Eric Simonson has more than 20 years of sourcing strategy and global services industry analysis expertise, first as a consultant and then in ongoing management of Everest Group’s research practice. His overarching goal is to ensure enterprises, service providers, and investors have the combination of fact- and experience-based insight they require to make informed, actionable, impactful, and value-generating global services decisions. The criteria he uses to set the agenda for published research and custom research capabilities include: Does it help clients and the general marketplace understand current dynamics, emerging trends, key changes that could impact the future, and what the implications of those changes will likely be? Does it help industry members make critical decisions about global services as an integrated portfolio of efforts so they can simultaneously receive the benefits and manage the risks that cut across sourcing models, functions, geographies, business processes, and IT? Does it project broader trends; identify and explain disruptive forces before they are evident; focus on enduring substance; and identify next-order implications? Key research initiatives Eric has conceived, driven and helped create include: the industry’s first-ever detailed coverage of BPO in an offshore context, published in 2008 in partnership with NASSCOM; Everest Group’s Market Vista™ offering, which provides a unique, comprehensive look into the key forces and metrics defining the market; ongoing coverage of the captive offshoring market; and a joint survey with Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON) that looks at industry-specific strategies in shared services and outsourcing. To support ever-increasing needs for insightful, comprehensive, action-oriented data, Eric ensures the firm’s portfolio of research capabilities comprehensively addresses the entire global services space, across geographies, services, and sourcing models in order to help clients and other industry participants gain value from the next generation of global services. He also supports the research team in development of data sets and methodologies to help clients assess their global services strategies in comparison to peer groups, enabling them to understand the relative strengths and limitations of what they are currently doing, and whether they are ahead of or behind the curve. Eric is regularly quoted in international business and trade media and is a frequent speaker at various industry events, including NASSCOM, Shared Services and Outsourcing Network (SSON), and others. He currently serves on the Global Steering Committee North America for SSON. Before Everest Group, Eric was a consultant with McKinsey & Company for eight years, assisting leading companies with issues related to strategy, organization, and operations. His client work focused upon sales and marketing improvement levers across consumer and B2B industries. Working with a leading telecommunications service provider, he led a project to align the enterprise sales force with the market opportunity. Eric holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees, both in Mechanical Engineering, from Texas A&M University.