EquaTerra has launched a new tool designed to enhance the management of outsourcing arrangements and lower governance costs. The system, called Governance WorkPlace™, was developed in conjunction with Microsoft.

The tool was developed by the company in response to an increase in sourcing activity and the subsequent need to manage service providers and contracts as effectively as possible. The system works by providing an enterprise-wide management view of all its internal business processes, enabling managers to proactively govern either shared services or outsourcing. By doing so EquaTerra boasts that the tool can reduce the cost of managing outsourcing relationships by 1% a year.

Mike Beals, EquaTerra’s Managing Director for the new tool, commented "We find that clients have developed multiple spreadsheet systems for each individual outsourcing relationship for verifying, managing, monitoring and reporting that are not automated or scalable. Organisations are spending a lot of money and time becoming spreadsheet jockeys rather than making business decisions, especially during the early months of the relationship when critical issues need timely resolution”.