Andersen Consulting LLP selected for major financial systems contract by U.S. Commerce Department.

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 8, 1994--In an effort to streamline its financial management practices and reinvent some of its traditional administrative back-office functions, the U.S. Department of Commerce has awarded Andersen Consulting LLP a contract with an estimated value of $32 million to implement a Core Financial System (CFS) for the federal agency.

As the prime contractor, Andersen Consulting will design and build a deparment-wide, integrated financial management system. REL-TEK Systems & Design Inc., a major subcontractor based in Chicago, will supply the system's financial management application software. Additional subcontractors on Andersen Consulting's integrated team include Arthur Andersen, Digital Equipment Corp., IBM Corp., Oracle Corp., AT&T Systems, and Decision Systems Technologies Inc.

The Andersen Consulting team and the Commerce Department are partnering to transform how the department manages its money, including general ledger, budget execution, accounting, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and financial reporting. The agency currently uses eight accounting systems located in seven bureaus and the Office of the Secretary. This major contract award is part of the Commerce Administrative Management System (CAMS) project, the agency-wide initiative to improve administrative and financial operations. To that end, the department is rationalizing and modernizing its computer systems to better leverage technology.

The initial award to Andersen Consulting and its team is for $3.85 million, with an estimated value of $32 million over the next 10 years.

"This is another major building block as Andersen Consulting continues to grow its U.S. federal government practice by particularly focusing on solutions that help agencies transform their operations and their delivery of services to our citizens," said Stephen Smith, managing partner for Andersen Consulting's Federal Systems Group. "We are especially enthusiastic about this new partnership with the Commerce Department because we will be working together in ways that save taxpayers money and ultimately improve the quality of service delivered by the department to its citizen-clients."

The new CFS will support the Commerce Department's efforts to comply with the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, which requires each agency to "develop and maintain an integrated agency accounting and financial management system, including financial reporting and internal controls..."The major goals of the REL-TEK Systems-designed software would be to help meet the deparment's visions of:

- Enabling program and administrative managers to also function

as accountable fiscal managers

- Providing up-to-date, complete and reliable official financial

data to authorized personnel

- Supporting work and resource planning 

- Using modernized financial management as a means to help

streamline program and administrative operations

Andersen Consulting is an international management and technology consulting organization whose mission is to help its clients change to be more successful. The organization works with clients from a wide range of industries to integrate their people, processes, strategies and technologies. Andersen Consulting has more than 29,000 people in 150 offices and 46 countries. -0- Editor's note: Andersen Consulting is not a division of accounting organization Arthur Andersen.

CONTACT: Andersen Consulting

Daniel F. Collins, 312/507-6755