Outsource World was held at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London. The fair was co-hosted with Internet World, Smarter Business and SMS and Mobile Enterprise event. The co-hosting gave opportunities for the companies attending Outsource World to meet British companies active in web and mobile application development.

Download the conference presentations here.

The Internet World event showcased up to date technology solutions. About 130 exhibitors attended Internet World. Visitors also had access to about 150 seminars across specialised theatres (new media marketing, public sector/large enterprises, content management, mobile enterprise, mobile marketing strategies and Institute of Direct marketing). This event was sponsored by a number of leading global companies (Nokia, O2, Rackspace, Sony, Dubai Internet City, ITtoolbox and others)

At the Smarter Business event the focus was on the key practices of small and medium-sized enterprises. Exhibitors offered advice and solutions to marketing, business strategy, finance, IT, communication and personnel. The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency also participated at this event.

About 90 exhibitors participated this year at Outsource World. It is a significant increase compared to 2003. The strongest representation was from India, Romania, Sri Lanka, Egypt, China and South Africa. Beside these countries, Hungary, UK, Dubai, Cyprus, Germany, were also present.

The exhibition and the exhibitors

Most of the exhibitors offered off-shore software development services of some kind;

project based development

product customisation and localisation

product update and conversion

However, following the recent trends, BPO capabilities were also offered frequently. A typical mix of value proposition contains:

Project experience and references

Vertical market knowledge

Strong technology portfolio

Available technical staff and know-how

Price advantage and labour cost arbitrage

The companies also emphasized on the advantages of their respective countries or region. The distinguishing factors are;

The size of the company

Financial stability

Outsourcing experience and foreign clients

European (UK) office with full contractual responsibilities

Quality certification

Sri Lanka – got it right

India got it wrong

China – newcomer with healthy appetite for market share

Romania – impressive presence, difficult entry strategy

The EU, USA and Japan are considered the key markets.

However, it seems that Romania has chosen a difficult entry strategy to the global offshore outsourcing space;

The market focus is very broad (EU, USA, Japan)

Romania positions itself as one of the prime destination for research and innovative projects. That is quite a high entry point to the global offshore outsourcing chain for a country without considerable name as an offshore destination and without extensive references. Emphasis is given to the fact that Romania is NOT a direct competitor to India, China and other mainstream outsourcing nations world wide.

Egypt – coming up

UK: accepting outsourcing

Final observations

Attention is given to high profile outsourcing deals (such as the UK NHS reorganisation) involving large organisations and/or government bodies. (Small) or medium sized companies might not benefit directly from these experiences even if they would try to implement outsourcing  processes accordingly.

The outsourcing process, both the supply and the demand side, is taking clear shape. However, mostly larger organisations have the resources and the capacity to sustain a steep learning curve and implement well defined outsourcing processes. Mid sized companies, more often than not, lack the resources and the knowledge to implement such processes. Along with these large organisations, on the supply and demand side of the market, major consultancies and legal firms also accumulated considerable knowledge and built their outsourcing consultancy practices. Again, the mid sized market is quite underserved.

Outsourcing is not only about costs any more, but delivering business-, and shareholder value in the most effective way. It is not only recognising risks but managing and mitigating risks at any phase of the outsourcing process.

Contracting, SLA, performance measures, relationship management and risk management are key areas of interest.