FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
:Jolie Newman
Jolie Newman & Associates
+1 407 677 8404
jolie.newman@equaterra.com

EQUATERRA TO KEYNOTE/CO-CHAIR HUMAN RESOURCES OUTSOURCING & FINANCE & ACCOUNTING OUTSOURCING EXECUTIVE SUMMIT AT HRO WEEK CONFERENCE APRIL 12-16 IN NYC

HOUSTON (April 6, 2004) — EquaTerra, the world’s first advisory and management services firm to deliver complete Sourcing Lifecycle Management (SLM)™ services to outsourcing buyers,  today announced it will be keynoting at and co-chairing the Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) & Finance & Accounting Outsourcing Executive Summit during HRO Today’s magazine’s NY HR Week Conference, April 12-16, 2004 at the New York Hilton.  This new executive track called the HRO/FAO Summit is being presented as the “world’s only one-day event dedicated to peer-level HRO and FAO learning and experience sharing by top HR and finance officers of leading organizations.”
Speakers at this exclusive, executive-level Summit include Hal Burlingame, executive advisor for AT&T Wireless; Ian Muir, VP of Group HR Policy at Cable & Wireless; Mark Hodges, chairman and co-founder of EquaTerra; HRO Today and HRO Europe magazine published Jay Whitehead; Andrew Kris, founder of the Shared Services and BPO Association (SBPOA); Lowell Williams, HRO practice leader for EquaTerra; Michael Gantt, CEO of FAO industry pioneer Ephinay; and Theresa Wellbourne, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and HRM at the University of Michigan Business School.
“This elite group of faculty members operate in all stages of HRO and FAO - from assessment to outsourcing governance - and can share critical lessons learned, value proposition anticipated versus delivered, and how to utilize offshore resources, among a variety of other important topics.  We’re particularly pleased that EquaTerra is co-chairing this Summit, as in our estimation, they are one of the leading HR and F & A knowledge leaders in the sourcing advisory industry,” said HRO Today Chairman and CEO Harry Feinberg.

What qualifies EquaTerra to keynote at and co-chair the HRO & FAO Executive Summit?

EquaTerra’s HR Practice At-a-Glance

EquaTerra’s HR team is a combination of industry-recognized experts – with buy-side, service provider and advisory experience – who were some of the early pioneers in the HRO industry.  Hailing from companies including Exult, TPI, Gunn Partners, Towers Perrin, Bank of the West, GartnerGroup, Groupe Bull, Schlumberger, Union Carbide, Accenture HR Services, and Federated Department Stores, the firm’s advisors possess an average of 20 years of expertise in HR and HRO.  Specific achievements the firm has accomplished for its clients in its first year of business (EquaTerra was formed in April 2003, co-founded by three ex-executives from TPI’s BPO practice) include:

  • Advised on a full spectrum HRO engagement for the world’s largest tire company.  The company is guaranteed substantial savings in both its direct HR service delivery costs and in the costs of third party HR vendors in the first year of operations (2004).  Service levels have been stabilized or improved in all major processes.  All employees will benefit from increased self-service and availability.
  • Advised on a full spectrum HR, Finance and IT engagement for a publicly-traded natural gas company.  This particular engagement resulted in $8 million savings per year in third party spend.

Other HR clients with which EquaTerra advisors have worked while with the firm include one of the largest energy companies in the world, the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances, and a global 100 bank, among others.

EquaTerra’s Finance & Accounting (F&A) Practice At-a-Glance

As with its HR practice, EquaTerra’s F & A practice contains advisors with an average of 20 years of expertise in service provider, buy-side and advisory finance & accounting.  Companies with which EquaTerra’s FAO executives and advisors have previously worked include SourceNet Solutions, TPI, Chase Manhattan, Gunn Partners, AT Kearney, Towers Perrin, Hughes, Creditek, ARAMARK, Accenture, Tech Team Global, and Andersen Consulting.

                  EquaTerra advises its F&A clients on business transformation of seven key processes and 33 sub-processes.  The seven key processes include:  transaction management, general accounting, tax consulting & compliance, risk management, financial reporting, financial analysis and financial management.

In the F&A space, EquaTerra and its advisor client experiences include: a consumer products firm, a national utility company, one of the world’s foremost international financial service providers, and a publicly-traded natural gas company.
 

About EquaTerra
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, EquaTerra is the first Sourcing Lifecycle Management™ company, EquaTerra focuses solely on providing global corporations with advisory and relationship management services for their business support processes.  We guide them through any or all stages of their business process lifecycle as they leverage multiple outsourced and insourced relationships, and potentially migrate non-core yet critical business processes to lower cost, near shore or offshore locations.
For more information, please contact Lee Ann Moore at 713-669-9292;
leeann.moore@equaterra.com; www.equaterra.com.