Everyone seems to be jumping on the outsourcing bandwagon. Once thought of as an alternative to surviving a bad economy, outsourcing is predicted to grow stronger, even as the U.S. market becomes more prosperous. According to Gartner/Dataquest, the worldwide outsourcing market is estimated to increase from $161.9 billion in 2002 to $235.6 billion in 2007. That's at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.8 percent.
Additional research findings on outsourcing come from Diamond Cluster International, a Chicago-based consulting firm that estimates 86 percent of U.S. companies plan to increase the use of offshore outsourcing firms. And, according to a recent study from the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), sending U.S. technology jobs overseas will actually increase the number of American IT jobs within the next decade. ITAA estimates the software and services market will experience 516,000 newly created jobs over the next five years with global outsourcing in place, nearly 47 percent of which will be in the United States. Finally, Aberdeen Group cites the benefits of outsourcing, particularly procurement outsourcing already being a part of enterprise value-chain strategies and a key contributor to business and shareholder value, resulting in rapid and measurable reductions in cost structures, improvements in leveraging spending and operational efficiencies.
