This IDC study is an analysis of the results received from a survey of 205 businesses based in Australia, involving organisations' spending, concerns, and perceptions of the business process outsourcing (BPO) market. Results are further broken down by vertical industry as well as company size.

"One of the primary benefits of BPO has been cost savings, with few organisations looking towards any progress in achieving broader business objectives. At the same time, these organisations are time and again indicating that one of their top BPO objectives is the need to focus on their core competencies. For clients to begin seeing BPO in more strategic terms and for service providers to demonstrate differentiation as well as alignment with client objectives, IDC recommends that service providers focus on more clearly demonstrating a closer link between the actual outcome and benefits of BPO and the client's overarching business challenges," says Aprajita Sharma, senior analyst, Outsourcing and BPO, IDC Australia.