Accenture, Thomas Cook Extend Ties

Accenture plc recently announced that it will provide information innovation consulting and outsourcing services to the renowned travel operator Thomas Cook Group plc for 10 years. Per the deal terms, Accenture will offer its innovation and services to maintain and support Thomas Cook's entire innovation infrastructure throughout Europe. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Single operating network

Accenture will bring Thomas Cook's discrete European IT operations pursuant to this agreement a single operating network, through the development of flexible infrastructure. Apart from this, Accenture will provide support relating to service desk, data center, workspace, network and security services. The IT infrastructure will be built on cloud research to aid faster implementation of the entire system. Post implementation, Thomas Cook will be able to achieve significant savings by way of reducing the number of IT suppliers and making profits through improved customer services.

To make the gigantic system operational, Accenture will be partnering with networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. and Lufthansa Systems. Cisco will provide networking capabilities just as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), video, unified communications and collaboration. In return, Lufthansa Systems will provide virtualization, automation and cloud-based services in the form of an infrastructure-as-a-service.

We think that all these deals would drive Accenture's revenue in the upcoming quarter. Nevertheless we remain somewhat cautious on the effect of the strained spending environment and Accenture's broad European exposure.

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