Sears Holdings and Sprint Win 2013 Global Excellence in Outsourcing (GEO) Awards from IAOP

Feb. 19, 2013 - PRLog -- PHOENIX, AZ., Feb. 19 – The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals® (IAOP®) today honored teams from Sears Holdings and Sprint as winners of the third annual Global Excellence in Outsourcing (GEO) award. The Sears Holdings team has received the award for the best practices category and the Sprint team has received the award for the innovation category.

Both teams were honored at a luncheon ceremony today attended by hundreds of outsourcing professionals during IAOP’s 2013 annual conference, The Outsourcing World Summit®.

IAOP started the award program to distinguish outsourcing professional teams at customer organizations who have advanced the field’s best practices, created innovative solutions and delivered great results for their companies.

"It's because of teams like these that this industry continues to evolve and grow," said IAOP CEO Debi Hamill. "We're pleased to honor these teams for their work creating the roadmap to success. They have elevated the bar of excellence."

Sears won in the Best Practices category for succeeding in establishing a strong collaborative partnership with an external service provider (MetaScale) to create innovative solutions for its customers, allowing them to achieve their financial objectives and enabling them to create new business values for Sears Holdings.

“Sears Holdings India (SHI) deserves the award because they put in place a series of best practices that allowed them to not only achieve their financial objectives in a short period of time but also enabled them to create new business value for Sears Holdings,” said Olayele Adelakun, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Information Systems, CDM, DePaul University and academic judge for the 2013 GEO. “As a result of the successful implementation of SHI, Sears Holdings launched a new technology services business, called MetaScale that will create growth and new opportunities for the organization. In summary, SHI has become a trusted partner for Sears Holdings and a source of additional business value.”

Individuals accepting the award on behalf of the Sears Holdings India Team include: Justin Sheppard, IT Director and; Phil Shelley, VP & CTO.

Sprint won in the Innovation category for showcasing the creation of value and innovation in services that can be derived from strategic alliances in outsourcing – as shown with their partnership with CBRE. The clarity of purpose and focus in execution sets this outsourcing arrangement as an example for other organizations.

“Innovation in business processes is not a serendipitous ’Eureka!’ moment, but the result of implementing best practices and looking for ‘next practices’ to push your organization and its services to the next level,” said Beena George, Ph. D., Associate Dean, Associate Professor of Management and Information Systems, Cameron School of Business, University of St. Thomas and academic judge for the 2013 GEO.  “This is what Sprint and CBRE have achieved.”

Individuals accepting the award on behalf of the Sprint Real Estate Team include: Gene Agee, Vice President of Procurement & Real Estate; Brian Jordan, Director of Real Estate and Scott Woodrome, Strategy & Partnership Management.

About IAOP
The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals® (IAOP®) is the global, standard-setting organization and advocate for the outsourcing profession. With more than 120,000 members and affiliates worldwide, IAOP helps companies increase their outsourcing success rate, improve their outsourcing ROI, and expand the opportunities for outsourcing across their businesses. Visit www.IAOP.org.

IAOP Media Contact:
Kate Tulloch-Hammond
Manager, Media and Communications, IAOP
+1.845.452.0600, extension 122
kate.hammond@iaop.org