7 Trends to Expect From Outsourcing in 2018

Winter is coming. Though it’s only October, but why don’t we sum up the achievements of this business year before Thanksgiving day and Black Friday? The earlier you draw the line, the more prepared you’ll be to launch new campaigns following the latest trends.

2017 was a stressful time for outsourcing industry on the one hand, as the United States making threatening gestures to outsourcing. On the other hand, the number of companies delegating a part of their responsibilities to vendors is growing.

Business trends also have their life cycles, and outsourcing being one of them is not an exception. Let’s take a look at the most important changes in outsourcing waiting for us in 2018 to meet it “in the full dress”.

1. One of the negative trends KMPG predicted for 2017 was skill shortage. The issue is going to remain unsolved the next year, and perhaps it will eventually worsen. Business is investing and consuming more technologies, thus creating more demand for tech specialists. Education systems of the developed countries, being not unprepared to cope with the demand, produce less IT graduates than the market needs. So, the lack of programmers makes them look for experts outside of the country.
2. Price vs. quality race is to end up with the confident win of the latter. Cutting costs is always good but spending less than competitors won’t make you a successful businessman. What you really need is to satisfy the anticipation and provide your customers with the product they want. And the price is no longer a key factor. People agree to pay more if the price is justified and they get high quality. Smart entrepreneurs have already grasped the idea, and strive for excellence.
3. The era of startups revives trust to outsourcing. At some moment when outsourcing market was flooded by mean and dishonest vendors, people lost trust to it. But now with the startup boom, we see outsourcing comeback. Having relatively tight budgets, young companies don’t hesitate to ask third parties for help, and the thing is that cooperation appears beneficial for both sides.

4. Outsourcing companies will narrow their expertise. With customers are becoming pickier, vendors have to offer top-notch services in any industry. It’s certainly impossible to be perfect in all the spheres and cover everything at the same time - web and app development, AI and IoT, design and quality assurance, etc. That’s why outsourcing service providers will fall into categories and focus on one or two niches.
5. Outsourcing market shift. Being the biggest outsourcing services customer, the USA is a trend setter in the industry. Despite the threats to prohibit outsourcing, it’s stays up and gains momentum. However, what can really change is the place States outsource to. Rather than delegating some tasks to India, they would outsource more to European countries.
6. Outsourcing companies are carrying out more transparent policy. The rising issue of security makes outsourcing agencies become more open to increase trust level. No longer they hide their prices or make their clients wait for their answers. Any custom software development company welcomes visitors into their offices now. High level of customer engagement into the remote team management is also expected to continue the next year.
7. IT staffing is expected to grow more popular. As it was previously mentioned, IT outsourcing companies are becoming more open, and even eagerly engage customers into team management process. IT staffing is exactly the form of hiring an employee that presupposes customer’s direct control over the process. Clients manage their remote workers as if they are a part of the in-house team.

Despite minor fluctuations in popularity and gloomy predictions of scaremongers, outsourcing will be still alive and well. Moreover, emerging forms and trends of outsourcing show that the industry is developing and far from decay.