IT outsourcing industry fosters global business community

Continued expansion of the IT outsourcing sector could lead firms to pay less attention to nationality when sourcing infrastructure, according to IT analyst Gartner.

Partha Iyengar, vice-president at Gartner, claimed that technological advances in developing economies will significantly impact upon all major businesses as the industry becomes a 'borderless state' by 2015.

He said: "Even if you have no direct operations in China, or India or anywhere else in the emerging world, your suppliers are probably there and so are some of your partners and customers."

Mr Iyengar also noted that organisations must work with companies that make use of low-cost, highly skilled labour workforces in these countries in order to remain competitive.

Recent research by TPI shows a 20 per cent rise in the value of overall outsourcing contracts during the first quarter of 2008, with this rate of growth predicted to continue in the short-term.