The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has awarded Accenture Federal Services a five-year, $13 million contract for major architectural improvements and redesign of its three public websites, online tools used most frequently by the public, and the agency's employee intranet.
Accenture's work will support ongoing initiatives at SEC to enhance its technology infrastructure. Work on SEC.gov will include visual redesign, content management, web search engine optimization, user analytics and site security.
"The SEC strategy has been to leverage its resources wisely to create the greatest operational efficiencies and reduce life cycle costs. The redesign and enhancements to SEC.gov and its other portals will create a more robust and integrated system that is safe and secure, yet flexible to support evolving content," said Ed Meehan, who leads Accenture's federal civilian agency portfolio.
The SEC is a regulatory agency charged with protecting investors and overseeing the U.S. financial securities markets, including securities exchanges, securities brokers and dealers, investment advisors and mutual funds. The agency's website provides information on decisions and rule interpretations that protect the interests of investors. The website collects thousands of tips, complaints and referrals on possible securities law violations. Improvements to the site will make it easier to use and better support 1.8 million daily visits.
Work under the contract includes improvements and upgrades to the SEC's Investor.gov, which helps investors conduct background checks on investment professionals and firms, understand key financial documents and learn to identify fraudulent offers. Improvements also will be made to the SEC's employee intranet - used by more than 3,800 internal users on the SEC network.
Accenture also will transform public access to the SEC's Electronic Data Gathering and Retrieval (EDGAR) system, creating a new search tool with advanced options to make it easier to find specific disclosure documents. Investors use EDGAR to search more than 21 million disclosure documents.
Combined, the SEC portals receive more than 35 million visits a day and average 450 million visits per month.
Accenture's federal business serves every cabinet-level department and 20 of the largest federal organizations. The U.S. federal portfolio spans across clients in civilian, defense, intelligence and public safety agencies.