'HRO Today' featured an interview with Eva Schmatz discussing the newly formed Reference Standards Board (RSB). Schmatz, CEO of SUMMUS Research, and Joe Vales, Senior Partner at Vales Consulting Group founded RSB.

The independent organization helps corporate buyers make informed decisions by providing them with reliable client references. It has strict and standardized methodology, based on extensive interviews with various outsourcing groups, for providing their client references.

Schmatz said that RSB's goal is to provide corporate buyers with useful information that will enable them to select the right firms. Moreover, its mission is to establish high standards for executive references that are used in the sales proposal process. She said, "We provide independent and objective reports, with our established strict standards for the interview process and criteria for selecting client reference givers."

Joe Vales added that the methodology used by the RSB would set standards in the reference gathering process. He said, "Buyers who review references will have efficiencies and a higher level of confidence if they have the ability to look at them in a standardized form."