In an extension of their 20-year relationship, Accenture "will be BP's strategic service provider for its SAP development work" and will "provide BP with information technology application-development services," an Accenture press release says. A report yesterday in Global CIO, based on unclear information from an IBM spokesman, misstated Accenture's role as a BP partner.BPO Group CIO Dana Deasy said he has been "very pleased with the quality of Accenture's proposal and to have selected them as one of our strategic application development and application maintenance vendors. In awarding Accenture our SAP development work we look forward to taking advantage of their extensive SAP know-how and leveraging their deep understanding of the oil and gas Industry. This contract will help BP to accelerate the implementation of SAP across the organization, and lower our overall cost base."

And John Downie, senior executive with Accenture's Energy industry group, said, "We are delighted that BP has selected Accenture as its strategic service provider for SAP development work. Our relationship with BP spans more than 20 years; we look forward to helping BP to further leverage its IT investments, increase operational performance and gain efficiencies."

As reported yesterday, other key partners in BP's new strategic application-development and application-maintenance program are IBM, Wipro, Tata Consulting Services, and Infosys.