Forbes has listed its top outsourcing trends in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region for 2019. The APAC region has long been the dominant region for outsourcing, although it is facing competition from emerging outsourcing markets in other regions. Trends include the growing presence of outsourcing in Malaysia, shifting resource models, and personnel shortages.
In 2019, Forbes Technology Council member Anna Frazzetto expects to see the growth of outsourcing work in Malaysia. Malaysia is more affordable than some of the more established outsourcing centers like Singapore, but it also has more developed education and business infrastructure than some other APAC countries, such as Cambodia or Laos. In addition, the Malaysian government has made recent investments in its education and business sectors, which will lead to a stronger workforce.
In addition to the growing presence of outsourcing in Malaysia, Ms. Frazzetto expects to see smaller localized teams become part of the outsourcing model going forward. The traditional model for IT outsourcing involves centralized locations with a large number of employees performing services. However, some of the largest APAC outsourcing companies are shifting to a model of smaller teams of employees in local regions in order to provide greater interaction between the client and the outsourcing company as well as more control over the outsourcing services.
According to Forbes Technology Council, as part of the shifting outsourcing model, large APAC outsourcing companies are adding or expanding their training departments to educate their employees to support the newest technologies and services, such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, and robotics, which may lead to a rise in salaries for these outsourcing employees. However, salary increases in the APAC region are still likely to be less than salary increases in the rest of the world, allowing clients to continue to benefit from the lower labor costs provided by APAC outsourcing companies.
Read the full list of 2019 trends predicted by Forbes.