Accenture

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Template:Infobox Company $15.5 billion (2005)|

 homepage       = www.accenture.com

}} Accenture (Template:Nyse) is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Its organizational structure includes divisions based on client industry types and employee workforces. Industry divisions, referred to as Operating Groups, include Products (e.g. consumer packaged goods or industrial equipment), Communications and High Technology, Financial Services (e.g. banking, insurance), Resources (e.g. utilities, chemicals, energy), and Government. Employee workforce divisions are consulting, services, enterprise, and solutions.

Accenture is incorporated in Hamilton, Bermuda. As of April 2006, the current chairman of the board of Accenture is Joe Forehand and the Chief Executive Officer is William D. Green.

1 History
2 Subsidiaries
3 Visual identity
4 External links

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History

Accenture originated as the consulting division of Arthur Andersen. Its origin goes back to 1952, when GE contacted Arthur Andersen in order to do a feasibility study about payroll processing and manufacturing automation using computers (GE had bought the first U.S. business computer for the Appliance Park manufacturing park, in Louisville). Joseph Glickauf was the Arthur Andersen's project leader for the GE engagement and was responsible for the payroll processing automation, launching the era of data processing. Considered to be the father of computer consulting, Glickauf headed the Arthur Andersen´s administrative services division for 12 years.

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.

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 newly established own business consulting service line. 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 over the sum held in escrow (then $1.2 billion) to Arthur Andersen. Andersen Consulting was required to change its name. Future scandals at Arthur Andersen showed this to be a prescient move.

On January 1, 2001, Andersen Consulting adopted its current name, Accenture. The word "Accenture" is derived from Accent on the future. Although a marketing consultancy was tasked with finding a new name for the company, the name "Accenture" was chosen by an employee from the Oslo office, as a result of an internal competition. Accenture says that the name should represent its will to be a global consulting leader and high performer. It also intends that the name should not be offensive in any country in which Accenture operates.

On July 19, 2001, Accenture offered initial public offering (IPO) at the price of $15.10 per share in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE); Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley served as its lead underwriters. Accenture stock closed the day at $17.15, with the day's low at $17.00 and the day's high at $17.25. In the first week of IPO, Accenture raised 1.7 billion dollars, 70% more than its original estimate.

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 haven country. [1] 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 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. 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."

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Subsidiaries

Coritel BPM [2] is the Spanish subsidiary of Accenture devoted to software development and outsourcing. It was founded in 1984 and currently has 6,500 workers.