Outsourcing today is a global industry, a promising prestigious profession, and first of all an effective tool for the service transformation of the enterprise and focus on key competencies. More and more business owners and top managers use this tool to bring innovations, improve service quality, reduce costs and increase operational efficiency. In periods of economic instability outsourcing can bring business flexibility, reduce services' costs and risks for internal and external customers.

The global market for outsourcing services continues to grow steadily and will reach 1 trillion dollars soon, of which about 60% is the ITO sector (growth of 5% per year), more than 32% is the BPO sector (with growth of 7.5% per year), and more than 5% is the KPO sector (growth of more than 12% in year). In Russia, the stagnation of the economy impacts the growth of outsourcing and huge potential of the Russian market is traditionally "hidden" in the insourcing structures of the largest holdings. Nevertheless, market continues to grow organically, market maturity grows as well, analysts estimate the total potential of the Russian market today at about 16-17 billion dollars a year with a market share of commercial outsourcing of about 20-25%.

At the same time, outsourcing is not a simple business tool, it requires knowledge of best practices, as well as special experience and skills for successful implementation. To facilitate access to the basics of the theory and best outsourcing practices for professionals from Russia and CIS countries, ASTRA experts published this year a textbook in Russian: "Outsourcing in the strategy of modern business. Best practices for successful work with service providers". The book is an important stage and a definite result of the 10 years activity of the ASTRA Partners in consolidating and developing Russian sourcing & services industry.

With the development of the post-industrial economy and the widespread of digital technologies, the share of the services sector is growing steadily. Therefore, the role of outsourcing, as a key business competency in building effective long-term cooperation with business partners will only increase in future. In addition, the explosive development of Internet of Things and Cloud Computing is accelerating the transition of traditional enterprises to the new service business models, and the key attribute of modern concepts - Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0 - is digital platform business, the basis of which is again the successful long-term co-operation with number of external partners that make up an ecosystem of platform business.