NEW YORK, July 28, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) today announced a new relationship with Duke University, serving as a founding member of the Duke Offshoring Research Network (ORN)-Best Practices Institute (BPI), in collaboration with Duke University's Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at The Fuqua School of Business. PricewaterhouseCoopers will help advance a long-term goal of Duke CIBER to increase the breadth and depth of practice-oriented knowledge in the offshoring and global services space.
ORN-BPI founding members leverage the institute's collective globalization, outsourcing and process design best practices, and the innovative capacity of member companies to deliver breakthrough business services to benefit companies exploring innovative offshoring processes of best practice companies.
"The mission of the Duke Offshoring Research Network and the new Best Practices Institute will be to research and document offshoring leading practices by function, process or activity and by industry," said Dr. Charles Aird, managing director with PricewaterhouseCoopers' Advisory practice. "This will serve as a benefit to organizations who wish to learn and adopt innovative offshoring processes of leading practice companies."
PricewaterhouseCoopers has over 1,300 professionals around the world focused on helping companies make decisions about their outsourcing and offshoring requirements and is a leading provider of business consulting services worldwide. In addition to supporting the ORN-BPI, PwC may also collaborate with Duke Corporate Education, the university's not-for-profit corporate education provider, in designing and implementing company-specific offshoring strategies based on ORN-BPI research.
"PricewaterhouseCoopers brings to the alliance significant experience helping global companies address and implement outsourcing and offshoring capabilities," said Dr. Arie Lewin, Professor and Director of CIBER at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. "We expect companies seeking to adopt outsourcing and offshoring practices will routinely seek such services and capabilities the ORN alliance has researched and documented because they provide the greatest possible value. OBPR will leverage the alliance's collective globalization, outsourcing and process design best practices, their scale, and the innovative capacity of member companies to deliver breakthrough business services."
Along with serving on the Executive Committee of BPI alongside Duke CIBER, PwC will help select best practice case study candidates, shape processes for reviewing offshore best practices and collaborate on the development of BPI programs and activities. In addition, PwC has committed to funding two PwC Research Associate Fellows (post-doctoral fellowships for PhD graduates with training in qualitative case research). These Fellows will research offshoring best practices.
"With the support of PricewaterhouseCoopers, we expect ORN-BPI to become recognized as the premier offshore research body," adds Dr. Lewin. "Sharing experience and solutions across multiple companies will enhance collective capabilities for the mutual benefit of all involved."
About PricewaterhouseCoopers' Advisory Practice
PricewaterhouseCoopers' business advisory professionals provide clients with the confidence to succeed by helping them anticipate, create and manage change. Whether clients are proactively implementing change or reacting to an unplanned event, we leverage our Firm's resources, deep industry experience, and functional acumen across the areas of operations, finance, organizational strategy and structure, process improvement, human resources optimization, technology integration and implementation, risk mitigation and crisis management to help organizations effect sustainable change.
About PricewaterhouseCoopers
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"PricewaterhouseCoopers" refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP or, as the context requires, the PricewaterhouseCoopers global network or other member firms of the network, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity.
About Duke CIBER and the Duke Offshoring Research Network
Duke University's Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) was established in 1992 by the Fuqua School of Business and has been directed by Professor Arie Y. Lewin since 1995. The Offshoring Research Network (ORN) was conceived as a multi-year initiative focused on understanding the relationship between offshoring and American competitiveness.
There are 30 CIBERs located throughout the United States that are funded by the U.S. Department of Education under Title VI through a competitive bid process. Duke CIBER collaborates with other CIBERs to carry out projects and engages in outreach activities with other centers and departments at Duke as well as other colleges and universities, businesses and communities.
The Duke Offshoring Research Network (ORN) was established in 2004 as a worldwide community of business executives and academics committed to the study and implementation of service delivery on a global scale. The primary research partners are located at top business schools across Europe, and soon Asia and Latin America. In the U.S., this project is also sponsored by ten CIBER schools, along with The Conference Board. Duke houses all the data and aggregates for use by research partners. ORN is also a password-secured community for companies involved in the research, with resources such as Duke-researched case studies, complete longitudinal analyses, and a forum for discussing best practices.
About The Fuqua School of Business
Duke University's Fuqua School of Business is among the world's top business schools, offering a number of degree programs, including: The Duke MBA - Daytime; The Duke MBA - Global Executive; The Duke MBA - Weekend Executive; The Duke MBA - Cross Continent; The Duke-Goethe Executive MBA; and Ph.D. studies. A Health Sector Management certificate is available in the Daytime, Global Executive and Weekend Executive programs. For more information, visit The Fuqua School of Business' website at www.fuqua.duke.edu.