Accenture and The Hackett Group Support US Universities’ Drive to Lower Costs

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Accenture and The Hackett Group Supporting Universities’ Drive To Lower Costs and Boost Efficiency of Administrative Functions
Accenture and The Hackett Group has 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.”