Accenture (NYSE:ACN) has signed an agreement with Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE:4503, "Astellas") to provide business process outsourcing (BPO) services for multiple business functions.

Under the agreement, these services will be delivered from Astellas' domestic facilities in Japan and from Accenture's Global Delivery Network center in Dalian, China. These services will be provided to Astellas' business units in Japan. Accenture's Global Delivery Network has more than 50 locations around the world. The transition and cutover of these services will begin in early 2014, and all services are scheduled to be launched in late 2014.

To build resilience in a dynamic business environment and meet their sustainable growth objectives, Astellas is focused on maximizing the value of new products, enhancing their ability to generate innovative drugs, and achieving operational excellence.

In addition to providing BPO services to further improve the company's operational excellence, Accenture contracted with Astellas in May of 2013 to provide IT outsourcing services to support the formation of a globally integrated IT operations systems as the company continued its global expansion. Together the technology and BPO capabilities will create an integrated business services support model intended to better support the future business direction.

Atsushi Egawa, Accenture Senior Managing Director of Products, Japan said, "We are very pleased that we will be able to assist in Astellas' future growth with this new BPO agreement. The BPO services provided by Accenture will help enable Astellas' operational improvement plans to be implemented objectively and quickly. We will continue to do our best to help Astellas in their journey of achieving operational excellence and create a positive impact on their strategic business agenda."

Learn more about Accenture's Life Sciences practice.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 275,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world's most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$28.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2013. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

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