India and China are the top destinations for outsourcing activities, but other countries from the region, like Malaysia and Philippines, are fast establishing themselves as solid alternatives.

An annual ranking study, Global Outsourcing 100, by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP), puts India, China and countries from the Asia Pacific rim, as top locations. The report shows that more than 60 per cent of companies, recognized in its Rising Star category of companies with fast annual growth of more than 33 per cent, are mainly from the Asian-Pacific region.

"The remarkable rise in the number of companies from Asia, especially from China, who were considered for the Global Outsourcing 100 shows that the power balance in the outsourcing industry is shifting," said Jagdish Dalal, IAOP's managing director, thought leadership, who led the judges' panel.

Of the top 10 best outsourcing providers in the world, half were from India. These companies are: Infosys (ranked third), Tata Consultancy Services (sixth), Wipro Technologies (seventh), Genpact (ninth) and Tech Mahindra (tenth).

Malaysia rising

The largest outsourcing employers in the Asian-Pacific Rim include (in alphabetical order): Concentrix Corporation, Emerio GlobeSoft Pte, Frontline Outsourcing (Asia), ICT Group, Innodata Isogen, NCS, SPi, Sykes Enterprises, Symphony House Berhad and TELUS International.

The report found that China's largest outsourcing companies, by number of employees, are: Achievo, Beyondsoft (Beijing), Bleum, CompuPacific International, Dalian Hi-Think Computer Technology, hiSoft Technology International, Inspur, Longtop International, Neusoft Group and VanceInfo Technologies.

The IAOP results have interesting parallels with the January 208 IT Nation study - a survey conducted by Fairfax Business Media's MIS Asia magazine - of more than 300 CIOs and senior IT executives from Hong Kong, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. IT Nation respondents voted Malaysia as the surprise top destination, ahead of China and India.

The IT Nation report cites Malaysia's economic stability, its diverse language skills and the investment the government has made, in the Multimedia Super Corridor and Cyberjaya, to establish the country as a regional IT hub, as key reasons for its top position.