POUGHKEEPSIE, NY, June 19, 2008- The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) is joining with Carnegie Mellon University experts to expand research in the field of outsourcing and promote industry standards focused on quality developed at the university.

As the newest IAOP™ Academic Alliance Partner, Carnegie Mellon's Information Technology Services Qualification Center (ITSqc) (www.itsqc.cmu.edu) will work closely with the association to educate professionals about the latest trends, best practices and innovation impacting outsourcing. IAOP will join the ITSqc Research Consortium, Carnegie Mellon's multidisciplinary group of researchers, practitioners, and organizations that address the needs of IT-enabled service providers and their clients.

Consortium members helped to develop ITSqc's eSourcing Capability Models for client organizations and for service providers. Today, these complementary best practice standards for sourcing relationships- eSCM-SP for providers and eSCM-CL for clients- are used in more than 42 countries around the world to improve sourcing and service management capabilities.

IAOP and ITSqc will work together to benefit providers and users of outsourcing services by promoting professional standards and individual and organizational certification through IAOP's Certified Outsourcing Professional™ (COP) program and the eSourcing Capability Model Certification program.

Both groups will serve on each other's boards, participate in events, collaborate on the latest research, share information and thought leadership, and promote models and best practices to improve outsourcing quality and outcomes. "Through our Academic Alliance Partnerships with leading institutions like Carnegie Mellon University, we are further advancing the industry and building professional standards to benefit providers and users of outsourcing services," said IAOP Chairman Michael Corbett.

"We are looking forward to collaborating with the IAOP," said ITSqc Director Jane Siegel. "It will enable us to work with leaders who are building the sourcing profession and to expand our complementary efforts around the globe."

Siegel's colleagues in ITSqc include Associate Director Jeff Perdue and William E. Hefley, both in the Institute for Software Research, as well as other senior experts in sourcing, service management and process improvement. Hefley will serve on the IAOP 2009 Global Outsourcing 100™ evaluation panel that ranks the world's leading outsourcing providers.

Other Academic Alliance Partners of IAOP include Syracuse University's Outsourcing Professional Institute (OPI) and The Duke University Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) Fuqua School of Business Offshoring Research Network (ORN.)

About IAOP: The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) is the global, standard-setting organization and advocate for the outsourcing profession. With 40,000 customer, advisor and provider members worldwide, IAOP helps companies increase their outsourcing success rate, improve their outsourcing ROI, and expand the opportunities for outsourcing across their businesses. To learn more, visit www.outsourcingprofessional.org.About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon is a private research university with a distinctive mix of programs in engineering, computer science, robotics, business, public policy, fine arts and the humanities. More than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students receive an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration, and innovation. Carnegie Mellon has contributed to the development and use of several quality standards, such as CMMI®, SW-CMM® and People CMM®. For more information, see www.cmu.edu.

About ITSqc:Carnegie Mellon's IT Services Qualification Center (ITSqc) was created in 2000 to develop and support adoption of "best practices" capability models and qualification methods to improve sourcing relationships in the Internet-enabled economy. For more information, see http://ITSqc.cmu.edu.

® Capability Maturity Model, Carnegie Mellon, CMM and CMMI are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by Carnegie Mellon University.

™ International Association of Outsourcing Professionals is a trademark of IAOP.