This IDC study answers the following questions:

• How is the model of offshore evolving?
• What is the opportunity for offshore providers by geographic region?
• What are IDC's predictions and assumptions relating to market forces impacting the offshore IT services market, and what impact will they have on the market forecasts?
• Which assumptions are of sufficient importance that a change in the assumption would result in a change in the market forecasts?
• What impact will developments in this market have on the players in the market?
• What are the not-to-be-missed opportunities?

"The market for offshore-based services continues to show steady growth across the full breadth of IT services from professional services to full-scale outsourcing with higher, value-added services, such as technology consulting and application transformation, becoming a larger piece of the offshore pie," said David Tapper, vice president for Outsourcing and Offshore Services at IDC. "However, with the headwinds of customer adoption for cloud services increasing, offshore providers will not only need to develop more aggressive strategies in determining what position they will take across the spectrum of cloud-enabled services but build a more robust strategy needed to manage the transition to this very disruptive services delivery model."