Accenture Awarded Five-Year Procurement Management Contract by U.S.Financial Services Firm

NEW YORK; Nov. 30, 2004—Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has been selected to manage Lincoln Financial Group ’s procurement function in a five-year contract aimed at helping Lincoln reduce the cost of purchased goods and services. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Under the agreement, Accenture will manage a full suite of procure-to-pay (P2P) services for Lincoln. This includes: negotiating contracts with suppliers (strategic sourcing and tactical buying) for goods and services; order processing; payables processing; travel and expense processing; supplier management; procurement contract management; internal and supplier compliance management; online catalog content management; application hosting and support; and operational reporting and analysis.

The services will be delivered by Accenture Procurement Solutions, an Accenture business that provides procurement services to global enterprises and governments on an outsourced basis. Accenture will locate personnel at select Lincoln facilities in the United States as well as leverage the capabilities and expertise of its global delivery network.

"We are very pleased to be working with Accenture in our ongoing drive for more efficient operations that will benefit our shareholders and our employees," said Lincoln Financial Group’s Janet Chrzan, vice president and chief procurement executive. "This partnership will enable us to realize procurement savings that can translate into retaining more jobs within our organization."

"As a high-performance company in the financial services industry, Lincoln recognized the opportunity to achieve significant savings by drawing on Accenture’s proven capabilities in procurement outsourcing," said Len Sherman, president of Accenture Procurement Solutions. "The company’s broad range of requirements matches well to our deep experience in sourcing, tactical buying, procurement technology deployment, and procure-to-pay transaction processing."

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With more than 100,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$13.67 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2004. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About Accenture Procurement Solutions
Accenture Procurement Solutions, an Accenture business, provides procurement outsourcing services to global enterprises and governments. Providing a broad range of outsourced "Procure-to-Pay" (P2P) services, Accenture Procurement Solutions helps clients achieve high performance by delivering measurable and material improvements to their bottom lines. Drawing on its proprietary technology-enabled solutions, global network of solution delivery centers and proprietary integrated approach to strategic sourcing and compliance, Accenture Procurement Solutions helps clients realize significant savings on the cost of indirect goods and services. More information is available at www.accenture.com/procurementsolutions.

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Jim Finlaw

+1 (917) 452 3249

james.e.finlaw@accenture.com

Marykate Reese

+1 (917) 452 8738

marykate.reese@accenture.com