BPO’s Philippine operations get British standards certification

Friday, May 16, 2008. Sun.Star Cebu

ACCENTURE delivery centers in the Philippines have been awarded the British Standards Institute (BSI) Management Systems ISO 27001 certification for information security.

The only international standard that provides a truly independent assessment of an organization’s information security, ISO 27001 aims to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information assets of an organization.

BSI has also recommended the certification as compliant with the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), covering Accenture’s health operations services in the Philippines.

HIPAA certification is a US law enacted in 1996 to protect healthcare customers’ privacy, integrity and availability of information such as health, demographic and other personal data, especially those containing electronic protected health information (ePHI). HIPAA compliance is mandatory for the healthcare industry, including its service providers, to protect participants and beneficiaries in group health plans.

Accenture is one of the first companies in the world to have complied with the information security management systems requirements of HIPAA. “These joint certifications reinforce Accenture’s commitment to safeguarding the protected information that our clients have entrusted us with,” said Mitch Gross, global delivery lead for Accenture’s Health Administration BPO (business process out-sourcing) Services business.

“We’re pleased to be the first delivery center in Accenture’s Global Delivery Network to be awarded (an) ISO 27001 and HIPAA Certification,” said Beth G. Lui, country managing director for Accenture in the Philippines. “Such recognition further strengthens Accenture’s industry leadership and helps validate the Philippine delivery centers as a preferred partner by our trusted clients as it helps provide a safe and secure information security environment.”

Accenture was recently named Philippines’ Business Process Outsourcing Employer of the Year at the Information and Communications Technology Awards 2008, following its 2007 win as BPO Company of the Year.

Accenture employs 178,000 people in 49 countries. (PR)

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