Under an agreement signed July 2011, Accenture is now providing application maintenance services to Shell to support the company’s SAP-based HR and payroll systems, which are being used by 90,000 people in 60 countries.

Accenture takes over HR, payroll application management for Shell

LONDON — Shell recently completed the transition of HR and payroll application management services to Accenture. Under an agreement signed July 2011, Accenture is now providing application maintenance services to Shell to support the company’s SAP-based HR and payroll systems, which are being used by 90,000 people in 60 countries.

The work is being performed under a multi-year outsourcing contract that covers the functional areas of employee administration, self-service, environmental health, and payroll.

Application maintenance services Accenture is providing to Shell include preventative maintenance, change management, data archiving and management documentation. Application support services include service desk support, incident resolution and user access management, application operations and monitoring as well as technical support. In addition, Accenture will design, develop, test and implement enhancements to applications.

The outsourced services are being provided through Accenture’s Global Delivery Network using delivery centres in India and the Philippines.

Accenture has had a relationship with Shell for over 15 years, supporting a range of outsourcing, technology and consulting projects across Shell’s businesses.

Shawn Collinson, global client partner for Accenture’s work with Shell, said, “The breadth of our SAP managed service capabilities allows us to improve service levels, while reducing the costs and risks associated with rich and evolving application environments. Our Global Delivery Network not only allows us to match the global footprint of multi-national clients, but our centres are adaptable to respond to fast-changing customer requirements.”

Source:  www.top-consultant.com

Global sourcing of Business Process Outsourcing in the financial services sector (FS BPO), a US$16-18 billion market comprising nearly 40 percent of the US$40 billion global sourcing market, has the potential to grow nearly 15 times its current market size to reach US$250 billion, according to a study by Everest Group, a global consulting and research firm. The report includes an analysis of market size, growth and potential of global sourcing of FS BPO across the banking, capital markets and insurance segments.

Everest Group’s study, Role of Global Sourcing in Financial Services BPO, includes an analysis of labor savings and other factors that have propelled FS BPO adoption into the rapid growth stage. Global sourcing of BPO in the capital markets segment represents the fastest growth area, driven by the emergence of high-end judgmental work and analytics. Insurance BPO demand is being fueled by a greater need for analytics, an increased need in the United States for healthcare services resulting from a growing customer base spurred by reform legislation, and Solvency II implementation in the European Union. BPO adoption in the banking sector is led by United States firms that are increasing global sourcing to meet fiscal performance pressures as well as address the lack of opportunity in new account acquisitions offset by loan modification servicing needs.

“BPO emerged as the key growth driver in the 2010 third-party financial services outsourcing market with nearly a 50-50 split between ITO and BPO contracts as opposed to a 70-30 split in 2008-2009,” said Saurabh Gupta, vice president, Research. “In the current economic scenario where financial services companies are facing competitive pressures and are reconsidering their cost bases, BPO across industry-specific processes in banking, capital markets, and insurance is generating much interest. Our analysis finds the medium to long-term growth outlook to be significant and robust.”

“Despite significant challenges, such as constraints in the United States associated with the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and new data protection measures in the European Union, the impact on global sourcing has been minimal,” said Rajesh Ranjan, research director and co-author of the report. “Financial services firms and service providers have adapted and properly mitigated against new and emerging challenges.”

Other study findings include:

• Most financial services companies are adopting hybrid global sourcing models by leveraging third-party service providers, captives and shared services.
• Third-party global sourcing in FS BPO is growing at 20-plus percent annually.
• Banking BPO accounts for nearly 50 percent of the overall scale of global sourcing operations within FS BPO.
• Capital markets, the fastest growing segment for FS BPO, saw year-over-year growth of 40 percent in 2009-2010.
• India, Philippines and China are mature locations for FS BPO, while Eastern Europe, Central America and South America are witnessing the fastest growth.
• In India, scale of global sourcing for FS BPO continues to grow at 20-plus percent, with growth expanding to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities for mature services in banking and insurance.

Everest Group analyzed FS BPO capabilities of 15 service providers for each business segment. Service providers with the strongest global sourcing capabilities are Genpact, HP and TCS for banking BPO; Infosys BPO, TCS, and Wipro for capital markets BPO; and Accenture, EXL Services, and WNS for insurance BPO. Other services providers examined in the study were Capgemini, CSC, eClerx, HCL, Intelenet, Syntel and Xchanging.

Source:  Top-Consultant