Offshoring Transparency

The Foundation for Transparency in Offshoring Mission: The FTO is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to educating buyers and suppliers of consumer research and analytics services on considerations related to offshoring, and to establishing sensible, clear disclosure standards for offshoring practices. FTO holds no position for or against offshoring research services, but maintains transparency and open dialogue between research buyers and suppliers are critical to making informed, secure business decisions. FTO defines offshoring as the movement of a business process done at a company in one country to the same or another company in a different country, usually due to a lower cost of operations in the new location. FTO certification is free. Market research suppliers may self certify here. Market research clients are encouraged to require their suppliers to certify and to show their support for the transparency initiative here.

Resources Thinking Outside the BPO:Knowledge Process Outsourcing to India Offshoring to India: Are Your Trade Secrets and Confidential Information Adequately Protected? Key Issues In Offshore — Business Process Outsourcing News Release FTO Coverage in Research Conference Report (Nov. 2009) FTO launch press release (11-18-2009) View the presentation about Offshoring Transparency from The Research Industry Summit on Data Quality (TMRE)

Founder & Chairman Tom H.C. Anderson Managing Partner Anderson Analytics, LLC. USA Board of Advisors Sonia Baldia Partner, Business & Technology Sourcing Co-Chair, India Practice Mayer Brown LLP USA Eric M. Bell CEO & Founder Market Research Global Alliance USA Ann Margreth Hellberg Director NexoSI Consulting Former Vice President of ESOMAR Sweden Jon Leiman Owner QMS Partners & Founder Market Research Bulletin USA Gordon Morris Global Insights Manager Sony Ericsson UK Dr. Alf Rehn Professor, Author, and Speaker on Innovation Management Åbo Akademi University Finland Joel Rubinson CRO The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) USA Tom De Ruyck President BAQMaR Fern Schapiro Executive Vice President Client Service & Marketing InsightExpress USA		Clients can show their support for FTO as well. Researchers from the following client side organizations currently support the FTO Initiative. (Partial List Below) Åbo Akademi University BBC BBDO BMW Burger King Corporation Campbell Soup Company Costa Cruises Helsinki University of Technology Hewitt Associates IBM LinkedIn L'Oreal Microsoft Miller Coors Motorola MySpace NEC New York University Novartis Office Depot Oracle Corporation Payless ShoeSource SC Johnson Sony Ericsson Sprint The Coca-Cola Company The Hartford University of Connecticut UST Volvo Walmart Wells Fargo Bank Show your support by signing our petition and connecting to FTO on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook.