Stan Lepeak, Managing Director,  EquaTerra  Global Research

Yesterday EquaTerra announced a research alliance with Phil Fersht’s new research firm Horses for Sources (HfS). Phil has built a great brand and research network through his HfS blog, and now has successfully turned that into a next generation research organization focused – like EquaTerra research – on providing timely and “Actionable Intelligence” on the business process and IT services outsourcing industry and sourcing best practices.

So what do we mean by Actionable Intelligence (AI)?
•    AI enables executives and key stakeholders in buy-side and sell-side organizations to make timely, fact-based and forward looking decisions on how to best deliver business and IT services in their own or client organizations.
•    AI is easily accessible and easily consumed, near real-time, and combines traditional advisory and market research disciplines with new capture, management and delivery techniques, e.g., by manifesting emerging social media tools, methods and best practices.
•    AI is NOT backward looking, static, simple deal tallies, market size projections comprised of weighty, quickly out of date tomes, or overly abstract and arcane.
•    AI is specifically tailored to the needs of business leaders tasked with building, expanding and managing extended global enterprises, and address globalization challenges and opportunities.
•    AI can help businesses make sourcing management and governance a core competency.

While nearly all of EquaTerra’s advisory work and research to date have manifested the concepts of actionable intelligence, we will focus more keenly on this model going forward through existing as well as new research deliverables. Some of these new and expanded offerings will include the development of joint EquaTerra/HfS “rapid intelligence sessions,” expanding the scope and depth of the existing EquaTerra Pulse and Service Provider Performance and Satisfaction Studies research programs, and launching new, custom, joint market studies.

Given the complexity of today’s global sourcing market and the challenges facing buyer organizations, providing timely, relevant and impactful actionable intelligence is no easy task. Attempting to do so independently or from an abstract research perspective is not viable. Recognizing the criticality of an extended research ecosystem that is comprised of constituents with varied and complementary skills, knowledge and expertise, EquaTerra’s ecosystem includes buyers, service providers, hardware vendors and qualified research groups. Thus the genesis for the alliance between EquaTerra and HfS.

Stay tuned for more details on this alliance and the new capabilities and deliverables it will enable EquaTerra and HfS to create. Please contact me if you have questions or comments, and click here to read how Phil defines the value proposition for this alliance.

Filed under: Market Trends and News, Outsourcing by EquaTerra