The World BPO/ITO Forum just concluded its third annual Summit in New York July 28th-29th. With over 250 ‘C’ level executives in attendance and 6 of the world’s top 10 service providers as keynote speakers (IBM, Accenture, TCS, Wipro, HCL & CGI), this conference has now established itself as the premier thought leadership forum for Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Strategic sourcing has become an integral part of all company’s core business agenda, and the World BPO/ITO Forum has emerged as the leading destination to learn and share best practices with the best in the world.

This year’s Summit was tailored towards CIOs, CFOs, COOs and senior sourcing executives representing Fortune 500 companies across a wide range of industries: FINANCIAL SERVICES (Ameriprise Financial; Deutsche Bank; Citigroup); MEDIA (Forbes; McGraw-Hill; Viacom); INSURANCE (Chartis; Guardian Life; ACE Insurance); ENERGY (Talisman; Sunoco); ACADEMIA (Columbia University; Carnegie Mellon University).

At last year’s World BPO/ITO Summit, it was quite clear that part of the ‘new normal’ would lie in transformational outsourcing and the exploitation of synergies between ITO and BPO.

“The former is no longer just a cost play, and the latter cannot simply layer on top of existing IT systems,” explained Mr. Jim Noble, chairman, World BPO/ITO Forum. “Taken together there is an opportunity for transformational change.”

This year’s conference theme was therefore the essential integration of ITO and BPO.

The Summit was attended by current leading offshore country delegations from India, the Philippines and China, as well as delegates from ‘near-shoring’ destinations such as Brazil, Canada and Uruguay. Also attending were delegations from emerging ‘offshore destinations’ such as Hungary, Poland, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

“Our delegate list is a clear indication that ‘global delivery centers’ are rapidly becoming the norm,” stated Mr. Kartik Kilachand, CEO and co-founder, World BPO Forum, Inc.

American jobs going overseas is an emotive subject, but based on the views of speakers at the conference, there is widespread accord that the resulting efficiency improvements will allow better use of skilled U.S. professionals to gain productivity and spearhead innovation — thereby maintaining America’s position as the undisputed leader in the post-industrial world.

“The World BPO/ITO Forum has become the leading venue for C Level executives to share best practices and lessons learned,” stated Emmet B. Keeffe III, CEO and co-founder of iRise, one of the event’s sponsors. “When leveraged correctly from a people, process and technology point of view, global sourcing can be a powerful way to both cut cost and accelerate delivery of new revenue generating innovation for U.S. companies.”

“With a strong roster of speakers, practitioners & service providers participating in World BPO/ITO Summit 2010, I believe we are well on our way to our goal of becoming ‘The Davos’ for strategic sourcing,” continued Mr. Kilachand.