New York: Despite fears, the slowdown in the U.S. economy would at best have a moderate impact on the global IT services and BPO industry, according to a global survey of service providers and buyers of IT and BPO services.

The study also found that service providers plan to focus on non-US markets and that the new hot areas are systems integration, infrastructure management and BPO.

Large vendors with multi-shore delivery capabilities like TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Satyam and HCL Technologies will be better equipped to exploit new opportunities in the slowdown period, according to the study published in the forthcoming issue of Global Services magazine from the CyberMedia group.

The study polled 129 outsourcing buyers, of which nearly three-fourths were from the US, and over 200 service providers, two-thirds of which belonged to US companies.

According to the service providers, the economic slowdown in the US would impact profitability and revenues in the short term. As a response, the industry is gearing up with a two-pronged approach of re-aligning existing service areas and increasing focus on non-US markets.

Nearly 75 percent of the service providers said that by adopting this approach, their companies could marginalise the net impact on revenue growth and profitability,