It was English historian Edward Gibbon who said that that, “all that is human must retrograde if it does not advance”, and in outsourcing, this is likewise the case. As the end of the first quarter draws near, it is noticeable that business expansion among outsourcing companies have become more marked, and is in various different parts of the world. Companies are expanding their global presence in anticipation of more business in different fields such as legal process outsourcing (LPO), business process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology (IT) outsourcing. It is encouraging that the anticipation of the influx of business for the outsourcing industry has been steadily rising since the start of 2010. It would seem that despite the effects of the recession having barely begun to wane, outsourcing companies are still expecting a better outlook.

With the passage of the historic, although much maligned, Obama healthcare reform bill in the US, a new opportunity has opened up for outsourcing companies as hospitals and insurance providers will now be seeking ways of minimizing expenses.

Reading the Indian mainstream news yesterday about India Inc.’s strategy to expand operations in Eastern Europe and hire multilinguals to serve the European finance and accounting sector does not surprise me anymore. In my April article, I talked about how Europe is becoming more comfortable with outsourcing not just to its neighboring countries but also to Asia particularly to the Philippines. The following month, I wrote an article on Philippine Outsourcing re-focusing its efforts to the European market instead in anticipation of US political and trade condition changes.