Enhancing BPO Returns: Accenture Style

Last week, Accenture closed its acquisition of Advantium and Meridan Informed Purchasing to help differentiate its financial and procurement outsourcing offerings. According to the announcement, the acquired solutions enable users to "prevent, detect and recover 'lost profits' through analysis of procurement and payables data and processes." What's interesting to me about this deal is how that the acquired solutions will, in theory, allow Accenture to deliver greater BPO returns without relying simply on labor or category-based sourcing savings. In the highly competitive procurement BPO marketplace, it's capabilities like this which can give a provider a leg-up in winning large deals where generating additional year-over-year savings is not just expected -- it's required.

- Jason Busch