Houston: India would continue to lead the IT supplier market this year despite Russia's emergence as a strong contender in the IT outsourcing market.

Acceleration of global services initiatives will play a key role in shaping the top trends, according to a recent report by neoIT, a consulting firm.

The key trend will be business transformation, which global companies will leverage to improve time-to-market, gain new business, standardize processes and significantly lower costs, said the report which provides a snapshot of buyer, supplier and geographic drivers that will shape the top global services trends of 2007.

"Business transformation through services globalization is one of the most important levers that global companies can no longer afford to ignore," says Atul Vashistha, CEO, neoIT.

"We see the services globalization industry continuing to grow at a brisk rate of 25 to 30 per cent in the coming year, as more and more companies ramp up their services globalization initiatives." The new research brief looks at the factors that contribute to the growth in services globalization and identifies several trends.

The report takes an in-depth look at the impact that the increasing number of sophisticated buyers, who now have several years of global sourcing experience, will have on the industry.

On the supplier side, competitive forces are leading to increased supplier sophistication. 2007 will see an increased focus among service providers on developing industry-specific subject matter expertise through acquisitions.