Leading global management consulting firm, Accenture has signed a new 10-year, $550 million agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb for a range of finance and accounting and application development and maintenance services.

The “bundled” services agreement extends a four-year outsourcing agreement the two companies signed in 2004 for application maintenance and accounts payable services and expands the scope to include additional application maintenance services, application development services and global financial support services.

Accenture will provide these services to Bristol-Myers Squibb in the Americas, Asia, and EMEA regions in 22 languages through Accenture’s global delivery network.

The agreement provides dedicated global IT and financial support services to Bristol-Myers Squibb to help achieve operational cost savings and flexibility. The agreement is also designed to enable Bristol-Myers Squibb to more effectively manage its business, by providing a variable cost structure to address varying economic factors, such as patent lifecycles.

“This agreement gives us greater flexibility, thereby allowing the company to focus on what we do best – discover and develop medicines that will help patients prevail in their fight against serious disease,” said Paul von Autenried, vice president and CIO, Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Bob Easton, Accenture’s client account director for Bristol-Myers Squibb said, “Bristol-Myers Squibb has recognized that partnering with a single provider for multiple business functions allows improved business outcomes and significant cost efficiencies.”