Marriott's project methodology is built around accountability and governance, so an outsourced project is never farmed out and forgotten. "And it's not like we have someone just watching the outsourcer work," Melnick says. "We are ultimately accountable for the project, so to that end, we work with the outsourcer to get it done."

That collaboration starts at the top. "We have a very formal governance process," Melnick says. Governance of the OCEANS project starts with a high-level steering committee. It is made up of Melnick; Pam Murray, executive vice president and general manager of enterprise accounting services; and Paul Chiu, the Accenture partner in charge of the Marriott/Accenture relationship. "We make up the three-legged stool of governance," Melnick says. "We take that model and drive it down through the organization."

At the next level are the top project managers. Kent Petty, vice president of information resources application services, is the IT person accountable for all financial systems. Michael Cullen, vice president of finance and accounting, oversees the business component. Yutta Shelton, a partner at Accenture, manages the outsourced leg.

On a large project like OCEANS, the steering committee meets as needed but at least monthly. "And we might have to get together at 7:00 in the morning because we have an urgent issue," Melnick says.

But most issues are resolved before they get to his level. "We'll start with the project managers [of individual projects within OCEANS] and say, 'You have three business days to get this resolved.' If they can't, we bump it up a level to Kent, Michael and Yutta. If they can't get it resolved, it comes to me, Pam and Paul."