Outsourcing Center Announces Winners of 12th Annual Outsourcing Excellence Awards

Winners Reveal Insights into Achieving Strategic Business Goals

Outsourcing Center, one of the leading sources of information about outsourcing, announced today the winners of the 2008 Outsourcing Excellence Awards:
Best Partnership Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare and Perot Systems Corp.
Best EU Universal Music Group and buyingTeam
Best ITO Touro Infirmary and Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
Best BPO ENMAX Energy Corporation and Cognera Corp.
Best Financial Services
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC Financial Group) and iGATE Global Solutions
Best First Steps National Life Group and Perot Systems Corp.
Most Strategic Microsoft Corporation and Accenture
Most Flexible Lloyds TSB Bank plc and Firstsource Solutions Ltd.

An independent panel of industry experts evaluated numerous nominated relationships worldwide. “The judges rated buyer and supplier partnerships. They looked at how they worked together to achieve mutually beneficial objectives, overcome challenges, and develop innovative strategies for ensuring mutually aligned interests over the long term,” said Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Editor, Outsourcing Journal.

The August issue of the Outsourcing Journal (www.outsourcing-journal.com) will feature in-depth articles on each award-winning relationship. Forbes magazine will highlight the winners in its June 2 issue.

“Outsourcing is a complex, multi-faceted engagement, and the ability of a buyer and supplier to work together as partners is required to achieve a successful outcome,” stated Debra Floyd, COO, Outsourcing Center and director of the awards program. “All companies engaging in outsourcing will benefit by reading about the winners’ lessons learned. They shared their keys to success and collaborative techniques. These relationships achieved notable business outcomes in good times and bad and are exemplary in how they manage their relationships for success.”

Winners will be honored at an “Oscars”-like ceremony in New York City in October, sail on the Forbes Highlander Yacht, and participate in a best practices educational seminar.

Members of the judging panel were Rod Bourgeois, Senior Research Analyst – Technology Services, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC; John A. Funk, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP; Russ Taruscio, FC&A Procurement Director, BP America Inc.; Dawn Evans, President & CEO, Sourcing Interests Group; Ed Davis, Oliver Wight Professor, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia and Peter Bendor-Samuel CEO of Everest Group.

About Outsourcing Center’s Outsourcing Excellence Awards

The Outsourcing Excellence Awards recognize the world’s best outsourcing arrangements. The judges select relationships which demonstrate best practices, create and sustain a competitive advantage, provide business transformation, achieve value, and mutually benefit both buyer and supplier over time. The Outsourcing Center, an online community specializing in thought leadership, best practices, and innovation in outsourcing, conducts the annual awards program. Everest Group, which helps companies create customized business and sourcing strategies and outsourcing relationships that are tailored to their specific situations, and Forbes Special Sections sponsor the Outsourcing Excellence Awards.

Contacts

Outsourcing Center
Debra Floyd, 214-451-3033
COO
dfloyd {at} everestgrp(.)com