07 Jun 2015 09:30
Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), today announced the signing of a collaboration agreement with Accenture (NYSE: ACN) to support the implementation of its business transformation program to improve productivity, efficiency and enable growth.
As part of the multi-million
dollar agreement, Accenture will provide strategy and management consulting services in the areas of human
resources, finance, and procurement and supply management to streamline Etihad
Airways’ corporate processes and enable the development of best-in-class capabilities
within those functions.
To support this, Accenture will work with the airline’s technology
partner, SAP, to implement a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software solution.
It will also set up and operate a new Testing Centre of Excellence for these
solutions, which will be located in Abu Dhabi as part of Etihad Airways’
existing operations.
Accenture will work alongside Etihad Airways’ staff to ensure knowledge
transfer of best practices, and to develop Emirati talent and skills to further
support Abu Dhabi’s strategic growth plan.
Etihad Airways’ Chief Information and Technology Officer,
Robert Webb, said: “To sustain Etihad Airways’ current and future growth, we
need to achieve operational and organisational efficiency by creating an
integrated approach to business processes, underpinned by a scalable, common
technology platform.
“We believe that working with world-class business
transformation and technology companies like Accenture and SAP will help us
realise this goal and prepare our business for years to come with an increased
focus on the guest.”
Omar Boulos, Managing Director for Accenture Middle East, said, “This
business transformation, built on the next-generation SAP® HANA platform, will
elevate Etihad Airways to the next level. By developing a technology-driven
business strategy, Etihad Airways will benefit from improved productivity, and
simplified and more integrated core business processes that will give the airline greater flexibility
across the organisation.”
In addition to Accenture and SAP, Etihad Airways will also join forces
with PA Consulting Group and Grant Thornton to help transform its corporate
functions.
PA Consulting, a company specialising in management consulting,
technology and innovation will develop the airline’s shared services strategy, and
organisational design and change management.
Grant Thornton, one of the world’s leading independent assurance, tax and advisory firms will implement global best
practice tax functionality, including automation, and will work closely with
Etihad Airways, Accenture and PA Consulting Group to provide overall program
quality assurance.
In October 2014, Etihad Airways chose SAP as its
strategic technology partner to deploy a range of key SAP® ERP software solutions as a central part of its overall business transformation program. These include SuccessFactors
for talent management, Ariba for procurement and business-to-business
collaboration, and the SAP HANA® platform for
business intelligence and analytics.