and PricewaterhouseCoopers has revealed that the long established outsourcing locations India and North America are steadily surrendering the lead to growing competitors from Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The challenging service areas are named contact centers, business process outsourcing, and information technology outsourcing. The results are based on a global survey conducted among 514 outsourcing service providers in 50 countries.

The survey’s findings clearly indicate the growing potential of the outsourcing market with offshoring continues constituting its biggest part – the market continues to expand globally driving competition and more cost-effective services. “Growing competition has transformed the outsourcing industry into a global race for market share,” PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Managing Director Charles Aird noted in his statement.

Other facts of interest according to the survey include:

• A large number of service providers expect to begin new software development and IT-service contracts over the next several years. Overall, 62 percent of service providers said they plan to expand the scale of their existing offerings.
• The survey also found that the economic crisis of 2009 reemphasized the importance of cost savings and efficiency improvement as the top strategic reasons for outsourcing, followed by access to qualified personnel.