Accenture has announced that in 2012 it was awarded a five-year application services contract by Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) to streamline Zurich’s global finance IT. Services being provided by Accenture Finance and Risk Services include development, implementation and management of SAP-based finance and BI applications that support Zurich operations in North America, Germany, Switzerland and the U.K. in a range of processes including AP, AR, month-end close and balance-sheet reconciliations.

Zurich is a key insurance sector client for Accenture, for a range of consulting and application services; for example in 2010 it was awarded a ten-year, $50m contract to build and maintain a core insurance system and provide underwriting, policy administration and claims management support for Zurich’s P&C business in LATAM. Accenture did not win several back-office BPO contracts at Zurich; for example it lost a major procurement contract against Procurian – a competitor which it is now in the process of acquiring – and lost in an F&A BPO award against Capgemini (initial contract was renewed for five years in Q3 2012).

So why is Accenture announcing this 2012 contract with Zurich now? The emphasis in today’s press release is the extent to which Accenture is involved in and knowledgeable of Zurich’s finance IT processes through its work in this initiative to help Zurich better align its finance IT function to support its business objectives and reduce costs. There are some clear benefits of having one service provider for finance AM and for F&A BPO. Is this a statement of intent by Accenture that it remains interested in also providing some F&A processing as well?

(NelsonHall recently published an updated comprehensive Key Vendor Assessment on Accenture, available to subscribers of the KVA Program)