This IDC study presents the forecast for spending on the business process outsourcing (BPO) services during the 2005?2009 period and highlights the areas of focus within this space for 2005. This study also presents suggestions to service providers on developing an effective strategy to position their services in this growing marketplace.

"Transformation of the function is becoming a valued BPO positioning strategy for a growing number of IT and BPO service providers. Yet, transformation as a concept also denotes complexity, and it is hard to really capture what transformation represents and what the expectations are of a company that embarks on transformation. It is therefore important for the vendor to present the concept of transformation in more concrete terms that can be tied to specific projects rolled out at specific times, involving a specific set of people, processes, and so on. As transformation gets implemented, the vendors' ability to benchmark and demonstrate these transformational gains will enable them to gain a competitive differentiation and advantage," says Aprajita Sharma, analyst, Outsourcing and BPO, IDC Australia.