Trowbridge Group: Global Sourcing Advisors

JV structures have been successfully used on only a few occasions. After developing the Transco offshore outsourcing strategy, Ben Trowbridge implemented the JVsourcing structure to build Farmland, Synergis, TASCO and several other Joint Ventures that provided BPO and IT services totaling in excess of $600M per year.

OneResource Group - ORG: Dairy Farm International

In the late 1990’s, Dairy Farm International, a Hong Kong conglomerate with more than $6 billion in annual revenue and 60,000 employees decided to restructure its Finance and Accounting processes to maintain a competitive advantage. By forming a Joint Venture with Ernst & Young, which operated under the name OneResource Group, it provided back office processing services to support retail outlets for all its supermarket and convenience store businesses. This deal is still operating today under the management of CapGemini.

OneSystems Group LLC was formed in 1997 as a Joint Venture between Farmland Industries Inc. and Ernst & Young, with a 50/50 split in ownership. Farmland, the largest farmer-owned cooperative in North America comprised of 1,400 local coops, used a traditional IT department with a non-integrated computer system. Although the organization was maintaining its position in the market place, Farmland wanted to take the company to the next level by establishing leading edge technology and expertise on a long-term basis while controlling its IT costs. OneSystem Group was established to provide all applications and infrastructures at Farmland and remains the prime example of this unique structure.

Ernst & Young and PreussenElektra, a $10-billion German utility company based in Hanover, formed Synergis, a joint venture partnership, to provide IT services back to PreussenElektra and five majority owned subsidiaries. PreussenElektra, is the second largest utility company in Germany and the fourth largest in Europe, and needed to standardize its IT processes, and improve its ability to introduce new products and services. The Joint venture with Ernst & Young created a cost effective company that allowed them to maintain a competitive edge and strengthen their ability to enter future markets.

Established in 1998, TASCO Europe began as a Joint Venture between Shell International Ltd. and Ernst & Young LLP to provide pan-European accounting services. As an internal shared service center, TASCO (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell called FINOPS North) provides a range of accounting services from one central location to Shell customers throughout Western Europe.

Trowbridge Group - CapGemini & TXU Corp

In early 2004, the Trowbridge Group met with the senior management team at TXU and outlined a variety of sourcing initiatives and management structures including JVsourcing, that would greatly impact their competitive edge. TXU had previously engaged a series of outsourcing consultants who had, with some success, identified functions and activities that could be outsourced. However, TXU could not overcome the issues of control and transformation sufficiently to make the decision to outsource. The JV methodologies identified by TG were instrumental in the structure of the $3.5 billion JV outsourcing contract between Capgemini and TXU.

Capgemini Energy, the joint venture formed with TXU was set-up as a limited partnership under a 10 year agreement in which TXU owns less than 3%. This Limited Partnership will provide information technology, call center, billing, human resources, supply chain, accounts payable, and finance and accounting services to TXU, with approximately 2,700 employees moving to the new company.

This most recent evolution of the JVsourcing structure is a superior method of controlling risk and managing change and is headed by a Cap Gemini Vice President who is assigned to the JV as CEO on a full time basis.