Microsoft has extended its contract with Accenture for finance and accounting (F&A) and procurement business process services. Accenture claims that it will now leverage artificial intelligence, automation and analytic capabilities to deliver better business insights and help Microsoft increase productivity and efficiency according to the seven- year extended contract.
Under this new contract, which extends Accenture’s services through 2025, Microsoft will be provided procurement, accounts payable, financial and accounting services for its 120 subsidiaries worldwide.
“Our relationship with Microsoft is one of the industry’s great examples of what two organizations can achieve in a long-term, sustained collaboration that’s focused on driving business outcomes. The intelligent automation and analytic capabilities that underpin our finance, accounting and procurement business process services can enable Microsoft to further automate processes and get business insights faster, paving the way for future growth,” said Sean McNamara, Managing Director, Communications, Media & Technology business, Accenture.
The original contract was awarded in 2007, when Microsoft began to standardize its finance, accounting and procurement processes globally for an initiative called OneFinance.
“Our longstanding collaboration with Accenture has enabled us, through our OneFinance initiative, to standardize our finance and accounting processes across 120 countries, improving compliance and control across our operations and reducing related costs by 30 percent,” said Grace Lao, General Manager, Microsoft Finance Operations.
“Building on the past nine years, we look forward to continuing to innovate and drive new transformation projects together with Accenture designed to reinvent Microsoft’s productivity and business processes,” he added.
The company also states that it will apply advanced predictive and prescriptive analytic to provide data-driven insights, improving the effectiveness of compliance activities and increasing the accuracy of global cash forecasting.