Outsourcing deals have taken off in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, spurred on by the influence of UK companies.

Firms based in the UK accounted for £1.4 billion (36 per cent) of outsourcing deals in these three regions, according to Forrester Research.

This helped boost the total value of outsourcing activity by around £670 million during the second quarter of 2007.

According to the figures, the biggest growth sector in outsourcing over the three months was IT helpdesk and network support services by 44 per cent, fuelled by interest from the financial services and insurance.

OutsourcingIT support can free up skilled employees to develop or install business solutions which could streamline the work process and boost productivity.

And the Forrester report, which only included IT outsourcing deals worth over around £5 million, showed that more firms were interested in outsourcing their IT support as seven per cent more deals were sealed in the past three months than in the second quarter.