Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) is a global management consulting, technology consulting and technology outsourcing company. Previously incorporated in Bermuda, since 1 September 2009 the company has been incorporated in Ireland with its global headquarters located in New York.[2] It is said to be the largest consulting firm in the world, as well as being a global player within the technology consulting industry.[3] Accenture is a Fortune Global 500 company.[4] As of 2010, the company had more than 200,000 employees in more than 200 locations in over 120 countries.[3][5] Accenture's current clients include 96 of the Fortune Global 100 and more than three quarters of the Fortune Global 500.
For the fiscal year ended 31 August 2010, the company generated net revenues of US$23.09 billion.
Formation and early years
Accenture originated as the business and technology consulting division of accounting firm Arthur Andersen. The division's origins are in a 1953 feasibility study for General Electric. GE asked Arthur Andersen to automate payroll processing and manufacturing at GE's Appliance Park facility near Louisville, Kentucky. Arthur Andersen recommended installation of a UNIVAC I computer and printer, which resulted in the first commercially owned computer installation in the United States in 1954. Joe Glickauf was Arthur Andersen's project leader responsible for the payroll processing automation project. Now considered to be the father of computer consulting, Glickauf headed Arthur Andersen's Administrative Services division for 12 years.
Splitting from Arthur Andersen
In 1989, that division split from Arthur Andersen and began using the name Andersen Consulting. Both Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting consisted of groups of locally-owned independent partnerships and other entities around the world, each in a contractual agreement with Andersen Worldwide Société Coopérative (AWSC), a Swiss administrative entity.
By 2000, Andersen Consulting had achieved net revenues exceeding US$9.5 billion and had more than 75,000 employees in 47 countries,[6] whereas Arthur Andersen had revenues of US$9.3 billion with over 85,000 employees worldwide in 2001.
Through the 1990s there was increasing tension between Andersen Consulting and Arthur Andersen. Andersen Consulting was upset that it was paying Arthur Andersen up to 15% of its profits each year (a condition of the 1989 split was that the more profitable unit - AA or AC - paid the other this sum), while at the same time Arthur Andersen was competing with Andersen Consulting through its own newly established business consulting service line called Arthur Andersen Business Consulting. This dispute came to a head in 1998 when Andersen Consulting claimed breach of contract against AWSC and Arthur Andersen. Andersen Consulting put the 15% transfer payment for that year and future years into escrow and issued a claim for breach of contract. In August 2000, as a result of a conclusion of the International Chamber of Commerce, Andersen Consulting broke all contractual ties with AWSC and Arthur Andersen. As part of the arbitration settlement, Andersen Consulting paid the sum held in escrow (then $1.2 billion) to Arthur Andersen, and was required to change its name, resulting in the entity being renamed Accenture.
Perhaps most telling about who had "won" the decision was that four hours after the arbitrator made his ruling, Arthur Andersen CEO Jim Wadia suddenly resigned. Industry analysts and business school professors alike viewed the event as a complete victory for Andersen Consulting.[7] Jim Wadia would provide insight on his resignation years later at a Harvard Business school case activity about the split. It turned out that the Arthur Andersen board passed a resolution saying he had to resign if he didn't get at least an incremental $4 billion (either through negotiation or via the arbitrator decision) for the consulting practice to split off; hence his quick resignation once the decision was announced.
Accounts vary on why the split occurred — executives on both sides of the split cite greed and arrogance on the part of the other side, and executives on the Andersen Consulting side maintained breach of contract when Arthur Andersen created a second consulting group, AABC (Arthur Andersen Business Consulting) which began to compete directly with Andersen Consulting in the marketplace. Many of the AABC firms were bought out by other consulting companies in 2002, most notably, Hitachi Consulting and KPMG Consulting, which later changed its name to BearingPoint.
Andersen Consulting's change of name proved to be fortunate as it avoided the taint when Arthur Andersen was effectively dissolved as a result of its role in the Enron scandal.
Emergence of Accenture
On January 1, 2001 Andersen Consulting adopted its current name, "Accenture". The word "Accenture" is supposedly derived from "Accent on the future". Although a marketing consultancy was tasked with finding a new name for the company, the name "Accenture" was submitted by Kim Petersen, a Danish employee from the company's Oslo, Norway office, as a result of an internal competition. Accenture felt that the name should represent its will to be a global consulting leader and high performer, and also intended that the name should not be offensive in any country in which Accenture operates.
IPO
On July 19, 2001, Accenture offered initial public offering (IPO) at the price of $14.50 per share in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE); Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley served as its lead underwriters. Accenture stock closed the day at $15.17, with the day's high at $15.25. On the first day of the IPO, Accenture raised nearly $1.7 billion.[8]
Place of incorporation change
Accenture announced on May 26, 2009 that its Board of Directors unanimously approved changing the company’s place of incorporation to Ireland from Bermuda and would become Accenture plc.[9]
The company cited several reasons for the change:
- Ireland's sophisticated, well-developed corporate, legal and regulatory environment
- Ireland's long history of international investment and long-established commercial relationships, trade agreements and tax treaties with European Union member states, the United States and other countries where Accenture does business
- Ireland's stable political and economic environment with the financial and legal infrastructure to meet Accenture's needs
The change was approved and became effective on September 1, 2009, the beginning of the company's 2010 fiscal year.
While Ireland is the company's headquarters for tax and legal purposes, much of the administration actually occurs in New York City and Chicago, two of its largest offices worldwide.
Former Bermuda incorporation
In October 2002, the Congressional General Accounting Office (GAO) identified Accenture as one of four publicly-traded federal contractors that were incorporated in a tax havencountry.[10] The other three, unlike Accenture, were incorporated in the United States before they re-incorporated in a tax haven country, thereby lowering their U.S. taxes. Still, critics[who?] have panned Accenture's incorporation in Bermuda, generally because they viewed Accenture as having been a U.S.-based company trying to avoid U.S. taxes.[11] The GAO itself did not characterize Accenture as having been a U.S.-based company; it stated that "prior to incorporating in Bermuda, Accenture was operating as a series of related partnerships and corporations under the control of its partners through the mechanism of contracts with a Swiss coordinating entity."
Organization
As most consulting firms, Accenture has a matrix structure, the first axis is dedicated to the 'operating groups' that is the industries of its clients and the second one deals with thegrowth platforms, i.e. the range of services that can be provided.
Operating groups[12]
- Communications and High Tech (C&HT): Aerospace and Defense, Communications, Electronics and High Tech, Media and Entertainment, Life Sciences, and Public Safety.
- Financial Services: Banking, Capital Markets, Insurance
- Products: Automotive, Building Materials, Consumer Goods and Services, Retail, Chemicals, Freight and Logistics, Travel, Infrastructure and Transportation, Industrial Equipment, and Airline.
- Resources: Energy, Forest Products, Utilities, Metals, and Mining.
- Government: Defense, Customs, Health, Health & Public Service, Border Management, Non Profit, Postal, Human Services, and Public Transportation
Growth platforms
- Management Consulting [13]
- Accenture Development Partnerships
- Business Process Management
- Customer Relationship Management
- Finance & Performance Management
- Process & Innovation Performance
- Risk Management
- Strategy
- Supply Chain Management
- Talent & Organization Performance
- Systems Integration and Technology [14]
- Technology Consulting
- Application Modernization & Optimization
- Infrastructure Consulting
- IT Strategy & Transformation
- Security
- Systems Integration Consulting
- Business Intelligence Services
- Custom Solutions
- Emerging Technology Architectures
- Functional Solutions
- Information Management Services
- Microsoft Solutions
- Open Sources Solutions
- Oracle Solutions
- SAP Solutions
- Service oriented Architecture
- Software as a Service
- Outsourcing Services [15]
- Services
- Application Outsourcing
- Infrastructure Outsourcing
- Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
- Bundled Outsourcing
- Delivery and Operational Excellence
- Cross-Industry BPO
- Customer Contact BPO
- Finance and Accounting BPO
- HR BPO
- Learning BPO
- Procurement BPO
- Supply Chain BPO
- Industry-Specific and Custom BPO
- Custom BPO
- Health Administration BPO
- Insurance BPO
- Navitaire (Airlines)
- Utilities BPO
Board of directors
Chief executive officers [16]:
- William D. Green (September 2004 - December 2010)
- Pierre Nanterme (January 2011 -...)
Subsidiaries
- Coritel BPM is the Spanish subsidiary of Accenture for software development and outsourcing. It was founded in 1984 and currently has 6,500 workers.
- Avanade began as a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture, but is now well over 80% owned by Accenture. It provides IT consulting services and solutions for the Microsoft software platform.
- Navitaire is a subsidiary of Accenture, providing specialized solutions to airlines.
- Accenture National Security Services is a subsidiary of Accenture that provides services directly to United States government in the national-security space. Its customers include the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and other agencies that focus on national defense and law enforcement. This Accenture subsidiary was specifically incorporated as a US subsidiary to meet a congressional mandate that defense contractors be based in the US.
- Accenture Defense Group is a subsidiary of Accenture, providing document management services, information technology software systems and business process improvement strategies. Clients are multinational governments, government suppliers of "WarFighter" goods and services, corporations, and also include transnational organisations such as the European Space Agency.[17][18]
- Accenture Technology Solutions is a subsidiary of Accenture, providing technology solutions to the client. The solutions work is mainly offshored to highly skilled low-wage developing countries like India, The Philippines and Romania - Accenture India Delivery Centre, Accenture Delivery Centers in the Philippines and Accenture Bucharest Delivery Center.
- Accenture SAP Solutions is a subsidiary of Accenture, providing SAP computer software to clients. It has taken Coritel BPM SAP resources and turned it into a new unit called: ASAPS.
- Digiplug is a subsidiary of Accenture, providing digital supply chain solutions to the entertainment industry. Based in France and founded in 1998, Digiplug supplies music and video manufacturing and delivery services to major music labels as well as wireless carriers and mobile terminal device manufacturers around the world.
- Accenture Mobility Operated Services is a subsidiary of Accenture, which helps enterprises develop and deploy new revenue-generating mobile applications.
- Accenture Interactive is a subsidiary of Accenture, which helps companies develop world-class digital marketing capabilities and optimize their marketing investments.
Visual identity
The typeface used in the Accenture wordmark is Rotis Semi-sans. The right-pointing caret character over the t is intended to indicate the company's orientation to the future. The character is similar to an accent mark in music. The corporate descriptor for Accenture is "High performance. Delivered.", which replaced the previous slogan "Innovation. Delivered." in 2004.
Until December 2009, Tiger Woods had been a celebrity spokesperson for the company, whose advertising used the service mark "Go on, be a Tiger" and the ancillary statement "We know what it takes to be a Tiger." The company terminated Tiger Woods' six-year sponsorship deal on 13 December 2009 and removed references to Woods from its website.[19][20]
