Duncan TuckerNearshore Americas is deeply saddened by the loss of Dr. Jane Siegel, who died on July 14 and was described by friends and coworkers as a “guru” who “had a big impact on the world of outsourcing.”
A smart, sincere and visionary woman, Siegel was a senior scientist at Carnegie Mellon University’s Silicon Valley campus, where she taught IT-enabled Service Management courses. She was also a founding director of the Information Technology Services Qualification Center (ITSqc) LLC, a spin-off company launched from the university in 2000 to commercialize best practices models for IT-enabled sourcing. There she developed the eSourcing Capability Models for Service Providers and Client Organizations to provide a framework for industry best practices in sourcing and service management.
‘She Will be Missed’
Tributes have been pouring in from friends and colleagues, such as Jeff Perdue, who knew Siegel since 1986 and worked with her for years at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley.
“She cared about people, she worried about everyone in her classroom, and professionally she was very focused, hard-working and willing to do what it takes to get the job done,” Perdue told Nearshore Americas. “She had a big impact on the world of outsourcing. As director of the ITSqc it was basically her project to create the models that we now use. Without her they wouldn’t exist,” he added. “She will be missed. She impacted a lot of people, both personally and professionally. She always wanted to take care of other people but didn’t really want anybody to take care of her.”
Colombian outsourcing adviser Mauricio Velasquez added that Siegel was “very down-to-earth. She was like a big sister to me. When I had a question or when I needed to validate something with someone I could always go and talk to her and she always had a decent and concrete way of helping me.”
“She was kind of a guru in terms of processes and best practices,” Velasquez added, “She almost always had an answer for you and she was always ready to give you a hand … I will keep in my head and my soul for many, many years.”
A Lifetime in Education
Prior to working at Carnegie Melon, Siegel directed several large research and evaluation studies aimed at improving both individual and organization performance in the fields of education and health, as well as leading educational initiatives related to software and mobile technologies. She received a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.Ed. from the University of Virginia and a B.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Neo Group Chairman and CEO Atul Vashistha, who knew Siegel for almost a decade, told Nearshore Americas, “It’s sad that she left us unexpectedly. I was looking forward to seeing her in February and hearing about the progress she had been making, particularly in Latin America, because she had been very focused on helping them bring more process discipline.”
“I think she has given the world of outsourcing a set of processes and a set of tools for accomplishing business process improvement. She really brought discipline to that,” Vashistha added. “She was just tireless in terms of her participation not just in meetings but also projects and initiatives. I think she gave a lot. She gave her time, she gave her thinking, she gave her knowledge and she engaged a number of people across the industry … we’re going to miss her.”
Focused on the Nearshore
Siegel was always passionate about Latin America and she collaborated regularly with Nearshore Americas, granting interviews, authoring guest columns and appearing at Nearshore Nexus 2011. She often stressed the need for nearshore service providers to raise their quality standards, noting in 2010 that “Customers’ decisions about service providers for both ITO and BPO are aimed at achieving reliable, secure, cost-effective, competent, service delivery and increasingly they are looking to form strategic partnerships for transformative or innovative service design/delivery … A critical differentiator for the providers who are winning the business is their long-term investment in quality standards and quality assessment results.”
Kirk Laughlin, Managing Director of Nearshore Americas, added: “Jane had the rarest of gifts, bringing great intellectual and theoretical firepower to nearly every question I posed to her, but at the same time, having full consciousness of the practical dynamics of outsourcing’s commercial pressures and influences. Especially in the early days of founding Nearshore Americas, she became a huge believer in our mission and I, like so many others, will really miss Jane, and her naturally outspoken presence among us.”
Jane had as much of an impact on those of us in her personal and community life as has been beautifully described in this article. She leaves a legacy of caring and commitment to everyone she touched.