...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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...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 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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...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 because...
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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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...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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...Staples Transforms Supply Chain Process to Maintain High Performance Client Background When the computer crashes as an entrepreneur is preparing for a crucial client meeting or the printer runs out of ink, business owners—big and small—know that they can count on Staples to head off a crisis, and keep their offices running smoothly. Staples invented the office supply superstore—and it was an entrepreneur who came up with the concept. In 1985, Tom Stemberg, a supermarket chain executive turned entrepreneur, struck upon the idea when his typewriter ribbon broke as he was preparing a business plan and he was unable to find a store that stocked the ribbon. That was when he realized that the business plan he should be pitching was for a supermarket for office supplies. This was in the early days of the personal computer revolution, and ten years before the dot-com boom, but Stemberg correctly foresaw the growth potential for a superstore that catered as much to the demands of a homebased business as Fortune®500 corporations. Two decades later, Staples is the world's largest office products company and number-one in sales and profits in the United States. Staples serves customers and businesses ranging from homebased businesses to Fortune®500 companies in 27 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The company operates more than 2,000 office superstores and also serves its customers through mail order catalog, e-commerce, and contract businesses...
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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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...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 as a cost center...
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...Starting with the End in Sight: Integrating Finance After a Merger 2 When two companies merge, integrating their Finance functions is a major imperative. Variations in financial standards and procedures can prevent the merged entity’s Finance function from effective daily operations, impacting both internal and external stakeholders. Integration of this key function is also time-sensitive: the entity’s leaders, not to mention investors, demand consolidated financial statements, earnings and projections as soon as possible. Additionally, a majority of the potential gains from a merger cannot be achieved without committed support from Finance. Many companies recognize this challenge and give substantial attention to financial integration soon after announcing the deal. However, this urgency creates its own problems. Under time pressure, finance professionals will feel rushed to combine disparate numbers and harmonize divergent processes. If they do not yet have a clear vision of the new company’s future state, they may implement manual temporary work-arounds, such as preparing manual reconciliations of customer accounts, that require incremental work effort, cost and risk to Finance. By focusing only on interim integration work and not considering the future state in parallel, many companies risk that the manual interim state will one day become the future state. Maintaining disparate and manually integrated systems limits opportunity for future standardization and cost...
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...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 they could start from the...
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...Finance and Performance Management Mastery and the High Performance Business At Accenture, we have always believed that a direct correlation exists between the sophistication of an organization’s finance and performance management capabilities and its overall performance. 2 Now, we’ve put that theory to the test. In a recent landmark study, Accenture examined the relationship between finance and high performance. The results show a tangible link and strong correlation between a high-performance business and mastery of a new finance competency set. The results also reveal that those companies that created the greatest value have embraced entirely new ways of thinking about finance and performance management. Achieving High Performance Accenture defines high-performance businesses as organizations that consistently outperform their peers over a sustained timeframe (typically 5 to 7 years) and across business cycles, industry disruptions and CEO leadership cycles. These companies deliver consistently upper-quartile total returns to shareholders. They create returns on invested capital significantly in excess of the cost of capital and drive profitable revenue growth faster than their industry peers. In short, they are lean, responsive to changing competitive fundamentals and consistently rank as market leaders. How do they do it? Accenture embarked on a major research program to identify the attributes and practices that distinguish high-performance businesses from...
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...Dear All, Accenture Technology Solutions has offered a Live Project at our campus. Accenture has been engaged by a Government organization to conduct a skill gap analysis for the Construction Sector in India. All further details regarding the project have been included in the attached document. You are expected form a team of 4-5 members and prepare a one page Synopsis outlining the overall approach that you propose to work on this project. The team formation should be as follows: • PGDM second year students can form a team within themselves or can involve students from PGDM first year also. • PGDM First year students are required to have at least two members from PGDM Second year in their teams, otherwise their team would be rejected. Accenture has provided a stringent deadline of today evening (6:00 pm, 26th August 2014) and there is no possibility to push it any further. However, this Live project requirement is the same that was floated some days back which was later called off, hence most of the teams must have already prepared the synopsis and the teams can reuse the same. Requirements: • All teams have to prepare a synopsis. The one page resume of all the members of the team should be appended at the end of synopsis in the same word file. • Name the Synopsis document as “Name1_Name2_Name3_Name4” etc. based on the number of team members. • Team details are to be filled in the attached excel sheet You are required to send me the synopsis along with...
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...CASO: La Transformación Estratégica de TI de Accenture 1. INTRODUCCIÓN Accenture es una compañía global de consultoría, servicios de tecnología y empresa de outsourcing, con más de 261.000 personas trabajando en más de 120 países. Combinando una gran experiencia y capacidades necesarias para su participación activa en todas las industrias y en diversas funciones de negocios, ha realizado extensas investigaciones en las empresas más exitosas del mundo. Accenture colabora con los clientes para ayudarles a convertirse en empresas de alto desempeño. La compañía generó ganancias de US$27.9 mil millones de dólares al finalizar el ejercicio al 31 de agosto 2012. En 2001 Accenture tomó la valiente decisión de separarse de su firma padre, Arthur Andersen. Esta nueva organización tendría un futuro brillante, pero también se debía enfrentar al reto de construir una nueva infraestructura de TI que puede apoyar una organización global con tecnología de vanguardia. El CIO de Accenture en ese momento, Frank Modruson, sucesor de Ed Schreck y la persona responsable de llevar adelante el desafío de la transformación de TI a partir de 2002, tenía planes ambiciosos para la nueva infraestructura tecnológica que consistía en sustituir los sistemas de legado de Arthur Andersen. Tuvieron que tomarse decisiones, si la empresa debería continuar con enfoque descentralizado en la gestión de plataformas tecnológicas, en el que cada país elige a sus propias plataformas y tiene autonomía para ejecutarlos...
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