This was a week of ones to watch – the first of which was the global procurement outsourcing (PO) market, which was reported on Wednesday to have grown rapidly in 2009 with new contract signings and extensions increasing 30 and 90 per cent respectively, according to Everest.

The market is now expected to grow in excess of 20 per cent this year and reach nearly US$1.3 billion in annual contract value.

Meanwhile, a handful of potentially winning offshore destinations have reared their heads this week thanks to a new study from Gartner, which indicated that several credible alternatives to India and China are slowly but surely emerging.

Countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have continued to strengthen their position, while Indonesia has also entered the top ten for the first time, according to the research.

In other news, a host of deals amongst major companies were announced this week, with technology and outsourcing giants Microsoft, Firstsource, AT&T, and Tech Machindra all securing and announcing contracts.

And finally, in this week of emerging and increasing trends, it appears an entirely new type of outsourcing is on the rise – dinner-making skills. The time has arrived for those whose culinary expertise starts and ends with beans on toast to impress their friends and family with gourmet meals that Delia Smith herself would be proud of.

The current pioneer of this type of sourcing is meal preparations company D’Lish, which makes a number of main courses for customers to take home to their freezer for later use. The day of DDO (dinner dish outsourcing) is upon us, perhaps?