Accenture Awarded New 311 Contract by City of New York

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has been awarded a new contract to continue its work helping the City of New York further develop and operate the 311 Customer Service Center. The contract covers production support and application development services for the next five years, with the option for two two-year extensions following the initial contract phase.

In the coming year, the work will continue toward providing New Yorkers with another channel to manage their interactions with 311 — on the Internet via NYC.gov, the City’s official Web site. Ultimately, the goal is to offer a fully complementary approach, with access to City services and information across both channels.

New York City’s 311 service was initiated by the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications to simplify the way in which residents could receive city information and access government services. The result was an easy-to-remember, easy-to-use single telephone number for all government information and non-emergency services – 311. Since inception, 311 has serviced more than 54 million calls.

“By all measures the first phase of 311 service has been an overwhelming success -- taking 50 million calls in just over four years of operations is an incredible achievement,” said David Moskovitz, managing director of Accenture’s Public Service State & Local practice. “With upgrades to delivery and customer service in this next phase, even more New Yorkers will have access to the full range of government services and information.”

Background on NYC 3-1-1

First announced by Mayor Bloomberg in his 2002 State of the City Address, 311 consolidated more than 40 separate call centers and hotlines – encompassing 11 pages of government listings in the city phone book – into one easy-to-remember telephone number. Working closely with the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, Accenture created a system that has dramatically increased agency responsiveness while improving customer satisfaction with the delivery of city services. Launched in a mere seven months, on March 9, 2003, 311 has served as a clearinghouse for all things related to New York City government, routing the details of calls to the appropriate city agencies and providing callers with service request numbers they may use to track the status of their complaints. In doing so, 311 has helped to increase agency productivity and responsiveness while reducing frustration associated with the delivery of city services.

As the city’s phone number for all non-emergency government information and services, 311 operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and provides language translation services in nearly 180 languages. 311 can also be accessed from anywhere in the world by dialing +1 212 NEW-YORK (639-9675). Today, 311 handles approximately 40,000 calls daily, 95 percent of which are answered in 30 seconds or less. The call center has become a model for non-emergency numbers around the world. In addition to many cities throughout the United States, other countries such as Germany, Denmark, and the United Kingdom have all established innovative non-emergency service numbers based on the 311 model.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With approximately 170,000 people in 49 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$19.70 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2007. Its home page is www.accenture.com.