Accenture Launches Service-Oriented Architecture Platform to Enable High Performance Delivery of Citizen Services

RESTON, Virginia - Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has launched a flexible, service-based technology platform to help public agencies manage a wide array of citizen services in an integrated manner to lower technology and management costs and improve service delivery.

The Accenture Public Service Platform integrates commercial as well as open source application components using an approach that enables updating and replacement with minimal impact, reducing clients’ maintenance costs. By combining preconfigured public service components, Accenture’s Public Service Platform addresses the needs of multiple levels of government and individual public agencies for:

Accelerated implementation: Preconfiguration means agencies can eliminate from 6 to 18 months of time associated with typical technology platform development.

Risk mitigation: Proven components and methods from implementations of the architecture at numerous clients help to reduce technological, operational, security and delivery risks.

Flexibility and modularity: A modular approach makes it easy to work with existing technical architectures and integrate with legacy and external systems. The architecture supports incremental approaches as well as total operational function replacement. The platform is vendor-independent, giving clients flexibility now and in the future.

Enhanced and expanded services: The Platform includes many convenient ways for citizens to access the system, such as via telephone, self-service web sites and mobile devices to drive better outcomes for citizens and maximize agencies’ use of limited staff and budget.

Improved communication and collaboration: The Platform helps agencies work collaboratively across departmental and agency boundaries by enabling cross-program and enterprise-wide solutions.

Lower total cost of ownership: The Platform is composed of standardized, modular components and is comparatively easy to modify. Accommodating and implementing changing requirements and maintaining systems over time is less costly and faster than custom development, and spells lower costs for taxpayers.

Standards compliance: The Platform follows Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), open standards as defined in the Federal Technical Reference Model and industry coding standards such as OASIS and w3C.

The Platform’s structure uses technology architecture successfully deployed with hundreds of public and private sector clients. It includes the following layers:

· Portal-based user interface for presenting multiple applications in one place.

· A rules engine makes complex policy elements easy to maintain.

· Business services to support business functionality.

· Service integration for consistent enterprise service delivery using most commercially available or open source Enterprise Service Bus.

· Shared components services support technical requirements.

· Data services for data access for inter-agency and external communications.

· Data storage uses industry standards for application flexibility.

· Security services allow users to sign on once and access only the information they should see.

· Batch and reporting architecture.

· Infrastructure services and administration and operational services.

“Accenture’s Public Service Platform, drawing on our Service Oriented Architecture capabilities, is designed to address public agencies’ unique needs for flexibility, integration to enable agencies to better meet citizen needs, and reduced cost and risk, and provides those benefits without being tied to a specific vendor’s offerings,” said David McCurley, Accenture’s managing director for global human services.
Accenture has been named a leader in the systems integrator market worldwide by IDC for the past three years. (IDC, Worldwide and US Systems Integration Services 2008 Vendor Shares: Top 10 Vendors for 2008, Doc # 219466, August 2009)

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. 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. With approximately 177,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$21.58 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2009. Its home page is www.accenture.com.