A new book from the British Computer Society (BCS) questions the current thinking on IT outsourcing.

Called 'Global Services: Moving to a Level Playing Field', the book looks at what is happening to the global services marketplace today, and predicts what will happen in the future.

Dr Richard Sykes, co-author of the book, said that the consumerisation of IT as services aceessed over the internet by way of companies such as Google is "radically rewriting the established business models of outsourcing".

The globalisation of the IT services market is also playing its part, the book notes.

"The global nature of the internet and more specialist networks is creating a level playing field for the vigorously competitive delivery of this cornucopia of multisourcing," Dr Sykes continued.

"By acknowledging this now, forward planning and taking action, businesses can stay ahead of the game."

Mark Kobayashi-Hillary, another of the co-authors, added: "The book is a real call for change in the attitudes to outsourcing and global services…

"It's not so much a question of focusing on core corporate competence, there are entirely new business models being created because of the robustness of the internet as a delivery platform."

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'