Conclusions drawn from our research

We have used various methods and tools to help us throughout the course of our research project. The topic we have chosen covers a vast field with an equally large scope of research. We have thus tried to narrow our work to certain areas that we thought to be the most pertinent in this field. Therefore, we decided to talk about the two countries which play important roles in the field today - India and the United Kingdom. We then chose the IT, banking and insurance sectors in these two countries and tried to work out the equation that brought all the socio-economic variables of this phenomenon together.

We have drawn conclusions from varying sources, literary and otherwise, which point towards the fact that outsourcing is an industry that has taken firm root in the new world economy. It may prove to be the factor that contributes to the shift in power towards the east. India is a country that seems ideal with its vast pool of qualified English speaking workforce and extremely competitive labour costs. It will not always be a bed of roses and there are social and economic repercussions. Furthermore, India cannot afford complacency at its current top position because countries like the Phillippines and China are fast catching up with better infrastructure and a hardier long term potential.

The United Kingdom is not new to the offshoring game and has always been caracterised by conflicting debates about the ethics of outsourcing and its influence on the national job scene. However, more and more professionals now seem to be convinced that the monster that offshore outsourcing was being touted as a few years ago, may actually be creating jobs within the UK.

There are newer and tougher challenges ahead for both countries with the arrival of new players on the scene. Eastern European countries are fast becoming preferred outsourcing destinations because they have an added advantage of proximity along with cost effectiveness and labour efficiency.

We have thus tried to provide a snapshot of the current scenario and its prospective evolution in both countries on the basis of the sources mentioned and the methodology described above.