Accenture HR BPO Serviceshelps parent companyimprove efficiencies, streamline workflows and reduce HR spend

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Accenture never stands outside the marketplace looking in. It participates fully, examining trends and testing ideas for value and longevity—often setting trends itself. In doing this, the company constantly re-examines its mission and finds new approaches that can benefit customers big and small.

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HR outsourcing—on a piecemeal, process by-process basis—has been around for decades. But in the late 1990s, Accenture recognized a strong desire for companies to embrace integrated business process outsourcing solutions (BPO). And in HR outsourcing, it saw a unique opportunity.

Accenture studied the market and noticed a series of technological and process revolutions underway in human resources management. By applying these innovations to BPO, it established Accenture HR BPO Services, which is charged with providing the most innovative, high-quality and costeffective human resources services on an outsourced basis in the marketplace.

One of Accenture HR BPO Services’ greatest challenges was delivering industry-leading human resources solutions to its parent company. Accenture knew that it could not ask business leaders to try out this innovative approach to HR management unless it was willing to do it first.

In forming this family partnership, Accenture HR BPO Services discovered that an HR business process outsourcing relationship requires much more than a suite of services. It requires an entirely new philosophy of HR—one built on sensitivity, collaboration and constant improvement.

While remaining an integral part of Accenture, Accenture HR BPO Services’ innovative HR approach—focused on making its clients high-performance organizations –helped it evolve into a unique provider with its own professional identity and philosophy.

This partnership has revolutionized the way Accenture thinks about people matters.

Accenture HR BPO Services is now a full-time innovation partner for Accenture and is always striving for continuous improvement. It is eager to get ahead of the curve both in its unique market niche and in making its relationships as productive as possible.

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“We were quite eager to partner with and learn from BT in the late 1990s as the company began an effort to commercialize their mature, technologically advanced HR processes,” said David Clinton, former president of Accenture HR BPO Services. “Its experience and processes were critical in helping us create Accenture HR BPO Services. And today, we’re delighted to retain them as a major client.”

The solution that Accenture HR BPO Services put in place for its parent company is one that

Accenture customers have grown to count on the company’s knack for finding innovative uses for technology that help unlock competitive advantages. When Accenture analyzed the explosion of HR information services tools in the 1990s, they saw an opportunity for getting the most out of the installed base of human resources information systems (HRIS)—and sought a strategic partner that had already made the transition to a modern, shared-services HR model.

contractually binds the firm to reducing Accenture’s total HR spend by a compounded $150 million over seven years. To achieve this goal, Accenture HR BPO Services employs four principal levers, including: the expansion of shared services centers and site consolidation, process redesign and improvement, labor cost efficiency and technology.

Accenture HR BPO Services’ technology approach relies on employee and manager self-service tools that lower costs, improve efficiency

and make processes—which once seemed remote and cumbersome to employees—freely available on their laptops. Employees can now view and edit important personnel and benefits information right online, from any Internet-enabled computer.

In addition, workflow is being significantly streamlined through tools that automate back-office recruiting processes as well as performance and compensation management.

Accenture continues to move more processes online, including significant e-recruiting applications, wholesale performance management processes and compensation management tools.

But Accenture HR BPO Services’ view of technology goes far beyond the installation of web portals and online self-service tools. “We view technology

People-based technology

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holistically—our focus is not just on those processes that can be moved online and the installation of our Peopleline call center technology,” says Diane Shelgren, former Accenture HR BPO Services’ chief operating officer for North America. “The true benefit of HRIS comes from the way it impacts your processes—making your HR services streamlined and customized, so that they can be replicated not only across your employee population, but a variety of employee populations.”

Accenture HR BPO Services took highly customized HR services, offered by hundreds of HR professionals in 29 Accenture locations and transformed them into streamlined, standardized services, all consolidated to a few key sites.

The end result was a delivery model made up of six hubs and eight cities—with a significant consolidation of the workforce that saves millions annually. “This was just the tip of the iceberg,”

said Larry Solomon, Global HR COO & Managing Partner for Accenture. “Accenture never asked for such significant cost savings in the initial contract, but by applying technology and new and improved processes, we were able to achieve higher than expected savings.”

The result was an entirely new service delivery model for Accenture—and cost savings that will exist in perpetuity. But the innovation did not end there—it was just beginning.

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Central to the delivery of this solution is the expansion of shared services centers. While extending the scope of provided services to Accenture, Accenture HR BPO Services helped identify areas where its parent company could continue to lower its HR costs. In doing so, it identified that shared services was a major driver to cost savings. The more Accenture looked at Accenture HR BPO Services’ capabilities, the better they understood how a large-scale use of HR BPO services would bring the best total savings.

Accenture HR BPO Services was designed to provide a full suite of HR BPO services—from recruitment to exit services—with full-scale service lines in resourcing, information, performance, pay and benefits, HR advisory services and exit services. However, the extent of this solution is determined by the needs of the customer.

“There’s a misconception about outsourcing, in general, and HR outsourcing in particular. Many feel that companies who outsource their HR are buying into a one-size-fits-all approach that means sacrificing control over some aspects of their business as a result,” says Gill Rider, chief leadership officer for Accenture. “Our relationship with Accenture HR BPO Services proves that this is not the case at all. It has been like a cost-savings agent for us; it is constantly coming up with ways for us to save money or improve services, yet it leaves the choices up to us. This

approach allows us to retain our identity, our culture and our workforce philosophy.”

This flexibility is replicated across the entire HR services base. The number of HR delivery locations for Accenture continues to fall as processes are integrated; there is virtually no limit to the number of processes that can be melded into shared services centers. As well, cost savings could increase significantly as more processes are brought online.

Delivering a full suite of services, one process at a time

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“They continue to come to us with new ideas for service enhancements,” said Keith Hicks, United States geographic services HR lead for Accenture. “And sometimes they don’t come to us; they just upgrade the way calls are handled via Peopleline. They simplify or eliminate handoffs in personnel information. As technologies have improved and processes have been refined, we’re continually amazed at all the ways that we can redesign HR processes.”

As Accenture HR BPO Services continued to broaden its outsourcing solution, it continually approached Accenture with ways to apply lessons learned from their existing relationship as well as other clients and innovations in the marketplace. Outsourcing does not just put a new HR process in place; it creates momentum for continued innovation that can lead to day-to-day service enhancements throughout the life of a contract.

The general philosophy of process change is to make the most of the technology and processes in place to encourage more self-service tools, smaller roles for HR representatives and new ways to use existing resources.

Accenture HR BPO Services is working to make Accenture’s retained HR professionals attain a greater strategic focus. Accenture’s retained HR employees now move toward a focus on high-value HR needs like

resource and succession planning and trend analysis.

In the end, process changes bring about change that goes well beyond cost savings—they help allocate HR resources in the most efficient way possible. HR transformation is all about using people in the most efficient, effective manner possible. In doing this, Accenture HR BPO Services is bringing a true strategic focus to Accenture’s people matters.

Reinventing HR Processes

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For a company like Accenture that depends on an ever-improving, ever-expanding core workforce to deliver innovation, finding ways to offset the costs of this labor-force growth has been a priority. And, Accenture HR BPO Services has enabled the company to continue to add high-value employees in difficult economic conditions.

While cost has been a factor in many of these moves, having a global workforce has also allowed Accenture to become more efficient in delivering certain services. For example, many of the data-mining and batch processes required to make a recruiting effort move quickly through the pipeline

How and where outsourcing company employees operate has frequently become the first story told. In reality, companies can decide for themselves how much leverage they want to gain from using a variety of labor markets to perform their services.

are enhanced by having an offshore workforce that can complete these tasks while their North American HR workforce is asleep.

Accenture HR BPO Services’ talent centers and HR Service Centers have allowed Accenture to achieve much greater

efficiencies in their HR processes, which have also allowed the company to expand the range of services they provide. However, many of these same services are provided by North American HR Service Centers. And, in addition, Accenture HR BPO Services is always looking for new ways to expand its North American HR Service Center presence while improving labor efficiency.

Getting the most out of the employee base

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So how does Accenture HR BPO Services make its parent company more innovative—and how do these cost-savings benefit Accenture customers? In short, Accenture HR BPO Services helps allocate HR resources to the things internal HR departments do best. It helps Accenture spend its payroll on the people they need most, and it helps them think of people in strategic terms.

Accenture HR BPO Services has made Accenture a more efficient and tightly focused organization. “We are proud to offer their services to our customers,” says Gill Rider, chief leadership officer for Accenture. “If you want to know what Accenture HR BPO Services can do for you, just take a close look at what they’ve done for us.”

Accenture HR BPO Services never lacks new ideas—and plans to continue expanding the scope of services provided to Accenture well into the future.

Beating targets, raising sights

Accenture HR BPO Services saved Accenture $3.3 million in fiscal year 2003, more than twice their targeted goal. And, in fiscal year 2004, the planned savings to Accenture increased to $15 million—nearly five times what was saved in the former year. Incremental year on year savings, since then, have continued to contribute to Accenture’s bottom-line financial success.

Accenture HR BPO Services has a global presence, with service centers in key geographies.

A growing global capability

UnitedStates

UnitedKingdom

ItalySpain

Brazil

ChinaRomania

Czech Republic

Australia

India

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About AccentureAccenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 236,000 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.

Copyright © 2012 Accenture All rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 246,000 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 us

Jill Goldstein Global Offering Lead jill.k.goldstein@accenture.com +1 (703) 421-7315