Accenture Wins BT Training Contract

LONDON -- BT and Accenture (NYSE:ACN) have signed a five-year, £70 million (US$127 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 programmes 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 1 August 2005.

"This contract will play a key role in BT's continuing transformation into a leading IT and network services organisation 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 organisation with global reach.

"Learning is becoming a strategic function that is instrumental to achieving business results for organisations, 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."

BT Group plc

Accenture