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Figures from a research firm suggest that global outsourcing will increase by up to eight per cent in 2008.

Analysts at Gartner say that the market will continue to go but that businesses will still face major challenges over the next 12 months.

"Although user organisations often have fundamentally sound procurement organisations to initiate outsourcing contracts, for many, their IT sourcing strategies and governance structures are still immature, lacking altogether, or misaligned with enterprise objectives," said Kurt Potter, research director at Gartner.

He added that the reason 2007 figures appeared to show that the value of outsourcing contracts had reduced by 50 per cent was that was less publicity of deals.

"In 2008, we expect to see some early adopters of multisourcing to consolidate around fewer providers to reduce their service integration costs and harvest the benefits of better relationship management with fewer strategic suppliers," said Mr Potter.

The figures also showed that although in 2007 the US spent three-times more on offshore services than western Europe, this gap is expected to close over the next year.