EquaTerra, Public, Sector, advisory

EquaTerra launches Public Sector advisory practice

02 May 2005 | (News)

EquaTerra, a multi-national outsourcing and insourcing advisory firm, today announced it has established EquaTerra Public Sector LLC (EQPS), a wholly-owned subsidiary devoted to helping public and not-for-profit institutions worldwide determine and execute the best organizational transformation strategy. The subsidiary will focus on local, state or provincial, and federal governments; public utilities; educational institutions, including colleges and universities; public healthcare systems; and non-profit entities.

Led by four renowned public sector and outsourcing industry experts, the new practice will help public sector organizations evaluate outsourcing, shared services or a blended sourcing model for HR, Finance & Accounting, IT, CRM and Procurement to streamline the delivery of non-core processes while reducing expenses and mitigating risk.

According to Mark Toon, EquaTerra’s CEO, “There is now demonstrable evidence to suggest public sector organizations are looking very seriously at their sourcing and service delivery options. Among the action drivers are increased budgetary pressures, largely decentralized operations, legacy systems in need of modernization, an aging workforce and a focus on diverting scarce funding to mission-oriented tasks. “

Market research firm Input stated in December 2004 that federal IT outsourcing is expected to be one of the fastest growing federal IT market segments over the next five years with a forecasted compounded annual growth rate of 8.3 percent. It further stated that U.S. federal government spending on IT outsourcing will grow from $11.7 billion in FY04 to $17.4 billion in FY 2009 and that the state and local government outsourcing market will increase from $11.3 billion in fiscal 2005 to $17.7 billion in fiscal 2009, or a 12.4 percent compounded annual growth rate.

Toon continued, “Given these forecasts, we are proud to have engaged a world-class leadership team to help public sector entities optimize their business processes.”

Toon noted that while EQPS is new, the public sector market is not new to EquaTerra. The firm has advised a number of public sector organizations – including the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, California State University and the New York City Department of Education – on a range of sourcing matters. Moreover, many of EquaTerra’s advisors have previously worked for public sector and not-for-profit organizations, including the Commonwealth of Virginia, California State Automobile Association, U.S. Army, Patient Safety Institute, Cleveland Clinic, U.S. Congress, and the University of Petroleum.

Phil Fersht, Vice President of Research at Yankee Group, heralded EquaTerra’s expansion into the public sector. Said Fersht, "EquaTerra has recognized the critical need for public sector organizations worldwide to address their most crucial issue - transforming the methodology by which they deliver HR, finance and accounting, and other back-office processes while at the same time lowering the cost of service delivery. This new practice will enable EquaTerra to bring significant value to heretofore underserved public sector institutions by helping them understand what organizational transformation can do for them and how they can best achieve it.”

EQPS’ President is Glenn Davidson. Prior to assuming this role, Davidson was Chief of Market Strategy & Corporate Development for Accenture HR Services, the HR outsourcing affiliate of the global professional services firm. Among its public sector clients are the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration, the City of Copenhagen, and two departments in Australia’s Victorian State Government. Davidson began his career in the public sector, including service in the Administration of Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder, as Chief of Staff, and as a congressional staffer. He has also run numerous political campaigns for a variety of candidates and referenda. In addition to serving as chairman of the HR Outsourcing Association, Davidson is also a member of the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on Information and Communications Policy and chairs its “global sourcing” subcommittee.

Other members of EQPS’ leadership team include:

Jeff Shooter, Executive Vice President, Sales and Professional Services – Before joining EquaTerra, Jeff led Convergys Employee Care’s Federal practice. At Pearson Government Solutions, Jeff was responsible for securing the contract for the recruitment and HR functions supporting the creation of the Transportation Security Administration in 2002, recruiting and administrating over 60,000 airport screeners in 400+ airports throughout the U.S. and its territories. Jeff has served as an advisor for OMB A-76, guided competitive sourcing initiatives for Federal agencies, provided BPO services to 48 of the 50 states, and run public sector sales and services globally.

Mark Stelzner, Executive Vice President, Marketing and Business Development – Mark previously led global third-party relations for Convergys Employee Care. In that role, he organically created a program which strategically governed several hundred channel relationships, global consulting partnerships, product alliances and worldwide vendors in both the private and public sector. He has extensive expertise in HR, shared services and vendor management, and co-founded a workforce effectiveness firm that directly applied solutions to homeland security interests, Department of Energy labs, federal contractors and strategic Department of Defense assets.

Glenn Giles, Vice President, Professional Services – Glenn was previously COO of the District of Columbia, where he was responsible for the organizational structure and operating systems of the Technology Office, managing operations to support the agency’s strategic plan and performance targets, and ensuring core business processes were functioning efficiently. Before that, he was program director at NCS Pearson, responsible for managing, administering and delivering all aspects of the Transportation Security Administration contract to provide over 60,000 airport screeners at 400+ airports throughout the U.S. and its territories. He also served a four-year term as Chairman of the non-profit Telecommunications Industry Forum.

Glenn Davidson, EQPS’ president, said, “I am very pleased to have been afforded the opportunity to apply my years of outsourcing experience and service delivery expertise – from both a buyer and provider perspective – to my public sector roots. I am confident that public and not-for-profit institutions globally will benefit from EquaTerra’s world-class sourcing advisory know-how and experience.”

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