Our rapid cost reduction solutions for health and public service are rooted in the valuable lessons Accenture has learned in the private sector. With our approach, we help clients tear down bureaucracy and achieve savings through methods that are proven, yet still new to the public sector community. We believe in our approach so much that for some clients we have provided our services through a gain-share agreement as opposed to a traditional contract—only making money when our clients do.
Accenture's rapid cost reduction approach is also unique in that it is the first step of a "Strategic Fiscal Management" transformation (which includes operating model and shared service implementation). Based on our insight and experience, Accenture can lead public sector clients through the entire transformative process, toward the goal of high performance.
Accenture's five-pronged rapid cost reduction approach adapts private sector best practices to meet the unique challenges of a public service environment. Services include:
- Span of Control: Using this "top-down" approach, we help public agencies identify opportunities for job reduction quickly with the least possible impact to operations. Our span-of-control services reduce costs, improve organizational efficiency, increase speed to decision making and improve line-of-sight by reducing management headcount to best practice levels. When combined with process streamlining, as described below, clients typically experience 10-20 percent in potential savings.
- Process Streamlining: We improve clients' end-to-end processes by reducing waste, variability and inflexibility in SG&A functions. This "bottom-up" approach complements the span-of-control approach, described above, by reducing the time and resources required for each process. When process streamlining is combined with span of control, clients generally reduce spend by 10-20 percent.
- Project Elimination and Deferral: We use a four-step process to prioritize project spend and defer or eliminate projects that are not critical. Clients usually identify 25-50 percent of scheduled projects for elimination.
- Rapid Procurement: Focusing on external spend, our rapid procurement service provides a standardized approach to partnering with top suppliers to negotiate improved rates or terms. Clients realize average savings of 5 percent, effective immediately.
- Supplier Payment Audit: We examine the profit recovery and loss prevention capabilities within the procure-to-pay process, identifying savings by recouping past and future duplicate or erroneous payments. Savings typically range from 0.1 to 0.5 percent of spend.