Profile of Everest Group (acquired by Wavestone)

Everest Group operates two complementary divisions of services: a Consulting practice and a Research & Advisory practice. Together, these service lines have enabled the firm to deliver both high-touch consulting engagements and ongoing market intelligence to its clients.

Consulting Services

Everest Group’s consulting practice (up until its acquisition by Wavestone in 2021) specialized in advising enterprises on their most challenging issues in technology and business process strategy. The consulting team was relatively boutique in size but highly experienced, and it focused on a few core offerings:

• Global Sourcing Advisory: This was Everest Group’s signature consulting service from the beginning. The firm guided corporations in developing and executing outsourcing and offshoring strategies. This included evaluating which IT or business process functions to outsource, selecting the right vendors through rigorous RFP and benchmarking processes, negotiating contracts, and governing the relationships. Everest Group’s consultants often acted as independent advisors during large outsourcing deals, ensuring clients achieved cost savings and service improvements while managing risks. The firm also helped organizations set up Global In-house Centers (GICs) or captives – offshore captive centers for shared services – by assessing locations and best practices.
• Business Process Optimization and Transformation: Beyond outsourcing per se, Everest Group’s consultants worked on reengineering and improving clients’ operations. This could involve assessing current processes (like finance & accounting, human resources, customer service, procurement) and identifying opportunities to streamline or digitize them. Often, outsourcing or automation would be part of the solution, but the emphasis was on achieving operational excellence and efficiency. The consulting practice employed methodologies to map processes, benchmark performance, and redesign workflows for higher productivity or better quality. This might culminate in implementing a transformation roadmap, which could include new technology platforms or lean process improvements, alongside sourcing changes.
• Technology Advisory and Digital Transformation: In line with market trends, Everest Group’s consulting division increasingly helped clients with IT strategy and digital initiatives. This included developing cloud migration strategies (for which the firm had proprietary models to evaluate ROI), advising on application portfolio modernization, and leveraging emerging technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA) or analytics. The consultants, often working hand-in-hand with Everest’s research analysts, provided data-driven recommendations on which technologies or sourcing models would best enable a client’s digital goals. For example, they might advise a bank on selecting a vendor for a core banking system upgrade, or help a retailer plan the digital customer experience journey using third-party providers for certain capabilities.
• Provider Strategy Consulting: Uniquely, Everest Group also offered consulting to service providers (IT services companies, BPO firms, etc.). In these engagements, the firm would advise the providers on how to improve their market offerings, pricing strategies, or go-to-market approach. Armed with extensive competitive benchmarking data from its research arm, Everest’s consultants could help a mid-tier outsourcing firm identify which industries or service lines to invest in, how to differentiate their services, or how to price deals to win business while maintaining margins. This line of consulting made Everest Group a trusted advisor not only to the buyers but also to the sellers in the global services market.

Everest Group’s consulting services were delivered with a tailored, project-based approach. Teams were relatively small and senior-heavy, ensuring that experienced partners and consultants worked closely with client executives. The consulting methodology was highly fact-based – every recommendation was supported by Everest Group’s proprietary research, benchmarks, and databases of outsourcing contracts and performance metrics. Typically, an engagement might involve analyzing data on a client’s current operations, comparing it to industry best practices (using Everest’s benchmarks), and then formulating a strategy. Everest Group often used frameworks like cost-benefit models, maturity assessments, and vendor capability matrices during these projects. The outcome would be actionable steps, whether it was a sourcing roadmap, a redesigned process model, or a transformation plan.

Another hallmark of Everest Group’s consulting delivery was knowledge transfer and collaboration. The firm took pride in working closely with client teams (often in a workshop format) to ensure solutions were practical and aligned to the client’s culture. The relatively small size of the consulting practice (around 25 consultants by 2021) meant they were selective and focused on high-impact engagements, often for large, complex organizations where the stakes of global services decisions were high. Over the years, the consulting practice advised an array of Global 500 companies – for instance, helping a major utility company restructure its IT outsourcing contracts, assisting a leading bank in optimizing its back-office across onshore and offshore centers, or guiding a consumer goods giant through a finance transformation leveraging a BPO provider. Many of these projects delivered significant cost savings (sometimes tens of millions of dollars) and improved service outcomes for clients, contributing to Everest Group’s strong reputation.

It’s worth noting that after the Wavestone acquisition of the consulting arm in 2021, these consulting services have been integrated into Wavestone (with Everest Group’s remaining business focusing on research/advisory, described next). However, the legacy of Everest Group’s consulting methodologies and client work remains an important part of the firm’s profile, and an ongoing strategic alliance with Wavestone means Everest’s approach to consulting still influences joint engagements.

Research and Advisory Services

The research and advisory side of Everest Group is the engine that has driven the firm’s thought leadership and market influence. This practice offers a range of services that equip clients with data, insights, and analysis to inform their decisions. Key components of Everest Group’s research/advisory services include:

• Membership-Based Research Programs: Everest Group operates on a membership or subscription model for much of its research. Large enterprises, service providers, and investors can subscribe to ongoing research memberships in specific domains. Examples of these offerings are Outsourcing Excellence, GBS/Shared Services, Customer Experience (CX) Excellence, Digital & IT Services, and emerging areas like Advanced Technology (e.g., AI and cloud). Members gain access to a library of published reports, whitepapers, and benchmarking data, as well as inquiry access to Everest Group analysts. The published research is extensive – the firm produces reports on topics such as IT service provider rankings, pricing trends in the outsourcing market, location attractiveness assessments for offshoring, technology vendor landscapes, and industry-specific outsourcing trends (for example, the latest developments in insurance BPO or healthcare IT outsourcing). These reports often follow a regular cadence (quarterly Market Vista updates, annual “State of the Market” reports, and numerous PEAK Matrix® assessments, which will be explained later). By subscribing, clients ensure they are continuously informed of market changes and best practices.
• Custom Decision Support (Advisory Projects): Beyond off-the-shelf reports, Everest Group’s research practice engages in custom advisory projects for clients. This is somewhat like consulting, but typically shorter, highly focused on research/analysis rather than implementation. For instance, a client might ask Everest Group to do a benchmarking study to compare the client’s outsourcing spend and performance against industry peers. Or a company might seek advice on location strategy – Everest Group’s team would analyze potential countries or cities for setting up a new delivery center, considering factors like talent availability, cost, risk, and infrastructure, and then recommend the optimal location. Other custom engagements include provider selection support (helping a client evaluate a shortlist of vendors using Everest’s data-backed criteria), contract benchmark analysis (to see if a vendor’s pricing is market-competitive), and peer intelligence (gathering best practices via surveys and interviews across companies). These projects leverage the same data assets and analyst expertise, but deliver a tailored outcome for one client’s specific question over a few weeks or months of work. The advisory services thus fill the gap for clients who need more than a report but less than a full-scale consulting project – often providing the analytical underpinning for decisions that the client’s internal team or another consultant will execute.
• Continuous Analyst Access and Data Tools: As part of its service, Everest Group provides clients with direct access to its experts. A CIO or sourcing manager at a member company can call up Everest Group’s analysts to discuss an upcoming negotiation or get input on a trend they’re seeing. This high-touch support is a valued aspect of the membership. Additionally, Everest Group has developed some online data platforms for members, such as Price Genius™ and Talent Genius™. These tools allow clients to query databases of pricing (e.g., typical outsourcing rates for certain roles in certain countries) and talent metrics (e.g., location-wise talent pool statistics and salary benchmarks). By packaging its proprietary data into interactive platforms, Everest Group enables clients to perform self-service analysis under the guidance of its analysts.
• Coverage of Broad Expertise Areas: The research practice is organized into specialized teams focusing on domains. These include IT Services (covering applications, cloud, infrastructure, cybersecurity, etc.), Business Process Services (covering areas like finance & accounting outsourcing, HR outsourcing, customer experience management, procurement and supply chain services, etc.), Engineering Services, Industry-specific studies (for example, research on Banking BPO or Healthcare IT specifically), Talent & Locations (research on workforce trends and location optimization), and thematic areas like Sourcing Innovation or Sustainability in sourcing. One notable area is Global Business Services (GBS)/Shared Services – Everest Group is a leading authority on how companies set up and run their captive centers or delivery centers globally. Another is Technology Vendor research, where the firm analyzes software and platform providers in context of service delivery (for example, evaluating RPA software vendors or cloud ecosystem partners). This breadth allows Everest Group to advise clients holistically: a single client might tap into multiple research streams – say a bank uses the IT Services membership to decide on cloud providers and the BPO membership to improve its mortgage processing operations.

The methodology of the research practice is rigorous. Everest Group emphasizes “facts over opinions”, basing its analysis on large sample data from the market. The firm conducts an annual RFI (Request for Information) process with hundreds of service providers to collect data on capabilities and performance which feeds into its reports. It also continually surveys and interviews enterprises to gather demand-side perspectives. By tracking outsourcing transactions, provider financials, and location metrics on an ongoing basis, Everest Group can identify real trends (for example, a sudden increase in cloud deals in Europe, or a steady rise of IT talent costs in Bangalore) and separate hype from reality. This continuous research model means that when a client asks a question – be it “What are typical outsourcing fees for a full-stack developer in Eastern Europe?” or “Which call center vendors have the best track record in the telecom sector?” – Everest’s team can quickly pull from its knowledgebase and provide a data-backed answer.

Furthermore, Everest Group’s research output isn’t just data-heavy; it provides insights and practical recommendations. Reports often include Everest Group’s perspective on what the data means for the future. For example, a report might conclude that a certain outsourcing model is reaching maturity and suggest how clients should pivot to the next model. In custom advisories, the analysts will usually provide clear options or recommendations (though final decisions rest with the client). This advisory aspect is what makes Everest Group more than just a data provider; it’s a trusted counselor on strategy, backed by research.

Clients of the research practice include major corporations (who use the insights to shape strategy or validate decisions internally) and service providers (who use the competitive intelligence to refine their offerings). Many service provider marketing and strategy teams use Everest Group’s reports (with permission) to showcase their strengths if they rank well, or to improve if they see gaps.

In summary, Everest Group’s services are a blend of bespoke consulting for project-based solutions and research-driven advisory that empowers clients with ongoing intelligence. The synergy of these allowed Everest Group to punch above its weight – even as a mid-sized firm, it became highly influential in guiding global services strategies because its consulting was amplified by proprietary research, and its research was enriched by real-world consulting insights.