DAYTON, Ohio –(Business Wire)– Sept. 28, 2005 — Accenture (NYSE: ACN) will provide NewPage Corporation with information technology and human resources services under separate multi-year outsourcing contracts the two companies signed recently. Financial terms of the contracts were not disclosed.
Under the information technology agreement, Accenture will have day-to-day operational responsibility for NewPage’s enterprise IT functions, including infrastructure operations and maintenance, application maintenance and systems integration. Accenture is teaming with (i)Structure, which will provide a portion of the infrastructure services. NewPage retains responsibility for IT project management, business analysis, mill systems, strategic technical architecture and information security functions.
Under the human resources agreement, Accenture will provide NewPage with payroll, benefits administration, health and welfare administration, contact center management and related IT services for the company’s more than 6,300 employees. The services will be provided through Accenture HR Services, an Accenture business that provides people-management services on an outsourced basis.
NewPage Corporation began operating as an independent company on May 2, 2005, when it acquired the Printing and Writing Papers Business of MeadWestvaco Corporation. The agreements with Accenture are designed to enable NewPage to rapidly achieve operational efficiencies and better manage costs following the acquisition.
“One of our first priorities and challenges was to make NewPage Corporation a stand-alone entity, and we view our relationship with Accenture as one of the strategic catalysts to achieving this goal,” said Peter H. Vogel, Jr., president and CEO of NewPage Corporation. “By outsourcing HR and IT services, we are creating a competitive advantage for NewPage, enabling us to focus our attention on market strategies and continually improving our core business processes.”
“Current structural changes in the paper industry are driving an increasing need for flexibility and competitiveness. This type of bundled information technology and business process outsourcing provides a flexible, cost-effective solution for companies to rapidly and dramatically improve non-core processes,” said Dave Abood, a senior executive in Accenture’s Forest Products industry group. “This relationship should enable the NewPage management team to focus even more on driving the core business.”
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With more than 115,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$13.67 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2004. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
About Accenture HR Services
Accenture HR Services, an Accenture business, provides people-management services to enterprises on an outsourced basis. Employing advanced technology and best-of-breed human resources practices, Accenture HR Services works in close collaboration with its clients to accommodate the unique needs and characteristics of their business operations and people. In this way, Accenture HR Services enables organizations to concentrate on optimizing their core business activities while reducing their cost and realizing the greatest possible value from all of their assets. Its home page is www.accenture.com/hrservices.
About NewPage Corporation
NewPage Corporation, headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, is a leading U.S. producer of coated papers in North America. With more than 6,300 employees, the company operates five integrated pulp and paper manufacturing mills located in Chillicothe, Ohio; Escanaba, Michigan; Luke, Maryland; Rumford, Maine; and Wickliffe, Kentucky. These mills have a combined annual capacity of approximately 2.5 million tons of coated and carbonless paper. For additional information, please visit the company’s Web site at www.newpagecorp.com.
NewPage Corporation to Outsource IT and HR to Accenture
