Accenture and The Hackett Group Supporting Universities’ Drive To Lower Costs and Boost Efficiency of Administrative Functions
April 18 2011 - 7:00AM
Business Wire
Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and The Hackett Group (NASDAQ: HCKT),
today announced that they are working together to support the
efforts of U.S. universities to reduce administrative costs and
improve efficiency in response to ongoing financial and operational
pressures. Recent joint work has included the following projects
at:
- The Inter-University Council of Ohio
(IUC) – The Institutional Excellence and Shared Services
Assessment evaluates the functions of finance, human resources, IT,
and procurement to identify opportunities to lower delivery costs,
increase service effectiveness and lower operating risk. The
project provides a collective assessment for the IUC and individual
assessments for each of the IUC’s 14 member universities.
- Indiana University (IU) – A
benchmarking assessment covers human resources, payroll, marketing
and student services functions across the seven campuses in the IU
system. An analysis of the physical plant’s financial operations at
the Bloomington campus also has been conducted. Strategic
recommendations have been developed to support IU efforts to
increase operational efficiencies in response to budget
pressures.
- Miami University – The Strategic
Analysis of Support Services project will lead to a multi-year
strategy to enable the university to increase organizational
efficiency and achieve cost reductions in administrative and other
support services without jeopardizing service levels essential to
its mission and strategic goals.
- The University of Massachusetts
– An assessment and benchmarking covering the procurement and
accounts payable functions across the university’s five campuses
provides recommendations for sustainable cost savings
opportunities, improvements to purchasing tools and approaches to
leverage the collective purchasing power of five campuses.
“Universities are under the same tough circumstances as most
state and local governments, namely a widening gap between stagnant
or slow-growing revenues alongside fast-growing expenditures needed
to deliver core services,” said Dan London, North American managing
director for Accenture’s Health & Public Service operating
group. “Drawing on approaches that have proven widely successful in
helping businesses streamline and become more efficient,
educational institutions and systems have tremendous opportunities
to make better use of scarce budget resources.”
According to The Hackett Group Global Benchmark Practice Leader
Anthony Snowball, “The operational challenges universities face
today are similar to those in the corporate world. Institutions
must pay employees, manage suppliers, sustain complex IT
infrastructure, and resolve issues around redundancy,
standardization, and disparate technology platforms.
“These universities are to be commended for their commitment to
excellence,” said Mr. Snowball. “They understand that they need to
consider all options in improving the efficiency and effectiveness
of their business operations enabling them to better direct their
resources toward their core missions of educating students and
performing leading edge research.”
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services
and outsourcing company, with more than 215,000 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$21.6 billion for the fiscal
year ended Aug. 31, 2010. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
About The Hackett Group
The Hackett Group (NASDAQ: HCKT), a global strategic business
advisory and operations improvement consulting firm, is a leader in
best practice advisory, business benchmarking, and transformation
consulting services including strategy and operations, working
capital management, and globalization advice. Utilizing best
practices and implementation insights from more than 5,000
benchmarking engagements, executives use The Hackett Group's
empirically-based approach to quickly define and implement
initiatives to enable world-class performance. Through its REL
group, The Hackett Group offers working capital solutions focused
on delivering significant cash flow improvements. Through its
Archstone Consulting group, The Hackett Group offers Strategy &
Operations consulting services in the Consumer and Industrial
Products, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing and Financial Services
industry sectors. Through its Hackett Technology Solutions group,
The Hackett Group offers business application consulting services
that help maximize returns on IT investments. The Hackett Group has
completed benchmark studies with 2,700 major corporations and
government agencies, including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials,
73% of the Fortune 100, 73% of the DAX 30 and 50% of the FTSE 100.
More information on The Hackett Group is available by phone at
(770) 225-7300 and by e-mail at info@thehackettgroup.com.
Hackett (NASDAQ:HCKT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2024 to Oct 2024
Hackett (NASDAQ:HCKT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Oct 2023 to Oct 2024