Accenture builds Siebel system for South Africa

Accenture Ltd. has deployed enterprise systems software from San Mateo, Calif.-based Siebel Systems Inc. to help the South African Revenue Service streamline operations.

The South African Revenue Service is the tax and customs revenue collection arm of the South African government. Accenture of Hamilton, Bermuda, deployed the Siebel Public Sector Single View of the Taxpayer solution in order to integrate multiple taxpayer systems, streamline citizen service processes and provide staff with a comprehensive view of the taxpayer. The value of the contract was not disclosed.

The solution is part of the Siebel Universal Application Network that Accenture is using in South Africa. The purpose of the network is to allow the South African government to quickly deploy multiple customer-facing applications without integration headaches. The network includes various Siebel Business Integration Applications running on an IBM platform.

"Universal Application Network is providing millions of dollars a week in savings to the South African Revenue Service by releasing previously untapped value from the systems that we already have in place," said Ken Jarvis, chief information officer for the South African Revenue Service. "Moreover, by using packaged integration and citizen service applications, we have sped our time to deployment by months?enabling us to capitalize on these incredible savings faster than otherwise possible."

Prior to the new system, the South African Revenue Service had a series of disparate systems that prevented it from getting an accurate picture of its operations. This left open the possibility that the agency could lose tax revenues and customs dues because internal systems could not communicate effectively.

Accenture, IBM and Siebel integrated eight taxpayer systems with an existing deployment of Siebel Call Center. The initial deployment, a 200-user pilot trial, was completed in eight weeks; the subsequent rollout to more than 5,800 users nationwide was delivered in less than four months, according to Siebel officials.

"The benefits of business process integration are unambiguous," said Nimish Mehta, group vice president of Universal Application Network technologies at Siebel. "What is not clear for most organizations is how long integration will take, and how expensive will it be."

Mehta said the company's Business Integration Applications, deployed on a Universal Application Network, could reduce the time, cost and risk of implementing new solutions. In the case of the South African Revenue Service, Siebel estimated the new system paid for itself in less than two months, based on lower costs and on a better ability to collect taxes.