Accenture to Provide Microsoft with Credit & Collection Services Under Five-Year BPO Agreement

Accenture will provide Microsoft with credit and collection services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) under a five-year business process outsourcing contract the two companies signed recently. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Under the terms of the contract, Accenture will manage the processes associated with receivables and collections from Microsoft’s business customers and channel partners throughout EMEA. Accenture will also provide support for Microsoft’s credit analysis, cash application, customer data management and associated business intelligence reporting processes.

The technology supporting the services consists of a sophisticated suite of enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing and receivables management applications all running on the latest Microsoft platform.

The services will be delivered in a total of 15 languages and be provided by Accenture Finance Solutions, an Accenture business that provides finance and accounting services to businesses and governments on an outsourced basis.

The contract builds on an existing relationship between the two companies under which Accenture has provided IT support and consulting services to Microsoft in Dublin for more than 15 years.

“Our operational goal in EMEA is to drive increased performance in our credit and collections function, while improving the end-to-end processes between our operations, sales and credit organizations,” said Mark Creighton, Director, Microsoft Worldwide Credit. “Accenture’s commitment to operational excellence and continuous improvement, combined with its cost competitiveness and ability to scale its operations, will be instrumental to our business over the coming years.”

“As a high-performing business, Microsoft is looking to leverage Accenture’s finance and accounting services expertise to achieve improved business outcomes as well as cost efficiencies,” said Stewart Clements, managing director of Accenture Finance Solutions. “We look forward to delivering this value to Microsoft’s EMEA operations.”