| The 5 trends for online outsourcing are: | | | | problem. So many of the large long-established service |
| 1. Consolidation | | | | providers may change their focus and try to win more |
| Expect some significant consolidation on the horizon. | | | | of the smaller contracts |
| Outsourcing competition is more aggressive than ever | | | | 4. Person-to-person offshoring |
| with a huge expansion in the number of suppliers. | | | | The idea of offshoring and online outsourcing is more |
| Industry experts are predicting more mergers and | | | | commonly associated with large-scale business and |
| acquisition activity over the next couple of years. | | | | the relocation of back-office functions. But there is |
| 2. Increased Outsourcing to China | | | | growing momentum on a much smaller scale. |
| There has long been talk of India losing its edge in the | | | | Offshoring and online outsourcing has reached small |
| offshore outsourcing market. However; Major cities in | | | | businesses private homes. Examples of services |
| China close the gap year-by-year and is taking major | | | | performed include online tutoring, web and software |
| steps to close the skills gap for many types of | | | | development, and writing and translation services. |
| outsourcing sectors. The trend also encourages | | | | 5. Virtual worlds |
| greater specialization as smaller providers seek to | | | | The evolution of social networking has brought about |
| differentiate themselves in an ever more crowded | | | | the emergence of a virtual world called "Second Life". |
| marketplace | | | | A partnership between Sweden based Entropia |
| 3. Niche Outsourcing | | | | Universe and Beijing based Cyber Recreation |
| Specialist providers are successfully getting more | | | | Development. The 3D world is where "residents" can |
| deals at the loss of both the top level service | | | | interact and setup businesses. It's still early days for |
| providers and the lower midrange providers. As the | | | | virtual world-based outsourcing but businesses like |
| outsourcing market rapidly continues to expand the | | | | Adidas, Sun Microsystems and Nissan are already |
| larger service providers can carry on protecting their | | | | onboard and the momentum is likely to build. Over the |
| earnings even with a reducing market share, the most | | | | longer term, customer-contact jobs such as helpdesk |
| likely affected will be the midlevel service providers | | | | or call centre roles could migrate into virtual worlds, |
| who do not have a good strategy to overcome this | | | | where customers can be informed and entertained. |