SAP And Accenture Team On Financial Services

IT services firm Accenture is teaming up with German enterprise software developer SAP to develop and deliver products and services for the financial-services industry.

Initially, sales and support teams from both companies will work together to sell existing Accenture and SAP offerings. The companies also plan to develop a range of new products.

Under terms the deal, SAP and Accenture will assign a total of about 800 staffers to development centers in the United States, Spain, and Germany to develop applications such as policy-administration software for insurers. The companies will use SAP's NetWeaver open development and integration platform to unify the development efforts across both organizations. Accenture will make some of the products developed under the arrangement available through its business-process outsourcing arm.

The deal makes Accenture SAP's largest software development partner for financial services.