Tholons Annouces Services Globalisation Trends For 2008

Globalisation has taken a strong turn in the past few years. Countries which had earlier encountered roadblocks to globalise have realised the need to source globally for multiple reasons. Drivers have shifted from mere cost arbitrage to more strategic fulfillments such as organic business growth across geographies and reduction in time to market. Worldwide shortage of relevant skills and talent has increased pressure across firms to acquire talent globally. Offshore markets are also tending to move towards being mature global markets for large scale business developments. Together, client markets are expanding to go beyond the USA.

According to Avinash Vashistha, Chairman & CEO Tholons, “As the IT and BPO industry matures, we see industry consolidation in 2008 among the mid-tier service firms with large service firms leveraging M&A as key element of their growth strategy. The third wave of Globalisation will be driven by Infrastructure Managed Services (IMS), Healthcare and Engineering Services.”

More from Biztech

Future Group - Reliance Retail Deal approved by CCI RBI ban on cryptocurrencies takes effect; prohibition could force investors to tap the black market

Increasing pressures such as the economic downturn in the US and the rupee appreciation has resulted in multiple repercussions including expansion and focus on other client markets. USA still remains the single largest market and will see significant competition from Europe. Maturity in the offshore markets has given confidence to the European firms to further globalise work. Newer business models are emerging in the sell side to beat competitive market pressures, such as, “outcome-based” pricing, SaaS and global footprint. The buyer market is increasingly becoming more educated with globalisation resulting in informed decision making.

Dr. Pradeep K Mukherji, President – Consulting at Tholons emphasised, “2008 will be a year for both challenges and opportunities in outsourcing. While the US elections, weakening of the dollar and sub-prime issues will pose challenges; opportunities will present themselves by way of greater acceptance of outsourcing by Small & Medium Business and constant search for limited availability of qualified talent. Overall the velocity of outsourcing is likely to be contained.”

Clients are now experienced and informed in the formulation and execution of their Globalisation plans and search for qualified talent, will drive client’s selection of geographies.

“We see clients focusing on cities rather than just countries in their search for qualified pool. Cities in Philippines, Russia and Eastern Europe will emerge as preferred destinations for customer service, product engineering and multilingual processes respectively”, said Paul B. Santos, President – Investments at Tholons.

Healthcare industry in US alone is over $4 Trillion and we see it as a significant contributor to the third wave of outsourcing.

Dr. Garima Vashistha, President – Healthcare at Tholons said, “Healthcare tourism, Pharmaceutical research including Clinical trials, Revenue Cycle Management and Analytics will lead the globalisation of healthcare processes. Adoption of Services Globalisation in the ultra conservative Pharmaceutical industry will continue to be slow in 2008 but will be on a steep curve as we look towards 2015.”

The emerging trends that we see taking shape in the services globalisation space is expected to have a strong impact in shaping the future of global outsourcing.