An event being held next week may be of interest to companies thinking of outsourcing their IT sales and marketing activities.

The Outsourcing & IT Services Summit, organised by information technology research and advisory organisation Gartner, is being held from June 15th to the 16th at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

A theme - Practical Outsourcing: Balancing Cost Optimisation with Performance Improvement - has been outlined for this year's event.

Gartner noted that more mid-size organisations are looking to outsource, with a survey by the firm revealing that there has been an "acceleration in the renegotiation of existing contracts and tendering for new approaches" among European companies.

The summit will help firms - whether they are "newcomers or veterans" - to understand "how to find the right balance between optimising costs and improving performance" when outsourcing IT activities, the company added.

Meanwhile, sales outsourcing could be a viable option for businesses trying to reduce their costs during the economic downturn, one organisation has suggested.

Speaking at a recent Confederation of British Industry conference, senior manager at the KPMG Corporates People & Change Team Tanya Bagchi said that outsourcing may help companies "reduce the chance of a performance dip that an organisation does tend to go through at these times."

Written by Julian Poulter and Copyright "Selling People 2009"