Controversy over offshoring business operations has not prevented outsourcing deals hitting record levels, according to a report yesterday.
The claim was made in the latest quarterly survey by advisory firm TPI.
Very little information is available on the breakdown of outsourcing between onshore and offshore operations, the firm said.
However, an analysis of deals on which TPI is currently advising - which represent about a quarter of the commercial outsourcing market - shows that almost half (47 per cent) involve offshoring or "global service delivery".
This compares with 28 per cent at the same time last year and is a record high.
TPI managing director Duncan Aitchison: "Contrary to speculation about rising levels of dissatisfaction with offshore outsourcing, our data predicts further growth in the value of work being moved offshore.
"In our experience, the approach of many companies to outsourcing has now matured to the extent that it is now no longer a question of whether to offshore, but rather which elements and to what degree."
The biggest gains are being made by Indian service providers, whose market share has grown from one per cent of the total value of contracts signed in 2004 to 5.2 per cent so far this year.
The size of deals the Indian service providers are winning is also increasing, up by 25 per cent from an average deal size of £70 million in 2005 to £87.5 million in 2006.
Of 11 contracts totalling £958 million awarded to Indian providers this year, nine were in the country's traditional areas of strength in applications development and maintenance, and finance and accounting.
Data shows that Indian providers are now being considered for remote IT infrastructure work as well.
"The mature Indian vendors have achieved significant growth," said Mr Aichison.
"Infosys, Satyam, Wipro, TCS and HCL are beginning to win larger and more varied deals.
"Our data suggests that there is no reason to doubt that this trend will continue, especially as buyers gain experience of working with them, and their confidence grows as a result."
However, the "Big Six" of outsourcing - Accenture, ACS, CSC, EDS, HP and IBM - still dominate the offshore outsourcing market having won almost three quarters (73 per cent) of contracts in 2006 to date compared with 18 per cent for the Indian providers.
UK companies have signed outsourcing contracts totalling more than £3.6 billion so far this year, up nine per cent from this time last year.
This is in contrast to the rest of Europe, where demand for outsourcing has fallen by some 30 per cent so far this year.
Globally, the UK accounts for 17.2 per cent of the value of contracts signed this year, Germany 6.6 per cent and the Netherlands 2.6 per cent, with no other country in Europe representing over two per cent of the market.
