Contributors

EQUATERRA ADVISING NISOURCE ON TRANSFORMATION PROCESS

NEW YORK (September 6, 2005) EquaTerra, a multi-national outsourcing and insourcing advisory firm, today announced it is advising NiSource Inc. on its effort to transform key business process and technology functions through an agreement with IBM. The 10-year, $1.6 billion agreement between NiSource, an energy holding company based in Merrillville, Ind., and IBM went into effect July 1, 2005. It calls for IBM to operate a broad range of business support functions for NiSource, including processes within the human resources, finance and accounting, supply chain (procurement), customer contact, meter-to-cash (billing and collections) and information technology areas.

EquaTerra has assisted NiSource in assessing the potential benefits of outsourcing for its unique transformation requirements, selecting the service provider, due diligence and contract negotiations. EquaTerra advisors continue to work with NiSource in transitioning business processes to IBM, and developing an outsourcing governance program that will help ensure both NiSource and IBM achieve the anticipated value of the agreement.

Said David Karabinos, COO of EquaTerra, NiSource is one of several energy industry clients for whom we have facilitated outsourcing agreements. We believe this agreement represents the best practices and lessons learned from the current trend in developing collaborative outsourcing business relationships. The agreement was structured to deliver clear economic value to both parties with a significant focus on developing a robust governance model that will now manage and support ongoing process improvement for these important business processes.

Added Matt Smith, EquaTerras Utility and Energy Industry practice lead, We believe that broad-scope outsourcing transactions such as the NiSource and IBM agreement will be increasingly attractive to utility executives as a strategy to offset increasing operating costs, redirect capital expenditures and accelerate transformation initiatives.


ABOUT EQUATERRA
EquaTerra (www.equaterra.com) is focused solely on providing global corporations with outsourcing and insourcing advisory, research and governance services that enable them to achieve service delivery excellence for their SG&A processes. EquaTerra’s advisors average more than 20 years of industry, service provider and process experience with functional leadership in Finance & Accounting, HR, IT and Procurement, and have been involved in over 600 global business transformation, outsourcing and outsourcing governance projects.


For more information, please contact Lee Ann Moore at 713.669.9292; leeann.moore@equaterra.com; www.equaterra.com.

Jolie Newman
+1 407.677.8404 (o)
+1 321.439.6670 (m)

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