Outsourcing research compiled by business process outsourcing (BPO) provider arvato and industry analyst NelsonHall has revealed that, of the £6.65 billion worth of outsourcing deals signed across the UK last year, only 8 per cent went offshore.

Debra Maxwell, Managing Director of arvato UK, said: ‘Outsourcing has mistakenly become synonymous with offshoring, yet our research demonstrates that UK delivery is continuing to play a fundamental role in the industry as customer requirements become more sophisticated.

‘This sophistication is perhaps most easily recognised in the field of customer services. Traditionally typified by voice and email communication, in 2014 it became the norm for these functions to be integrated with more sophisticated digital services like web chat and social media management.’

It’s also worth noting that the financial services industry was responsible for £1.1 billion of these outsourcing deals, and that energy and utilities contracts have grown by 187 per cent to £1.072 billion – the largest growth seen across all of the sectors.

However, most impressive of all was the fact that over half (55.5%) of outsourcing contracts struck in the UK in 2014 were first time deals. Our country is already a world leader in outsourcing - over 10.5 per cent of the UK’s workforce is employed by the industry – so this extreme rate of growth is particularly encouraging.

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