ETIHAD Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), announced Sunday the signing of a collaboration agreement with Accenture to support the implementation of its business transformation program to improve productivity, efficiency and enable growth. As part of the multi-million dollar agreement, Accenture will provide strategy and management consulting services in the areas of human resources, finance, and procurement and supply management to streamline Etihad Airways' corporate processes and enable the development of best-in-class capabilities within those functions. To support this, Accenture will work with the airline's technology partner, SAP, to implement a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software solution. It will also set up and operate a new Testing Centre of Excellence for these solutions, which will be located in Abu Dhabi as part of Etihad Airways' existing operations. Accenture will work alongside Etihad Airways' staff to ensure knowledge transfer of best practices, and to develop Emirati talent and skills to further support Abu Dhabi's strategic growth plan. Etihad Airways' Chief Information and Technology Officer, Robert Webb, said: “To sustain Etihad Airways' current and future growth, we need to achieve operational and organizational efficiency by creating an integrated approach to business processes, underpinned by a scalable, common technology platform. “We believe that working with world-class business transformation and technology companies like Accenture and SAP will help us realize this goal and prepare our business for years to come with an increased focus on the guest.” Omar Boulos, Managing Director for Accenture Middle East, said, “This business transformation, built on the next-generation SAP® HANA platform, will elevate Etihad Airways to the next level. By developing a technology-driven business strategy, Etihad Airways will benefit from improved productivity, and simplified and more integrated core business processes that will give the airline greater flexibility across the organization.” In addition to Accenture and SAP, Etihad Airways will also join forces with PA Consulting Group and Grant Thornton to help transform its corporate functions. PA Consulting, a company specializing in management consulting, technology and innovation will develop the airline's shared services strategy, and organizational design and change management. Grant Thornton, one of the world's leading independent assurance, tax and advisory firms will implement global best practice tax functionality, including automation, and will work closely with Etihad Airways, Accenture and PA Consulting Group to provide overall program quality assurance. In October 2014, Etihad Airways chose SAP as its strategic technology partner to deploy a range of key SAP ERP software solutions as a central part of its overall business transformation program. These include SuccessFactors for talent management, Ariba for procurement and business-to-business collaboration, and the SAP HANA platform for business intelligence and analytics. — SG
