SAS Group: Finance and Accounting BPO Arrangement

The SAS Group is the leading airline group in Northern Europe and one of the original members of the Star Alliance™, the world's largest global airline alliance. In 2008, the SAS Group transported more than 29 million passengers to more than 150 destinations.

The airline industry continues to face tremendous external pressures: a global credit crisis, fluctuating fuel prices and a widening field of competitors from new, low-cost providers, to name a few of the challenges. To boost its profitability in the face of these daunting marketplace conditions, the SAS Group created a new strategy named "Core SAS". Its aim: reduce costs and increase efficiency while focusing on areas that are core to the company’s competitive essence.

One important step in achieving the Core strategy’s goals includes outsourcing SAS’s finance and accounting services to Accenture. Through this outsourcing arrangement, SAS expects to save 60 million SEK (approximately US$8.5 million) annually.

Through its Core SAS program, the company set out to simplify its operating model and increase standardization, particularly in non-core support areas. SAS sought to leverage the benefits of outsourcing and wanted to team with a company with deep knowledge of both the airline industry and Finance and Accounting Business Process Outsourcing services.

Accenture was chosen based on our track record in delivering measurable, repeatable and predictable outsourcing services and deep knowledge of the transportation and travel industry.

• Full spectrum of Finance and Accounting services outsourced to Accenture including accounts payable, accounts receivable and head-office accounting record to report functions (specifically general ledger, fixed assets, month-end close activities and balance-sheet reconciliations.)

• Seven-year outsourcing arrangement, signed in August 2009, covers 14 countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

• Accenture Delivery Center in Delhi, India, lets Accenture mobilize the right people with the right skills and capabilities to deliver solutions for SAS cost-effectively and efficiently.

Here are some of the goals of the Finance and Accounting Business Process Outsourcing agreement:

• Aggressive annual savings target of 60 million SEK (approximately US$8.5 million) estimated for the new Finance and Accounting outsourcing deal.

• SAS to deliver customized services and solutions in less time than would be required to develop them independently by applying a systematic approach to creating and capturing proven, repeatable processes, methodologies, tools and architectures.

• Through its outsourcing arrangement with Accenture, the company is furthering its journey toward becoming a high-performance business.