This week has truly been one for highs and lows. We have seen summer turn to winter, then to autumn, and as I’m writing this, back to summer again; where will it go next? The sporting world too has had its fair share of peaks and troughs. We’ve had English women’s football triumphantly thrust into the main sports pages on reaching the final of the European Championships only to be severely put back in their place with a 6-2 hammering from Germany. England’s men thankfully racked up the familiar score of 5-1 (remember that Germany?) against Croatia sending them off to South Africa’s world cup next year. Finally to just about break even in sporting success, Andy Murray added to Britain’s historic tradition of almost doing well in Tennis tournaments seeing another grand slam pass him by in the shape of the US Open. Ah well – rest assured Federer and Nadal will give us a show in the final. What has this all got to do with outsourcing you’re probably asking by now. Well, as fate would have it it’s been a week of ups and downs for sourcing industry too.

There has been a steady flow of outsourcing contacts as per usual such as the CSC’s new deal with the US postal service.

The BPO giant will take responsibility for the management of the Postal Service’s (USPS) Mail Transportation Equipment Service Centre. Under the terms of the contract, CSC will provide program management, quality assurance, technical support and third-party logistical services for the USPS repair facilities.

With recent strikes and general disgruntlement over pay amongst the ranks at the UK’s Royal Mail, the Round-up wonders how big a part similar outsourcing deals will play in the institution’s future.

Another interesting deal from across the pond came from Global Pharmaceutical Services (GSPI). The pharma giant has taken the decision to outsource clinical development to India. GPSI has entered into an exclusive partnership with Abridge Clinical Research Pvt. Ltd, a research and development company located in Mumbai, India. The new deal will see Abridge take responsibility for the monitoring of clinical studies, auditing, quality assurance, design and conduct of clinical studies, faster patient enrolment, in-country sponsor representative, medical writing, data management, bio statistical services, and regulatory support.

Clearly one more for the positive pile and another victory for the high-end outsourcing sourcingfocus.com is so fond of talking about. Expect to see a few more ‘men in white coats’ knocking around Mumbai in the coming months.

Continuing up the roller-coaster is this week’s clear outsourcing industry winner. Malaysia reports, with barely restrained delight, that its outsourcing industry is going great guns. Their still nascent market is expected to reach US $1.1 billion this financial year and looks set to hit US $1.9 billion by 2013. It’s great to such positivity coming from the lesser-used outsourcing destinations. The roundup waits with baited breath for figures from some of the other ‘newish’ upstarts to see how areas in Africa and other areas of Asia are faring.

Bringing us back down to earth at the end of the week is news the Eversheds is slashing yet more jobs as it feels the full force of the property slump. It’s obviously bad news for the company and its employees that it’s having to cut more staff. Exigent will be the main happy ones in this arrangement as they take up the slack left by over 90 legal secretaries leaving the firm.

Whether it’s a good thing or not that the UK headcount has been reduced to such an extent remains to be seen, though surely survival is better than being a martyr against globalisation. Feel free to discuss in our forum topic. Either way the legal industry is increasingly realizing the benefits of LPO and the industry itself is changing quite dramatically in its wake.

The last big positive of the week that should give us all hope are the growing murmurings about economic recovery. We’re not out of a recession by a long way but the media agenda and business confidence is clearly undergoing a shift. Let’s hope the murmurings have some substance, property picks up, Eversheds recovers and can support both its clever associates, partners and its increasing offshore workhorse.

With that rallying call to those fabled ‘green shoots of recovery’ I think we can call it a week. Enjoy the weekend!