...Case Study: Strategic IT Transformation at Accenture An introduction to Accenture • Accenture today is a multinational management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company. • Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland • World’s Largest IT Consulting firm by revenue • In 2014, reported net revenue of 30 billion • 305,000 employees world wide • Servicing clients in more than 200 cities and 56 countries History of Accenture • Started out as Andersen Consulting a division of the accounting firm Arthur Andersen. • In 2001 Andersen Consulting split away from its parent company and became Accenture. • To support its launch, Accenture had the right to use Andersen’s Technology infrastructure for one year. Problems with the Old IT Infrastructure • Andersen’s systems were composed of a patchwork of legacy applications that did not interconnect. • Key systems and Databases could not be accessed remotely through the internet. • Each Office had adopted their own accounting and HR Software systems, making it difficult to get a status of the whole Organization at any one time. Problems with the Old IT Infrastructure Changing the approach to IT • Accenture due to the split had a rare opportunity for an organization of its size; To build its IT infrastructure from Scratch. • Accenture had to change the conceptual approach to internal IT and its perception. • IT would be run as a business within a business rather than as a cost center as had been traditionally done. Changing the...
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.... The traits essential for a consulting organization – innovative, creative, dynamic, strategic. 2. On August 7, 200 Andersen Consulting has officially separated from Arthur Andersen. In return for its independence, Andersen Consulting had to change its name as the Andersen Consulting name was to expire December 31, 2000 the company had begun to search for a new name in advance of the arbitration decision. It was very complicated because the company had to quickly create a new name, effectively transfer equity of the old name to the new name, raise awareness of the new name globally, decisively eliminate confusion between itself and Arthur Andersen and reposition the firm in the marketplace to reflect its new vision and strategy 3. “Renamed. Redefined. Reborn. 01.01.01”; “Greater-than”; “Now it gets interesting”; “ Innovation, delivered”; ”High performance. Delivered” 4. Andersen Consulting has made a research focusing on five factor: 1 marketplace awareness was the measure of brand awareness in each of the major countries across brand attributes; 2 client satisfactions was used to measure Company’s performance with its global client base; 3 buyer values was the measure of the key values oft its global target audience to understand and stay ahead of market trends; 4 advertising copy testing was the pre and post testing measuring the effectiveness of all print, poster and television advertising concepts; 5 media monitoring was the measure of the number and type of...
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...Abstract: In 2001 Accenture made the very bold decision to separate from its parent company Arthur Andersen. The start-up company faced the same problem of building a new IT infrastructure but it has its bright potential ahead. The main dilemma is to be chosen in between 3 options: to keep using the decentralized approach in which each country chooses its own IT platforms and has autonomy to run them, to try with a mixed approach in which the same standard applications would run throughout the enterprise but would be managed independently by individual offices or to switch to a single firm approach and boldly shoot for a centralized implementation of its most critical systems with all its offices interconnected on the same instance of a software platform. Case Context: Accenture has annual revenue of $11 billion, 75000 employees and more than 50 offices available around the world. Furthermore it had the right to use Andersen’s technology for one year. The biggest challenge that Andersen’s system faced, is the interconnectivity of the legacy applications. In addition due to the obsolete software platforms the remote access and control over internet of the key systems and data bases is impossible. Moreover individual accounting and human resource software systems is applicable for different offices...
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...Case Accenture Accenture began in 1942 as Administrative Accounting Group, the consulting arm of accounting firm Arthur Andersen. In 1989, it launched as a separate business unit focused on IT consulting and bearing the name Andersen Consulting. At that time, though it was earning $1 billion annually, Andersen Consulting had low brand awareness among information technology consultancies and was commonly mistaken for its accounting corporate parent. To build its brand and separate itself from the accounting firm, Andersen Consulting launched the first large-scale advertising campaign in the professional services area. By the end of the decade, it was the world’s largest management and technology consulting organization. In 2000, following arbitration against its former parent, Andersen Consulting was granted its full independence from Arthur Andersen—but it had to relinquish the Andersen name. Andersen Consulting was given three months to find a name that was able to be trademarked in 47 countries, effective and inoffensive in over 200 languages, and acceptable to employees and clients—and that corresponded with an available URL. The effort that followed was one of the largest—and most successful—rebranding campaigns in corporate history. As luck would have it, the company’s new name came from a consultant at the company’s Oslo office, who submitted “Accenture” as part of an internal name-generation initiative dubbed “Brandstorming.” The consultant coined the Accenture name...
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...MIS Mini-cases -- 1 of 30 Cases for Use in Management Information Systems MIS Mini-cases -- 2 of 30 MIS Mini-cases -- 3 of 30 Case 01 -- Freeway Ford You are a management consultant working for Franklin Absolom, the majority stockholder for a group of 10 automobile dealerships. He has asked you to spend several days at Freeway Ford, a dealership that is not performing up to its potential. You are not to go ―looking for trouble‖: instead, your assignment is to find ways to help management at the dealership take advantage of opportunities. One day while you are talking with James Kahler, the sales manager for Freeway Ford, you realize that the dealership only uses transaction processing systems—it is not realizing the full potential of the information it has gathered for managerial decision making. For example, Freeway Ford knows the purchase date and owner of every car it sells, but it never contacts owner about routine maintenance. Freeway Ford know that people who purchase a new car generally trade it in for another new car 3 to 4 years later, but the dealership does not contact these previous customers. Another opportunity comes from used car purchasing and sales. Every car has a vehicle identification number (VIN), and the dealership uses this number to check for known problems with a used car before it makes a purchase. A data bank of car insurance claims histories and major repairs is kept on a set of CDs that is sent to the dealership each month. At the...
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...Case Write-up Case Write-up Tran, Dung | Vo, Duong “Lucy” | Walden, Giovanna | Wang, Yang | White, Cassi Noel | Kjeseth, Mitchell | Tran, Dung | Vo, Duong “Lucy” | Walden, Giovanna | Wang, Yang | White, Cassi Noel | Kjeseth, Mitchell | Overview Before becoming Accenture, Andersen Consulting was a new branch of Andersen Accounting in 1989. Andersen Consulting faced a difficult task of positioning itself in the information technology marketing while also forging an identity separate from its accounting heritage. The challenge was to retain the positive aspects of the brand equity and break away from the limitations associated with an accounting brand. Originally, Andersen Consulting did not offer innovative solutions, which caused it difficulty in establishing a presence in the technology world. With its expertise in marketing and communications, Andersen Consulting quickly set apart from its competitors like IBM or McKinsey. It used sophisticated marketing strategies and advertising campaign for its name position and image. Eventually, this led Andersen to become the world’s largest management and technology-consulting firm. After a while, Andersen Consulting decided to seek independence as a separate company from Arthur Andersen. It was granted its independence in 2000, but as part of the ruling granting its independence, the license to use the Andersen Consulting name was to expire December 31 2000. After spending $7 billion in building...
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...Charif Zahrane University Of San Francisco MSIS 625 Case Analysis Strategic IT Transformation at Accenture Presented to Dr. Helmut Buehler April 3th, 2013 Executive Summary Arthur Andersen accounting firm was founded in 1913 to help other businesses adapt to new FRS tax regulations. The firm quickly expanded globally and started offering financial consulting in addition to accounting audit. In late 80s Arthur Andersen was divided into two entities, Andersen and Andersen Consulting. High demand over the consulting branch of the company have brought attentions to separate from the mother firm and in 2001 an agreement have been reached to allow Andersen Consulting to become an independent company and Accenture journey begins. Accenture had the right to use Andersen IT systems for one year so a decision needed to be made within the organization to find a good exit strategy from Andersen IT. Problem (Issue) Statement Andersen was branched globally and had offices in all four corners of the world . Each office or branch had its own IT infrastructure and platform that did not interface with other branches . Remote access to databases was near impossible . Accenture inherited this mess of IT and the short period of time it was given the right to use Anderson's IT platform was a good opportunity to start thinking about building a new, state of the art IT infrastructure. The first major problem Accenture faced was attitude toward IT inheritance . Andersen used to view its IT...
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...Abstract: This case study is about the strategies which are being implemented by Accenture in order to allow for the transformation of information technology. Information technology leaders face a lot of challenges and in order to meet the challenges and high expectations of IT services and even with reducing cost and meeting the future needs of the business. This case study tells what approaches they have taken to define information architecture. They have faced the challenges of implementing the right information technology due to the increasing demand of IT and its ability to reduce the complexity. As information technology is complex and need a well-defined plan of staring up or execution, initially they had an option of going for a "best in breed" approach, or a combination i.e. “mixed approach”. When Andersen consulting separated from his parent firm Arthur Andersen, with this move came the challenging opportunity to design and implement information technology infrastructure. Complicating matters: · The Andersen technology was becoming outdated and would be of no use. It consisted of patchwork legacy systems, obsolete software platforms that could not be accessed through the internet and due to which they needed expensive private network to access them. · Over the time the offices developed their own individual accounting and HR software systems. This made it difficult to get up-to-date information quickly and at one time. · Since Accenture broke away from Andersen...
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...ACCENTURE CASE STUDY It’s 5:00 in the morning, time to rustle out of bed to catch your flight from Atlanta to San Francisco. You’ll be in the City by the Bay for the next four days, helping a major retailing client implement a new information technology system. Then you’ll fly back to Atlanta on Thursday, working from home on Friday. You’ll need to do it all again next week, and the week after that, and the week after that. That’s the schedule for Keyur Patel, a consultant at Accenture—the New York-based consulting firm that stands 97th among Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For.” Accenture’s 150 offices can be found in 53 different countries, on six different continents. Although Patel’s current assignment is stateside, he works virtually with team members in Manila and Bangalore. This sort of arrangement is typical at Accenture, with the firm’s 178,000 employees needing to be able to work from anywhere, depending upon the needs of their clients. Accenture hires 60,000 employees a year, many of them straight out of college. That may seem like a lot of new hires, given the company’s size. The key to understanding that number lies in the turnover rate for the consulting industry. On average, consulting firms lose 15–20 percent of their workforce each year. The career path for consultants is often summarized as “up or out,” with employees either being promoted after putting in some time or voluntarily turning over to pursue a job with less travel and more stable...
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...What could Accenture do to reduce the number of consultants who leave to work for client firms? Would those strategies have any unintended drawbacks? Accenture could reduce the number of consultants who leave to work for client firms in many strategies. First of all, they have to study the reasons beyond the leaving. In other words, they have to study what the employees need and what they are looking for emotionally and mentally and professionally. So, they guarantee the three aspects of organization commitment, which is combination of emotional and continuance and normative commitment. In this way, they are going to reduce the rate of withdraw in their company and increase the rate of commitment and loyalty. Second of all, employees are trying to quit this job because they hate the mobility in this kind of job and they prefer stable hours with stable location. They need to build their own family, so they would rather spend hours with their children than traveling hours by plane from place to place. Therefore, employers can establish a building for their company in every city in which they have business. Then, they have to hire people in the same cities that they live in. in this way, employees don’t have to travel far away to start their new jobs. The drawback of this approach is costing; it will cost the company a lot of money. Final approach for Accenture is to create contract between them and the employees, which states that they can’t join a new firm for a period of time...
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...responsible for creating Accenture’s own social networking tool that allows collaboration among the company’s workers worldwide. Aptly called Accenture People, it resembles popular social networking sites, much like Facebook, and allows employees to create their own profiles provide a glimpse of each employee’s role in Accenture, including technical expertise and the projects in which he or she was involved. For a global company with numerous business units like Accenture, the idea is to simply make everyone more familiar with each other’s background and then encourage knowledge sharing. In the Philippines alone, Accenture has around 15,000 workers doing management consulting, system integration, and BPO(business process outsourcing). In terms of size, the Philippines is behind only to the United States and India in Accenture’s global network. “One of the challenges for us is collaboration,” said Michael Duff, project manager for Accenture Philippines, who leads a six-person team that developed Accenture People. “Different teams within Accenture have been using tools before that allow people to share knowledge on projects. This time, we put everything into a single system,” added Duff, who has been with Accenture for more than eight years. 필리핀 IT전문가 팀은 전세계 회사 직원들간의 공동작업을 허용하는 Accenture사의 소셜 네트워킹 도구를 만드는 것에 대한 책임을 지고 있다. 그것은 “Accenture People”이라고 불린다. 이는 페이스북 같이 인기 있는 소셜 네트워킹 사이트와 유사하고 종업원들이 Accenture사에서 어떤 역할인지 볼 수 있는 그들의 프로필을 만들 수 있도록 허락한다. 이 정보는 기술적 전문지식과 그나 그녀가 어떤 프로젝트를...
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...Nycaps, told the New York Times, which broke the story in its Sept. 24 paper. He told the Times that he had repeated disputes with the primary contractor, the Accenture consulting firm, because he felt the company was billing for more workers than were necessary, at up to $383 per hour. But he said the Bloomberg administration would not get involved. “I did not get the sense that the Mayor‟s Office was paying attention,” he said. He said he eventually quit in frustration. Council to Hold Hearing Reacting to the Times report, the City Council promised Sept. 26 to hold a hearing on the project on Oct. 24. Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn said the hearing would also examine a bill by Councilwoman Letitia James to require the city to report projects that go over budget and explain why they did so. City Comptroller John C. Liu and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio joined in the criticism of the project. Some Council Members wondered why all this money was squandered on Nycaps when education and social programs were being cut. A key problem for the project was the Bloomberg administration‟s assignment of Accenture to not only install the system but also to determine parameters, Mr. Agarwal and other employees told the Times. That dual role is generally frowned upon because it leads to rising costs, and it did so here. Accenture was paid $8 million in 2004, $26 million in 2005, $29 million in 2006, and $53 million in...
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...Case 1 1. How does the Accenture People site help Accenture better serve its customers? By creating social networking site such as Accenture People site will definitely be very helpful for organization to provide efficient service. First, employees would able to access massive information on line in real-time matter to exchange information on work tasks and professional knowledge. Second, a world-wide company such as Accenture can use the site on speeding up their productivities on work procedures and decision making. Third, when there is a problem need to be solved, anyone who works in the company can get on the site and ask for immediate assistances. Above all, when employees use the Accenture’s site to gather correct information in effective way, consequently, they can satisfy their customers with efficient manner. 2. How successful do you think Accenture will be at getting its employees to create their profiles? Nowadays, because of well-developed technologies, organization can use this advantage to create this kind of networking site to cohere employees. Another advantage for Accenture, employees are supposed to have IT background, therefore, it would be easier for them to build up this Accenture’s site. 3. Can you see any drawbacks related to employees creating their own profiles? The major concern for creating personal profile in the organization is privacy. In my opinion, privacy should not be the issue at work place as long as the personal profile and information...
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...In December of 2001, a major powerhouse American energy, commodities and services company, Enron Corporation, filed for bankruptcy. This was not just an ordinary corporate bankruptcy; this was the largest corporate bankruptcy in the history of the United States (Gutman, 2002). Understanding the reason behind the bankruptcy filed by Enron, which employed over 20,000 people, is instrumental in understanding why major changes in the accounting industry have to come to pass. To understand why Enron filed for bankruptcy, one must first understand who was handling their company finances. That who was Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm convicted of obstruction of justice by destroying documentation relating to Enron’s finances. Although Arthur Andersen was auditing the accounts of the Enron Corporation, it was Enron’s own executives that lead to its downfall. At the time, there were certain securities in place to help protect investors and the public such as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS), Statements on Auditing Standards (SAS), and a few other things such as the business code of ethics. However, Enron executives found a way around this. Unfortunately for them, that way was illegal and led to the scam being known as the Enron Scandal. The top executives at Enron had been inflating their balance sheets by valuing assets at far greater values than their worth as well as hiding their liabilities. Not only did...
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...Arthur Andersen:- Arthur Andersen founded the company in 1913 but after his death Leonard Spacek took the leadership in 1947. Under his leadership of 26 years, Authur Andersen & Co. becomes a genuine international company. They had opened their offices in more than 25 countries with a staff of more than 12000. In 1970’s they started providing consulting services and by the 1988 they become the largest consulting company of the world. However in the mid 1980’s many cases were filed against the company on the ground that they failed to realize the financial weekness and the finding about the audited company. When real problem started: In 1988 Arthur Andersen Company earn around $29 million revenue from which $4 million earn by auditing work and $25 million earn by consulting work. Moreover on the same time a company went bankrupt which was audited by Arthur Andersen and for that they were fined by law. Consulting part of the company regularly increasing pressure to separate from auditing because they seems themselves more profitable and want to work independently. As a result the company was divided into two parts: Arthur Andersen & Company and Andersen Consulting. In the early 1990s Arthur Andersen was sued by Resolution Trust Corporation for the negligence in its auditing failure of Ben Franklin Saving & Trust. This leads to the loss of market value and number of clients of the company. After analysis a huge potential in consulting business, Arthur Andersen &...
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