Economy and patriotism keeps work on home turf

The economic downturn is likely to see UK businesses look closer to home when outsourcing IT or business operations this year, the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) has revealed.

According to the NOA's predictions of upcoming trends for this year, the weakening state of the pound will mean offshoring won't generate the level of cost savings it did previously. As a result, outsourcing to homegrown companies will become more attractive for UK businesses.

Speaking to silicon.com, the NOA's offshoring director Mark Kobayashi-Hillary said: "The way that this economy is going at the moment means that [offshoring and onshoring] are both on the table in a way that they haven't been before."

"It is true that now in this kind of economy people are going to focus on the bottom line," he added.

Kobayashi-Hillary added with the cost benefits becoming less obvious, businesses are also less likely to want to take on the upheaval that offshoring involves.

The NOA also believes some businesses may want to use UK-based companies for "patriotic" reasons and to contribute to relieving unemployment.

"As we move into troubled times, companies are very much more worried about their public image and perception, so you do get this sense of patriotism that starts emerging. The reputation risk is very important," Kobayashi-Hillary said.

"It may seem less worthwhile to take the operational risk and there's much, much greater possibility of reputation risk as well," he added.