Accenture wins $199M Calif. retirement system deal

Accenture Ltd. will modernize the technology backbone of California's public pension fund under a five-year contract, worth $199 million.

Terms of the contract call for Accenture of Hamilton, Bermuda, to transform the technology systems of the California Public Employees' Retirement System to meet the evolving needs of its participants.

Accenture will build a service-oriented architecture that will let the state move the system to a Web-based delivery approach. The upgrades will allow more accurate reporting and more efficient sharing of the information via the Internet.

A service-oriented architecture is a collection of services that communicate with each other within a distributed systems architecture.

By transforming the system, participants will get information and services more quickly and accurately, Accenture said. The system also will let employees focus on analytical work to support the pension system's core business, responding to the retirement needs of California's public servants, said Jens Egerland, Accenture senior executive responsible for the company's California government practice.

Accenture's teammates on the contract are Covansys Corp., Farmington Hills, Mich.; Sagitec Solutions LLC, Eagan, Minn.; and Amerit Consulting Inc., Lafayette, Calif.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System offers health and retirement benefits to more than 1.4 million public employees, retirees and their families. The system, which has more than $210 billion in assets, also supports more than 2,500 employers.

Accenture has roughly 140,000 employees and had net revenues of $16.6 billion in fiscal 2006. Accenture ranks No. 24 on Washington Technology's 2006 Top 100 list of the largest federal IT contractors.