EquaTerra partnership with Microsoft brings visibility, governance to business process outsourcing endeavors

Arguments in favor of outsourcing—be it manufacturing, IT, or human resources (HR) processes—typically claim that outsourcing saves money and enables a company to focus on core competencies. But EquaTerra, a global outsourcing advisory firm founded in 2003, stresses that whatever value there is to be gained is dependent on skillful governance of the relationship from the start.

Considering the dearth of robust, integrated, scalable tools for enabling such, EquaTerra is partnering with Microsoft on a portfolio of products that will aid and improve the governance process.

"We find that clients have a variety of third-party tools in place, but there is great dissatisfaction in trying to leverage them," says Mike Beals, EquaTerra managing director for sourcing technologies, adding that much of what is available is based on spreadsheets. "Organizations are spending a lot of money and time becoming spreadsheet jockeys rather than making business decisions," during the early months of the relationship when critical issues need timely resolution, he says.

"Given our work with customers, it's apparent that C-level executives are having a difficult time obtaining visibility to what's going on globally," adds Beals. That lack of visibility and control puts organizations at risk financially as well as legally in instances where there isn't consistency and clear oversight in the governance of relationships, he explains.

"We began searching for a tool that could consolidate much of what was needed, and enable global enterprise rollouts," says Beal. And when EquaTerra couldn't find one, it started looking for a platform on which to build one.

"Microsoft's platform was very suitable to what we were looking for," says Beals. "The fact that many clients already had existing Microsoft licenses simplified the decision to go with the platform."

The new products packaged around specific functional towers—or domains—will combine EquaTerra's outsourcing governance expertise and methodologies, and Microsoft's Office system products. The technology platform includes Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005, SharePoint Portal Server 2003, and Microsoft SQL Server 2005. The first solution for governance of outsourced IT relationships is available now. Solutions for HR, finance, and accounting will be available in Q2 2007.

EquaTerra has participated in major outsourcing deals with DuPont, Unilever, and others, and believes its partnership with Microsoft will extend its breadth and scope in the emerging outsourcing relationship management market.

"This complements what Microsoft is doing with its business intelligence initiative," he says. "The Microsoft Business Scorecard Manager expedites our clients' learning curve as to what information is needed to manage the relationship, the acceptable parameters, and how notification is managed."

The fact that Microsoft also has data connectors for almost any data source—or tools for building connectors—also is key, concludes Beals.