Eversheds to become Accenture’s ‘apostle’

The arrangement is the result of a seven-year agreement, which will also see Eversheds outsource HR, administration, accounting and business processes over the next 12 months.

The vast majority of the work will be offshored to India, meaning that almost 100 roles are to go.

The firm has offered the staff concerned the option of staying on for a minimum of six months. “We don’t make savings in the first year, we’ll be spending money,” said managing ­partner Lee Ranson.

He said shipping out the procurement work allowed Accenture to “bring much greater purchasing power to the proposition” by bundling together deals for Eversheds with other major clients.

The deal is relatively small fry for Accenture, which is used to signing deals with the likes of BAE Systems and Shell. But Ranson argued that this does not necessarily mean that Eversheds had little negotiating power with the outsourcing provider.

“We’re the first in legal they’ve looked at. They want us to be an apostle because they want to grow in the legal sector,” he said.