The NOA’s 8th Annual The Sourcing Summit was held on the 16th and 17th November at Grange St Pauls, confirming its reputation as the UK’s leading conference focusing on outsourcing and offshoring strategy.

The conference was focused on developing mature outsourcing partnerships and driving innovation to deliver success. The programme reflected developments across the sourcing sector, examining the rise in innovation and the renewed focus on multi sourcing.

Martyn Hart, Chairman of the NOA, opened the summit and said: “It is always a pleasure to open this summit. These are very interesting times for outsourcing and I hope you will all gain some invaluable insights from the combination of expert speakers and superb networking opportunities which we have arranged for you. We have a very exciting programme this year including high-level case studies, a best practice exchange, workshops and peer-to-peer networking discussions."

In the context of the current economic climate, the conference provided an excellent insight into methods to drive real business efficiencies through outsourcing.

Tuesday was arranged into four sessions; Outsourcing – lessons learned from a maturing market, driving and delivering innovation in outsourcing, streams and crafting and renegotiating effective contracts. Industry experts delivered presentations for each topic before taking part in a panel discussion.

The streams were an opportunity for delegates to choose from three outsourcing workshops which were facilitated by business experts and involved case studies as well as active discussions. The streams consisted of business process outsourcing, moving into the cloud and a NOA practical insight, solutions, and actions workshop.

Wednesday was arranged into three sessions; Developing an effective partnership – the human factor, peer to peer networking sessions through zones and offshoring and near-shoring – what is the future?

Delegates were able to choose one of three discussion zones, each facilitated by a NOA board member. Outsourcing in financial services, corporate social responsibility and environmental concerns and SME outsourcing.

The interactive and informative conference was attended by a variety of organisations involved in outsourcing including Siemens, Carphone Warehouse, BP, Tube Lines and Intetics. Highlights included the cloud workshop, Elexon and JLT case studies, CSC presentation on an innovative commercial model and all panel discussions.