Technology Outsourcing Trends: The Main Predictions
Do you want to know what the global technology and outsourcing market will look like in 2021? Here is a list of trends that are highly expected.
Usually, at the end of the year, experts from different spheres try to predict what trends will be the most important ones during the upcoming 12 months. This data is quite important, as it helps us to understand in what direction to move forward and what possible decisions to make. Here is a short description of the key trends that we will possibly observe soon.
Main outsourcing industry trends 2021
Costs come back to the top
The main thing that actually stays at the top of all predictions is the cost of outsourcing. Taking into account the current situation in the world and general instability, the global outsourcing market will pay more attention to the costs; actually, to the possibilities of lowering them. For example, the global outsourcing report 2018 was concentrated on the customer’s goal to deliver products as fast as possible with the help of outsourcing companies. Nowadays, this trend has changed dramatically. Money and price will play the main role in the future. So it’s possible to say that outsourcing companies that will be able to provide quality service with the optimized or reduced price being expected to have the best results in spite of the crisis.
Outsource will still change everything
In the atmosphere of crisis, every company is looking for a way to increase their services and effectiveness with the new approach. This is the main thing they look for in outsourcing. In 2021, as the outsourcing forecast is stating, customers will still be interested in original and effective solutions that can bring them to the next level. Especially in the questions of digitalization and using the newest technologies. Providers that will be able to offer such products will be in high demand.
One more important remark – companies want to hire only professional outsource providers that will do their job at a good enough level without delays.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Around 75% of the clients nowadays support the idea of implementing bots and other kinds of RPAs into the daily working processes; including outsourcing, of course. First of all, robots are able to decrease costs thanks to function automation. On the other hand, robots also can help create a more flexible working environment and hire only those professionals that are really needed for the company here and now.
But in spite of all the advantages, there is one quite strong downside that stops the active usage of robots in business. Customers don’t want to invest in RPA. The reason for such behavior is very simple – RPA usually doesn’t show the quick result. At the same time, RPA is one of the trends that influence the whole situation of the market. So, will outsourcing continue to grow or just keep its status quo? If industries and the market want to get a positive answer on this question, robots should become a normal thing as soon as possible. Nowadays, they are still treated as something extraordinary. RPA is able to simplify dozens of operations and make outsourcing even more attractive for customers.
More cloud
One more infrastructure outsourcing trend that will be important in the future is moving everything to the cloud. Around 90% of companies interviewed by Deloitte, said that cloud solutions were one of their main priorities for 2020. But many of them are still struggling with implementing this technology into the business model and routine. Cloud outsourcing services will be especially popular next year due to the Covid-19 restrictions and the fact that a lot of people all over the world have to get used to remote work and communications.
The main issue that actually keeps cloud solutions from skyrocketing is security problems. It’s still not absolutely clear what cloud providers are able to offer in terms of strong protection for the data.
Problem of trust
Outsourcing statistics 2020 says that the global market even nowadays is suffering from a lack of trust between partners and old pricing models. People still pay attention to the risks they may face and want them to be fully described in the contracts. And this tendency will only increase in the post-pandemic world.
What about pricing models that, unfortunately, stay non-personalized and old? If an outsourcing company wants to find new partners, it’s better to treat every possible client taking into account their particular needs. This will bring a better understanding and a more successful partnership.
So, what is there in particular?
Every market has unique outsourcing trends that are better to know beforehand. We have made a small chart with the key trends in some business spheres.
| Market | Trends 2021 |
| Documents Outsourcing Market
|
More companies nowadays are outsourcing their business processes connected with documentation and are going to boost with this approach their market growth. It helps to reduce operational costs and use innovative technologies. The main challenge for document outsourcing is the flexibility in the service level agreement (SLA).
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| Contact Center Outsourcing
|
Companies want to make their processes less complicated and prefer to outsource the functions of the call center to specialized providers. Since 2005, this market has been growing at over 10% a year. In 2021, this tendency will be kept with a high possibility. |
| Human Resource Outsourcing
|
Keeping in mind the necessity to provide a safe distance between employees, companies will move to remote cloud HR services. European outsourcing trends, as well as worldwide ones, say that remote leadership will be on top of the business process. So, outsourcing HR companies must move to the cloud to provide the services according to the requirements of the new reality.
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| CRM Outsourcing Market
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It is already predicted that the global CRM outsourcing market will grow up to $19.9 billion by 2027. E-commerce and trading will actively use the possibilities of CRM systems for building strong business processes and involve outsourcing companies in these projects. |
| IT Outsourcing
|
Outsourcing software development statistics show that in 2019 the global IT outsourcing market was estimated at $92.5 million. In 2021, this amount will definitely increase due to the constantly growing demand for digital solutions. The first trend of IT outsourcing for the closest future is to work from home. It’s cheaper and safer. Also, it’s the era of artificial intelligence and a variety of different apps.
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Locations
Global outsourcing statistics also include data regarding countries where the outsourcing industry is better developed. Here is the current list of the top 10 outsourcing countries throughout the globe:
- India
- China
- Costa Rica
- Czech Republic
- Hungary
- Canada
- Latvia
- Russia
- Chile
- Romania
At the same time, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, and Hungary are considered emerging outsourcing and IT services destinations.
But changes in the world and the reality of the Covid-19 pandemic will probably influence this list of the leading outsourcing countries. According to predictions, outsourcing markets of the future will be mostly developed in:
- China
- India
- The USA
- Brazil
- Russia
- Ukraine
- Romania
- Belarus
- The Philippines
- Canada
For example, Canada will lose its position and drop from 6th to 10th place due to the high costs of development. Russia will jump from the 8th to 5th place thanks to the active creation of solutions and R&D services.
Ukraine will probably appear in the top-10 list in the very near future. Nowadays, the IT outsourcing stats we have analyzed in this article indicate that the level of outsourcing development in the country is growing fast. On the other hand, the country should reduce the level of corruption and adopt better legislation in order to get better results.
Belarus will also appear in the top-10 list in the future thanks to following the main outsourced product development trends like:
- Providing alternative outsourcing options
- Working with fintech, healthcare and telecom sectors
- Reducing costs
- Using of innovations
- Offering blockchain development
- Availability of a variety of skilled and qualified IT software engineers
A lot of businesses in the country provide good-quality IT outsourcing services with relatively low prices.
Final words
The world now has to adapt to the concept of the new reality that is affecting all spheres of life, including business and the way companies work. Outsourcing can be the key to new solutions that will make building processes easier and cheaper. This concerns not only big corporations but the medium and small companies as well. Small business outsourcing trends give us the understanding that outsourcing is suitable for all market players independent of their size.
Covid-19 has clearly shown us that building good partnerships doesn’t necessarily mean working eye-to-eye in the one office. Sometimes the most productive ideas are born even if their authors are located in different countries. And this is one of the main concepts of the outsourcing market.
Outsourcing services will certainly become more cloud-based, multinational, personalized, automated, and easier to use in 2021. Let’s take a look at how these new trends will affect the market and summarize the results in 12 months.
