STM (Scientific, Technical and Medical)/ Academic publishers have been one of the early adopters of outsourcing in the publishing industry. Early in the day, they realized that low-end content-editing or graphics could be outsourced while they focused on the core activity of content. The recent downturn compelled the publishing industry (as much as others) to manage their dropping sales and control costs. Hence, they evolved, adopted technology and increased outsourcing. "The industry currently outsources work worth USD 1 bn of which USD 420 mn is offshored," Vivek Shenoy, Analyst Publishing Services at ValueNotes, told www.globalservicesmedia.com.

Inspite of being a mature outsourcing market the satisfaction levels continue to remain low. A recent report published by ValueNotes suggests that 75% of the publishers surveyed indicated that the quality of outsourced work had to improve considerably. Vivek believes that, "Satisfaction levels are low primarily due to mis-alignments between buyers and providers.These affect how buyers perceive the pricing, quality and delivery of work they have outsourced. Often, first time buyers make a mistake by partnering with the wrong vendor or by having lofty expectations. Service providers do little to normalize these expectations and tend to agree to anything and everything the buyer expects."