July 31, 2012
Accenture Helps Colorado Ballet
Achieve 30 Percent Reduction in Administrative Costs Through Shared Services
DENVER, Co; July 31, 2012 – Colorado Ballet teamed with Accenture (NYSE: ACN) to implement shared services to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization’s administrative operations. In just two years of a five-year undertaking, the project has achieved savings targets and improved performance in payroll and accounting. The contract ends in September 2015.
Colorado Ballet’s leadership collaborated with Accenture to find a sustainable pathway to reduce costs, improve financial processes and upgrade software applications and technology hardware.
The organization has achieved a 30 percent reduction in administrative function costs. In addition, the timeliness of the organization’s quarterly and monthly financial reports and payroll processing substantially improved. The savings to date have covered the transition costs to a new system in which an Accenture team manages a ticketing call center, payroll production, finance and accounting. Accenture also provided project management to enable the Ballet to upgrade its technology capabilities without needing a full-time IT organization in-house.
“The project is working as we intended, enabling us to focus on our core competencies of dance performances, community outreach and education and donor management and fundraising,” said Marie Belew Wheatley, Colorado Ballet’s executive director. “We have moved to the new system to enable our staff to focus on what we do best, to reduce costs on administrative services that were consuming too much of our budget and to focus our energies more heavily on producing world-class dance performances and providing training to young dancers.”
“Arts organizations can reap tremendous value from shared services, as have many businesses as well as government and education institutions,” said Elaine Turville, who leads Accenture’s nonprofit practice. “Colorado Ballet will continue to benefit from the savings generated year after year by the more efficient approach to administrative functions and now, for the first time, has service-level agreements, documented processes and more timely and accurate data to help guide the organization’s approach to administration going forward.”
Learn more about Accenture’s work with nonprofit organizations and the firm’s human services solutions and focus, Empowering Services, Improving Lives.
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company with over 249,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
# # #
Contact:
Joe Dickie
Accenture
+ 512 694 6422