BT and Accenture Sign Five-Year Learning Outsourcing Contract
LONDON; July 6, 2005 – BT and Accenture (NYSE:ACN) have signed a five-year, $127 million (£70 million) business processing outsourcing (BPO) contract for learning services. This contract renews a previous learning agreement between the two companies and complements the 10-year (US$575 million) human resources outsourcing contract signed by BT and Accenture in January 2005.
The services to be provided under the new contract include technical and safety training around switching, data, transmission and network technologies. In addition, the contract covers the design, development and delivery of sales force and management training programs for BT employees. The services will be delivered by Accenture Learning, an Accenture business that provides outsourced learning solutions to government agencies and corporate enterprises world-wide. The new contract will take effect August 1, 2005.
“This contract will play a key role in BT’s continuing transformation into a leading IT and network services organization in the digital networked economy,” said Alex Wilson, BT Group human resources director. “Accenture is able to provide a fully flexible deal structure combined with the security of a scalable, first-class delivery organization with global reach.”
“Learning is becoming a strategic function that is instrumental to achieving business results for organizations, and this deal marks another bold step by BT to put itself at the forefront of the industry by placing learning at the heart of its business,” said Ellen Balaguer, managing director of Accenture Learning. “It is also is a vote of confidence in Accenture’s ability to meet the needs of large multinational clients to deliver learning globally at scale and partner with companies to achieve high performance in their businesses.”
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 110,000 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 Learning
Accenture Learning collaborates with its clients to help them significantly improve business and operational performance by unleashing the value of their workforces, channel partners and customers. Delivering training to more than 1 million learners globally each year, Accenture Learning is one of the largest learning services providers in the world. Providing a full range of global learning services -- from content development to comprehensive outsourcing of the learning function -- Accenture Learning helps clients establish a clear and ongoing link between learning investments and business results. Leveraging deep industry knowledge and proven delivery capabilities Accenture Learning is uniquely positioned to help organizations convert their learning investments into high performance. Its homepage is www.accenture.com/learning.
About BT
BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions serving customers in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. Its principal activities include IT and networking services, local, national and international telecommunications services, and higher-value broadband and internet products and services.
- BT Retail, providing fixed and mobile communications services and solutions and IT and networking services to more than 20 million business and residential customers in the UK. It is also a leading UK internet services provider.
- BT Wholesale, providing network services and solutions within the UK to more than 600 fixed and mobile operators and service providers including the provision of broadband private circuits.
- BT Global Services, providing IT and networking services internationally to meet the needs of multi-site organisations with European operations. BT Global Services operates in more than 130 countries and also offers international carrier services.
In the year ended 31 March 2005, BT Group’s turnover was £18,623 million with profit before goodwill amortisation, exceptional items and taxation of £2,085 million.
BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York. British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group.
For more information, visit www.bt.com/aboutbt.
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Alex Pachetti
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Jim Finlaw
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