NEW YORK, April 19, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Joseph Vales, Senior Partner of the Vales Consulting Group and one of the first and foremost champions of business process outsourcing (BPO), was named Thought Leader of the Year for the HR outsourcing (HRO) industry by the Human Resources Outsourcing Association (HROA) and HRO Today magazine at the annual HRO Industry Awards dinner, held April 12, 2005 in New York. The awards ceremony, part of the New York HR Week and the 3rd Annual HRO World Conference and exhibition, honored HR outsourcing services providers, customers, advisors and other industry leaders for their exceptional contributions to the advancement of HR outsourcing.
The HRO Thought Leader of the Year was selected by a distinguished panel of industry analysts, composed of Phil Fersht, Vice President of Research, Business Services at Yankee Group; Katherine Jones, Vice President and Research Director at Aberdeen Research; Cindy Shaw, Senior Analyst, Computer Services at Moors & Cabot; and Bill Zinsmesiter, Vice President and Senior Research Analyst, Technology Services at Piper Jaffray.
"This year's award winners and nominees are considered the movers and shakers in the HR outsourcing community, so it's no surprise that Joe Vales tops the thought leadership category," said Jeff Bizzack, a member of the HROA's Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Savista, LLC. "Joe was one of the first to recognize the importance and potential of BPO as a powerful management strategy. Over the years, he has been instrumental in defining what thought leadership means in this marketplace, helping companies understand how they can and should leverage BPO to their strategic and economic advantage."
Vales, who has 30 years of line management and consulting experience with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Citibank and Booz, Allen & Hamilton, is widely recognized for his contributions to the outsourcing industry. As Managing Director of Global Marketing for PricewaterhouseCoopers' Business Process Outsourcing division from 1996 to 2001, he directed worldwide finance & accounting, HR and marketing programs, and played a key role in making BPO the firm's fastest-growing service line.
"It is a great honor to be recognized in this way by those whom I hold in such high regard," said Vales. "I've seen an amazing transformation over my 30 years in the industry, as companies have come to view business process outsourcing as an essential component of their overall business strategy. What's been most gratifying for me is to see so many of the organizations I've worked with over the years use BPO to help them deliver faster and better on their value proposition."
Vales recently co-wrote a groundbreaking series of white papers on consortia buying; is the popular Cuppa Joe interview columnist in HRO Today magazine; and authors the Marketing and Sales column for the Shared Services BPO Association. He also serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of FAO Today Magazine; is a founding trustee of the HRO Association; and co-founder of the Reference Standards Board with Eva Schmatz, the CEO of SUMMUS Research. The Reference Standards Board is an independent organization that works closely with outsourcing service providers to provide client references that help corporate buyers make informed decisions in the industry's highly competitive RFP process.
About Vales Consulting
Joe Vales established the Vales Consulting Group in 2001 as a strategic advisory firm providing marketing and business development services to the top managements of Global 1000 companies, outsourcing service providers, and private equity firms for launching new products/services and building successful businesses. The firm is the most widely used proposal support and marketing consultant in the IT services industry with a proposal win rate that exceeds 70%. Gil Parker, a director at Vales Consulting Group, leads the firm's sales proposal support consulting practice. Parker has directed, managed, and authored over 225 winning proposals to the boards and senior executive managements of Global 1000 companies. What differentiates the Vales Consulting Group is its in-depth knowledge of market conditions and business opportunities, its world-class sales proposal process expertise from lead generation to close, and its ability to work effectively with senior client executives to build market leadership.
Vales Consulting Group is based in Rye, New York, and can be reached by telephone at 1-914-967-3200 or by email at jvales@valesconsulting.com
About the Reference Standards Board
Headquartered in New York, N.Y., the mission of the Reference Standards Board is to establish high standards of professionalism, independence, and objectivity in the way that executive references are prepared and used throughout the highly competitive sales proposal process. The Board works with service providers to present their client references in the most informative and meaningful way -- with the goal of giving corporate buyers more reliable, credible, insightful information to select the right service firms to meet their particular needs and requirements.
The Reference Standards Board is organized as a central reference source or utility for the outsourcing industry. The Board has established strict standards for the interview process, scope/content of interviews, reference qualifications, and its proprietary research methodology, based on hundreds of interviews with corporate buyers, providers, and strategy consultants in the outsourcing community.
For more information, the Board is located at 708 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017, and can be reached by telephone at (212) 777-7671 or by e-mail at info@ReferenceStandardsBoard.org.