J.D. Power and Associates Launches New Index in Ch

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J.D. Power and Associates, the world's best known marketing information service provider and a division of global information services company The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), today announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese city of Dalian and Ambow Education for an assessment of Dalian's competitiveness and capabilities as a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) center through a first-of-its-kind Service Outsourcing Readiness Index.
J.D. Power will work closely with Ambow Education on the development of the index,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], leveraging Ambow's expertise in the area of professional development for BPO centers. Dalian will use J.D. Power's internationally respected, third-party analysis and Ambow's professional development expertise to advance its competitiveness as a BPO center and to drive continued economic development.
J.D. Power also is in discussions with the city of Kunshan and hopes to sign a similar agreement with Kunshan in the near future.
Harold McGraw III,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], chairman, president and chief executive officer of The McGraw-Hill Companies, announced the agreement at a press conference today in Beijing.
"A key driver of China's continued growth and position of leadership in the global economy is its transformation from manufacturer-based outsourcing to a services-based outsourcing model," said Mr. McGraw. "This innovative new index will help Dalian continue this successful evolution by providing valuable information and analysis that the city can use to enhance its capabilities and standing as a premier provider of business process services for multinational and domestic companies alike."
Created in 1991, Dalian High Tech Zone is an industrial zone located in Liaoning Province, northern China. Currently, more than 600 high technology companies,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], including 55 global 500 corporations,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], have offices in the park.
Dalian is one of the 20 cities designated by the Chinese government as BPO centers as part of its commitment to establishing the country's service outsourcing sector as a new high-growth area. More than half of U.S.- and European-based multinational companies are reported to have outsourced their software development and various business processing functions to overseas BPO centers,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and China is taking aggressive steps to narrow the gap with India in terms of being the leading BPO destination in Asia.
The new index will measure such factors as financial performance, customer satisfaction, competitiveness of infrastructure, and human resources. Ambow will be responsible for developing the human resources component of the index. The data and analysis provided by the study will help cities highlight their strengths, identify and address areas for improvement, and better market themselves to corporations. J.D. Power and Ambow are engaged in active discussions about expanding the index to each of the 20 BPO centers.
Serving more than 10 industries in 60 countries, J.D. Power has unparalleled experience in market information and customer satisfaction measurement. This global reach, coupled with its 10 years of experience in China, will provide the insights and benchmarks the BPO industry needs to expand their international influence.