PITTSBURGH-In response to the growing need for standards to evaluate companies providing information technology (IT) outsourcing services, researchers in Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science (SCS) have developed a system to rate outsourcing firms and have established a center to certify their capabilities. Satyam Computer Services, Ltd., one of India's largest computer-related companies and a founding partner in the university's new Information Technology Services Qualification Center (ITSQC), is funding development of this model, as well as other capability models and appraisal methods. Accenture has joined the effort as well, providing funds and placing an associate at Carnegie Mellon as a visiting industrial scholar. Over the past several years, organizations -from manufacturing firms to banks to hospitals- have been delegating computer-intensive activities to external service providers because they lack their own in-house capabilities. But in many cases, they haven't been satisfied with the results. According to Dun & Bradstreet's "Barometer of Global Outsourcing," nearly 70 percent of respondents surveyed said the outsourcing supplier "didn't understand what they were supposed to do, that the cost was too high and they provided poor service." Industry analysts say IT-enabled outsourcing services are expected to grow 15-fold by 2008 and within the next 20 years should amount to over a trillion dollars.

EVENT: Carnegie Mellon will launch its Information Technology Standards Qualification Center and "best practices" model at a media briefing and panel discussion. Panel members will include: B. Ramalinga Raju, chairman, Satyam Computer Services, Ltd., Hyderabad, India and Parsipanny, N.J.; Raj Reddy, Carnegie Mellon's Herbert A. Simon University professor of computer science and robotics and head of the SCS International Software Research Institute; Jane Siegel, senior systems scientist and head, ITSQC; Michael Collins, partner, service design implementation for outsourcing, Accenture, plus representatives of client firms that use these services.

WHEN: 10:30 a.m., Monday, Nov. 19, 2001.

WHERE: 3305 Newell Simon Hall, behind Hamburg Hall off Forbes Avenue, Carnegie Mellon campus.

The event will be WEB CAST beginning at 10:30 a.m., Monday, Nov. 19.