Contrary to what some naysayers of outsourcing are saying, the industry is alive and well, and it seems that it’s going to stay for a long while yet. As mentioned in a previous article, competition in outsourcing is becoming very stiff now, what with the industry expanding, as is what professional services firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers surmised in its Jan, 2010 report. Everyone wants a piece of the cake, but when everyone’s toting the same salver, it’s a bit difficult to decide to whom to give a piece to.

Competition is stiff in the outsourcing  industry, which is why outsourcers really have to perform in order to not just meet their clients’ expectations, but to exceed it.  Not to mention the sometimes extremely harsh public scrutiny that outsourcing companies are subjected to. Outsourcing companies are a dime a dozen now, and it’s easy to go from one to the other, especially if the one you’re with doesn’t deliver.  Just take a look at the Satyam (NYSE:SAY) - Punjab & Sind contract, which has now become the Wipro (NYSE:WIT) - Punjab & Sind bank contract.

Last December, I wrote an article on Infosys’ (NASDAQ:INFY) big week, wherein the outsourcing company scored numerous deals and expanded its business in multiple areas around the world. However, since ringing in the New Year, it seems that, at least for now, the company has lost a little bit of its steam, and acquisition of contracts have waned.

Tallying the headlines from December 13-19, the most featured company in outsourcing news was Infosys (NasdaqGS: INFY).  The company has appeared back to back in news bits and clips all over the world and it seems like the company is revving up their strategies for the coming new year.

India has long been the dominant country when it comes to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), however, times have changed.  The National Outsourcing Association (NOA) published a report titled “Best Practice Outsourcing and Offshoring” which pointed the issue Indian offshore providers face –increasing operational costs forcing some providers to relocate their centers to cheaper areas in India in order to compete more effectively, although this move has not hindered a recent surge in emerging outsourcing destinations. “Despite recent optimistic predictions from the NASSCOM conference, India is experiencing the effects of a global slowdown and a reduction in IT spending.  Costs for Indian vendors are also on the up.” –NOA report. Indian BPO providers may not be the only ones experiencing increasing operational costs, other offshore providers experience this as well but at a lesser extent as countries such as the Philippines receive strong government support.

Outsourcing has come through a lot of changes since its inception. Its evolution depends on a number of factors like how the market reacts, government intervention, partnerships, and geographical positioning to name a few. The industry adapts to changes in the business environment which is crucial to its survival.

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.