In our column two months ago, we reviewed the importance of organizations developing a Service Delivery Model (SDM) to help guide them through their outsourcing and subsequent management efforts. An outsourcing buyer’s SDM defines which business and/or IT processes and functions are suitable for and should be outsourced. It also:

Additionally, as the business and Information Technology (IT) services market continues to globalize, a buyer’s SDM must place emphasis not only on service provider selection, but also on the most appealing service locations and geographies from which to source. As buyers more aggressively consider far flung — at least relative to traditional sourcing locales — locations, their SDMs must evolve to reflect the nuances and additional challenges of global outsourcing. Even when a buyer goes with the comfort of a traditional multinational service provider, dealing with that provider’s resources from emerging delivery locations will prove a new and challenging experience.

Last month, we reviewed how do buyers need to enhance and modify their SDMs when tapping into the Chinese services market. China is high on many buyers’ agenda, both as a location to source business and IT services from, and also to sell services back into, often on top of other efforts to penetrate the Chinese market. China has emerged as a multibillion dollar business and IT-services market. For example, IT market-research firm Gartner, estimates the Chinese IT-services market will grow to nine millon dollars in 2006, while IDC estimates the market will approach $12 billion by 2009. Although this is small compared to the more mature Indian services market, it is rapidly growing, and overall is a very lucrative market into which western firms can sell their products and services.

There are, however, many markets beyond India and China that buyers can and often should consider for business and IT services. Indeed, in many cases, these other markets are better sources for buyers depending on services needed, the buyer’s outsourcing sophistication and maturity and the buyer’s own geographic location and presence. In this article, we will look at opportunities in the Central and Eastern European markets. Just as when considering the Chinese market, buyers must tailor their global SDM to the markets of Central and Eastern Europe. The key countries for business and IT services in this geography include Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Further east, the Ukraine and Russia also offer appeal — and intrigue — as locations for outsourcing services, but are not addressed in this article.