We've all heard the arguments before. Offshore outsourcing works as long as you can tap into a foreign location that has good internet and telephone links, decent universities, a large labour pool, some sort of synergy in terms of language and common cultural reference points, and – most crucially of all – a weaker economy than ours to ensure good arbitrage in the gap between the pound and the local dinero.

I think I've identified a region that's ripe for more offshore outsourcing. The weak-kneed economy that can benefit from an influx of your pounds sterling is the US of A.
With the dollar worth 50p or less, and no sign that the money markets are going to dramatically change their tune any time soon, there has never been a better time to send surplus IT work across the Pond. Just make sure you price your contract in dollars and the same strong sterling that is killing exports can help you slash cash from your IT budget.

Everything fits perfectly: the locals have a basic grasp of English; there's a first-world transportation and communications infrastructure in most cities; there are many educated workers; and the nation has a real work ethic – most graduate Americans will work long hours and still think themselves lucky to get 12 days' annual leave.
Only joking. Well, sort of.

My serious point is that it's unwise to think in fixed terms when it comes to outsourcing. Priorities will change over time when it comes to which functions a firm should keep in-house and which it should put out to tender, and the best locations to scout for partners will also move with the times.

Even fundamental attitudes towards outsourcing will change, more than you might expect.

The UK's National Outsourcing Association recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, an occasion on which NOA chairman Martyn Hart predicted that his organisation would need a new name before the end of its second 20 years. "I think outsourcing will become simply sourcing," he said. The acronym NSA is already taken by US spooks, so some creativity may be needed when the time comes to rebrand.
Hart also looked back 20 years to the founding of the NOA.

In 1987 British Rail was grappling with the incendiary idea that maybe its communications systems would work better if it brought in a firm that knew about copper wires rather than steel rails and curly sandwiches. A deal was done with BT, which at least thought it understood telecoms. People directly involved in that pioneering deal went on to form the NOA, and so it is from the date of the first BR-BT meeting that the NOA marks its calendar.

BT and BR have changed beyond all recognition in the intervening decades, as has the art of outsourcing. So be prepared for change in your market, and your sourcing, in the future.