Thomas Cook outsources to Accenture

Leisure travel specialist Thomas Cook Group has extended its outsourcing agreement with professional services company Accenture - a deal worth $400m over the next 10 years.

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The agreement, which supersedes an existing outsourcing contract signed in early 2002, will focus on the integration of MyTravel, which was acquired by Thomas Cook in June, to form the group with a combined 19 million customers and 33,000 employees.

It concentrates on accounting, application management, finance, human resources and infrastructure management services. Included in the deal is care of the travel group's SAP enterprise resource planning system. Accenture will deliver the services through a shared services centre in the UK, as well as additional resources from its "global delivery network".

In a statement, Kevin Campbell, Accenture's chief executive of outsourcing, said: "High performing companies like Thomas Cook have found they can be more strategic, streamline operations, reduce risk and improve overall business performance by outsourcing several business processes to a single provider."