The real change between now and 2010 for outsourcing professionals is likely to be less in terms of what they do, and more in terms of the recognition of their role and its importance. By 2010, outsourcing positions will be among the most coveted and highly rewarded occupations in business.
Here is how we see an outsourcing professional’s career map shaping up in the near future.

Skill Map
Outsourcing professionals require a unique combination of abilities, drawing from many disciplines. Communication, business-process analysis, financial analysis, strategic business analysis and negotiation are the core skills required of all outsourcing professionals. On top of this, as these individuals develop within their careers and begin to assume more direct responsibility for outsourcing outcomes, abilities such as team leadership, program and project management, global delivery experience and relationship and change management become more important.

To reach their full potential — both in terms of their careers and their business influence — the most senior outsourcing professionals develop personal characteristics that, although more subjective in nature, are no less important. These are: A service mindset, cross-cultural aptitude, adaptability, ability to influence and persuade others and the capacity for innovation in a creative, resourceful and imaginative manner.

Customer, Provider, Advisor Landscape
Outsourcing professionals working across customer, provider and advisor organizations are more alike than different with  comparable competencies and career levels. Increasingly, outsourcing professionals develop in their careers through a series of career moves between these three types of companies. Although the specific roles, responsibilities and titles vary, our research has identified four career levels in most outsourcing organizations, be they customers, providers or advisors. These are:

Global Services PREDICTIONS

“Global-sourcing offices” will become integral “horizontals” (such as HR, finance) in many companies

New titles will emerge to complement the new function, such as “global sourcers” and “globalization officers.” Sourcing officers at companies that regard global sourcing as strategic will even get the “C” tag (e.g., Chief Sourcing Officer)

Procurement staff that currently performs the IT/BPO sourcing function at many organizations will get replaced by professional sourcers with skills in program management and governance, and experience in international business.

Analysts: Project participants responsible for collecting, analyzing, and presenting business information.

Managers: Senior team members responsible for more complicated, extensive analysis work, who often combine and coordinate the work of multiple analysts.

Directors: They have overall project responsibility to the business executives for program results.

Vice Presidents: Leaders who set the organization’s overall agenda, and coordinate and guide the work of multiple directors.

Reporting Structures
There are currently wide variations in reporting structures and roles for outsourcing professionals in customer organizations. Some organizations embed small teams of outsourcing professionals within the functional areas of the business. For example, one IAOP member organization has as many as 90-plus outsourcing professionals working in smaller teams of half a dozen to 20 people in various functional and product functions. 

Other organizations tend to aggregate their outsourcing professionals into central teams supporting most of the business’ operations. One of our members has 100 people in a group managing most of its providers that support its non-North American operations.

In some cases, these groups embed financial, procurement, HR and legal expertise within them. In other cases, these outside groups continue to play important support or even leadership roles.

In fact, developing an optimal approach for the reporting structure and roles of outsourcing professionals may be one of the most important things the outsourcing profession can do to improve outcomes between now and 2010.

150,000 Professionals, and Rising
There are already at least 150,000 outsourcing professionals worldwide. Most Fortune 500 members we’ve spoken to have at least 100 outsourcing professionals today, involved in the design, implementation and management of these outside relationships. That adds up to 50,000 outsourcing professionals in these companies alone. Add to that multinationals based outside the U.S.A. — here the recognition of outsourcing as profession still lags the U.S.A. — and the thousands of smaller organizations that outsource, service providers and advisory firms, and we believe that 150,000 is a good, if not conservative, estimate of how many outsourcing professionals there are today. And that number could easily double by 2010.

Compensation Levels
Compensation levels are still being established. But from what we know so far, outsourcing professional compensation mirrors the industries, functions and position-levels of the organizations they are part of and, in some cases, companies are paying a 10 percent premium for the right people with the right skills.

C-level Sponsorship
Most noticeable, however, is the growing importance of outsourcing professionals as seen from the C-suite. Companies are now making the investment to send teams of people through classes and certification programs on outsourcing skills. The company’s top outsourcing professionals are beginning to take seats at the executive table, and are working with senior executives to set policy, identify opportunities, execute, govern and assure quality results, just as professionals in other fields have in the past.

Business may be becoming global and virtual, but in the end, outsourcing is a people’s business. And, outsourcing professionals are increasingly not only executing operationally, but defining the very shape of businesses. In fact, by 2010 we’ll probably see more than one CEO whose roots run deep in the outsourcing profession. When better can one hone the skills it takes to lead in a flat world than now?     

The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) is a global standard-setting organization and advocate for the outsourcing profession. With 40,000 members worldwide, IAOP is leading the effort to transform the world of business and technology through outsourcing.