U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service
Office of Communications

NEWS RELEASE

MMS AWARDS CONTRACT FOR ROYALTY REENGINEERING

        The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service today awarded a $47 million, seven-year contract

to  Andersen Consulting to develop, install and operate an integrated financial system that will improve the Federal

government’s Royalty Management Program.

        "On behalf of the Department of the Interior and the Minerals Management Service, I am proud to announce a working partnership with Andersen Consulting that will modernize our automated information systems to support our reengineered Royalty Management Program for the 21^st century," said MMS Director Walt Rosenbusch at the signing ceremony.

        With the signing of this contract, MMS fully enters the implementation phase of its reengineering initiative, which was spurred by aging computer systems, changing energy markets, and the need to place its business enterprise on business cycles and processes that better align with industry and financial institutions.

        The RMP, which is charged with collecting, accounting for and distributing billions of dollars in revenues associated with minerals activity on Federal and American Indian lands, has been dependent upon systems that were developed in the early 1980's.

        "These are aging systems that would be unable to help RMP achieve its future business objectives," explained MMS Associate Director for Royalty Management Lucy Querques Denett. "Andersen Consulting will not only develop and install RMP’s new financial accounting system, but will also provide the technical foundation and support services on which the future system will be operated," added Denett.

        Andersen Consulting will employ a relational database management system as it integrates commercial, off-the-shelf products along with customized products to accommodate the needs of MMS’s future financial system.

        Additionally, Andersen Consulting will provide technical and integration support services to introduce a variety of technologies including data warehousing, workflow, document management, geographic information systems and online analytical processing tools.

        "The new business processes and technology support systems Anderson Consulting brings to MMS will have significant payoffs for our customers, including States, Indian Tribes and Allottees, the minerals industry and the American public," Rosenbusch concluded.

Andersen Consulting is multi-billion dollar, global management and technology consulting organization.

        MMS is the Federal agency that manages the Nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf, and collects, accounts for and last year disbursed about $6 billion in revenues from Federal offshore mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on Federal and American Indian lands.

-MMS-

MMS Internet website address: http://www.mms.gov
24 hour Fax-on-Demand Service:(202) 219-1703