Accenture plc ( ACN - Snapshot Report ) recently clinched a management consulting contract with Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, for an undisclosed amount.

Per the contract, Accenture will provide the Ministry with technological and supervisory support to the food supply chain activities during natural calamities. In this regard, Accenture will offer its Supply Chain Management services to address every aspect, including business process management, product innovation and development, planning and strategy formulation, operations management and, most importantly, sourcing and procurement.

Accenture will look into areas where the supply chain failed to operate and vice versa in order to ensure proper and swift running of the system. This will let the outsourcing and consulting giant develop a strategy and guidelines for food suppliers to cooperate and serve the nation better in distress situations.

In a separate development, Accenture offered its Electronic Health Record (EHR) system to Madrid Heath Service. The financial details of this deal were also kept confidential. Accenture was working with Madrid Heath Service since 2002, to develop a comprehensive system for recording every possible data related to patients, and thereby improve the regional healthcare system.

The Madrid Electronic Health Record (termed HORUS) has now been fully implemented across Madrid’s healthcare system. The system will allow 26,000 clinicians to access patient record at any point of time.

Apart from this, Accenture also announced that it offered its Duck Creek insurance suite to Mountain States Insurance Group, for an undisclosed amount.

We are encouraged by the steady flow of new business and believe that the trend will continue given Accenture’s rich industrial experience. However, increasing competition from IBM Corp. ( IBM - Analyst Report ) , a strained spending environment and Accenture’s broad European exposure (roughly 40.0%) may tamper its growth prospects to some extent.

Currently, Accenture has a short-term Hold recommendation, denoted by the Zacks #3 Rank.