EquaTerra’s Legal Pulse Survey Findings Announced View a print-friendly version Increasing Outsourcing Contract Complexity Impacting Both Outsourcing Buyers and Third-Party Counsel Houston and London (20 January, 2011) – The results of EquaTerra’s second annual Legal Pulse survey highlight an ongoing trend for increasingly complex outsourcing contracts. Contributing factors include the more sophisticated benefits buyers are seeking from outsourcing (such as innovation on top of cost savings), the increased global nature of sourcing efforts, outsourcing that involves more complex functional and process areas, more multi-sourcing, increased buyer and third-party counsel experience and sophistication in crafting outsourcing arrangements. It is important for buyers to recognize in advance that there are differences in outsourcing contracting, negotiation styles and practices between different service providers and classes of service providers. Legal counsel polled felt that traditional global and multinational service providers are more challenging to contract with than India-based service providers or regional or function-specific service providers. While this is possibly a function of the nature, scale and scope of deals global providers’ support, as Indian services providers increasingly begin to mirror legacy providers in terms of scale and capabilities, the differences are more likely due to preferred approach and style than deal characteristics. Stan Lepeak, Managing Director of Global Research for EquaTerra, commented, “Among the many legal and commercial terms and conditions included in an outsourcing contract, some are much more challenging to negotiate. These include legal terms such as contract terminations fees and conditions, and commercial terms such as indemnities and limitations of liabilities. Buyers need to recognize these differences and address them accordingly, both in terms of their strategy in defining the ultimate terms they will accept and their approach to negotiating. It is with the more complex terms and conditions that third-party counsel can play the most valuable supporting role.” Legal counsels are also seeing their clients reacting to current ongoing challenging economic market conditions in a variety of ways according to the survey findings. These include reopening outsourcing contracts to renegotiate pricing and scope, and exercising benchmarking clauses more often. About EquaTerra Pulse Surveys EquaTerra combines relevant recent research with trending data gathered through a quarterly survey of leading outsourcing service providers and EquaTerra’s own client-facing advisors to create the quarterly Pulse survey. The Legal Pulse survey complements and extends these global, regional and industry Pulse surveys. For insight into the global outsourcing market and a comprehensive discussion of survey results, please register for EquaTerra’s 4Q10 Pulse Webcast on Wednesday, January 26, at 11:00 am-12:00 pm EST, 4:00 pm-5:00 pm London, 5:00-6:00 pm CET. Presenters: Nico Boot, Executive Director for EquaTerra in Europe and Asia Pacific, Brian Walker, Managing Director, IT Consulting, Americas, Marc Stark, Contract Architecture and Negotiation Specialist, Thomas Hall, Client Executive and Stan Lepeak, Managing Director of Global Research for EquaTerra and EquaSiis. To register for this webcast please email: allison.norman@equaterra.com. To obtain a copy of the 2Q10 Pulse survey, please contact Stan Lepeak. About EquaTerra EquaTerra sourcing advisors help clients achieve sustainable value in their IT and business processes. Our advisors average more than 20 years of industry experience and have supported more than 2,000 transformation and outsourcing projects across more than 60 countries. Supporting clients throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, we have deep functional knowledge in Finance and Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement, Real Estate & Facilities Management and other critical business processes. EquaTerra helps clients achieve significant cost savings and process improvement with internal transformation, shared services and outsourcing solutions. For more information, see www.equaterra.com. North American Media Contact: Kim Messerschmitt Director of Marketing +1 972 987 1686 mailto:kim.messerschmitt@equaterra.com Europe/Asia Pacific Media Contact: Melissa Gardiner Director of Marketing Europe and Asia Pacific +44 (0) 20 7347 5101 mailto:melissa.gardiner@equaterra.com