Accenture Signs Performance-Based Contract with U.S. Department of Education
Office of Student Financial Assistance Loan Origination and Disbursement Process Modernization Expected to Save $ 94 Million for Taxpayers
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 12, 2001 – Accenture (NYSE:ACN) will help save the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Student Financial Assistance (SFA) a projected $94 million over the next 10 years by developing and deploying a Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) system. The system will consolidate and integrate the current legacy systems that support the origination and disbursement of $50 billion in Title IV Student Financial Aid funds.
Adapting a unique Share-in-Savings/Results approach, Accenture and team members, AFSA Data Corp. and KPMG Consulting, will absorb the risk of developing and implementing the solution. The Accenture team will then be paid for their systems development and integration services based on achieving specific performance metrics set forth in the contract over a five-year period. The COD solution will contribute to higher levels of customer service while integrating a number of SFA’s existing legacy systems into a common, customer-oriented solution. COD will reduce the need for phone calls to customer service representatives and Department of Education personnel. It also will reduce the workload required for monthly and yearly school reconciliation while dramatically reducing the potential for fraud, waste, and abuse.
The contract, the third share-in-savings agreement forged between the global management and consulting organization and SFA, is part of an overall modernization effort to transform the agency into the federal government’s first performance-based organization. The contract’s total projected value is $193 million over five years, with portions of the payments tied to meeting specific objectives, generating anticipated savings over the life of the contract and covering the cost of operational expenses.
"We are committed to helping enhance SFA’s ability to serve its customers and look forward to continuing to help them realize significant savings, just as we have done under the first two years of the ’modernization partnership’," said Steven Shane, an Accenture partner.
SFA’s work process modernization effort is enabling the Office to operate more like the commercial sector, while complying with the Government Performance Results Act of 1993. Throughout SFA’s business units, best practices from the private and public sectors are being applied to develop business processes, technology alternatives and training and competency assessments that reflect the agency’s new performance-based vision and objectives.
For additional information on student aid, call 1-800-4-FED-AID, or visit its Web site at http://www.ed.gov/offices/osfap or the schools portal at http://sfa4schools.sfa.ed.gov.
About Accenture
Accenture is the world’s leading management and technology consulting organization. Through its network of businesses approach, in which the company enhances its consulting and outsourcing expertise through alliances, ventures and other capabilities, Accenture delivers innovations that help clients across all industries quickly realize their visions. With more than 75,000 people in 47 countries, the company generated net revenues of $11.44 billion for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2001. Its home page is http://www.accenture.com.
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Barbara Hohbach
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