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Accenture

The document summarizes a group project for an operations management course on Accenture plc. It includes: 1) An overview of Accenture's corporate profile with facts about its founding, headquarters, locations, employees, revenue, and organizational structure. 2) The project team's plan to complete the first five stages of an operations and supply chain management process to recommend changes that improve Accenture's customer leadership competency. 3) A competitive landscape analysis and SWOT analysis of Accenture that identifies key external drivers, competitors, and strengths and weaknesses.

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Accenture

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Accenture: Extending CustomerService as the New Norm in OPSCM Strategic Design Final Group Project Assignment Operations Supply Management 300 Course Instructor: Dr. Richard Dawe Group Participants: Ms. Beiyi Zhang, Ms. Vivian Li, Ms. Mize Chaisukumarn, Mr. Art Kampmeier, Mr. Amitabh Srivastava, Mr. Chanchai Rukkhawattanakul, & Mr. Scott Green Thursday, December 29, 2011
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Table of Contents (General Outline) I. Corporate Profile: Facts and Figures II. Project’s Team Plan and Proposal Initiative III. Competitive Landscape and SWOT Analysis IV. Human Resources, Physical Facilities, Information Technology Infrastructure V. Accenture Best Practices: Selected Listing for Findings #1 through #5 VI. Consultancy Conclusion and Final Recommendations VII. References: VIII. Q & A:
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Corporate Profile: Facts and Figures (Accenture plc.)  Origination and Founding: Division of Arthur Andersen, 1953  Company’s Headquarters: Dublin, The Republic of Ireland  Geographical Locations: Americas, Asia-Pacific, [E]urope/[M]iddle [E]ast/[A]frica  Classification Description (NAICS): Global Management Consulting, Technology Services, and Outsourcing Company (561499)  Exchange Listing (s) and Trade Symbol: NYSE and constituent of S&P 500; Symbol: ACN  Total Number of Employees: Roughly 236,000 in 130 countries; 4,800 as senior corporate  Annual Revenue (YTD): $27.35 Billion  Current Enterprise Valuation: $28.72B  Global Regional Performance ($US-YE 2010): Americas - $9.5B; EMEA - $9.6B; Asia Pacific - $2.5
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Corporate Profile: Factsand Figures Continued… (Accenture plc.) Corporate Organization Chart William D. Green Executive Chairman Pierre Nanterme Chief Executive Officer Roxanne Taylor Pamela J. Craig Jo Deblaere Chief Leadership Jeffrey Osborne Jill B. Smart Chief Marketing & Shawn Collinson Chief Financial Chief Operating Officer Chief Performance Chief Human Resources Communications Chief Strategy Officer Officer Officer Adrain Lajtha Officer Officer Officer Sander van't Michael J. Salvino Stephen J. Rohleder Martin I. Cole Richard Lumb Gianfranco Casati Jean-Marc Ollagnier Noordende Group Chief Executive - Group Chief Executive - Group Chief Executive - Group Chief Executive - Group Chief Executive - Group Chief Executive - Group Chief Executive - Business Process Health & Public Communications, Financial Services Products Resources Management Outsourcing Services Media and Technology Consulting
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Project Team’s Planand Proposal Initiative: To complete the first five stages of the OCP in OM Exhibit 13A.2, to recommend changes in OPSCM strategy, design, tactics, and execution that will improve Accenture plc's support of its competitive strategy of customer leadership that requires a minimum OPSCM competency of level III. Corporate Worldwide Regional Location Corporate Global Delivery Network Chart and Client Portfolio Map and Alliance Portfolio
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The Competitive Landscapeand SWOT Analysis Key External Drivers: Competitive Environment Major Competitors:  Corporate profit  Internal Competition  Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu  Business outsourcing  External Competition  McKinsey  External competition  Marsh & McLennan  Government consumption  Boston Consulting Group and investment  Bain and Company  Number of businesses SWOT - Professor Yang, 2004. San Francisco State SWOT - DataMonitor June 30, 2011 University. Operation Management
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Human Resources, PhysicalFacilities, and IT Infrastructure Design Human Resources Physical Facilities Technology Network Lease Commitments:  Rental  Sub-Lease/Rentals Size and Floor Plan: Four Primary Cross-Functional  Mostly large office space; Single Key Drivers of Core Business: Groups: rooms/offices for smaller areas  World-class R & D  Managing Partners  Standard oval-shape configuration modules; managerial staff enclosed  Comprehensive global  Senior Project Consultants by sales & operations delivery network  Sales & Administration Locations and Logistics:  Innovation Centers  Analysts  Global network largely urban and  Integrated Collaborative HR Best Practices: highly collaborative Partnership Alliance Network  Employee Internal Hire  Three types of facilities  Strategic Logistical Data Center Network  Employee Internal Contract Hire  Boundary Spanning and  On-Site Training Facilities of Shared Borderless Assimilation Core Competencies
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Accenture Best Practices:Selected Listing for Findings #1 through #5 Human Resource: Facts and Figures:  Main hubs: Chicago, US & London, UK  Many consulting contracts less than 12 months duration w/termination notice as little as 30 days  Full competitive 1st-year compensatory packages - undergraduate and graduate: High-end mid to upper management, range $75,000- $200,000  Knowledge Xchange and eSchedule Technology: Facts and Figures: Physical Facilities: Facts and Figures:  2,718 patents pending; Currently issued 600 US  R&D facility spent $503, $384, and $435M for 2011, 2010, and 2009, respectively patents and 524 non-US patents  Value of fixed capital assets (property and  50 global centers; 141,000 network specialists equipment) increased in 2011 from a year ago from $569,000,000 to $659,000,000  Accenture Delivery Suite  Rental expense in 2011 at $493,734,000  Third-party sub-lease income rose to $32,503,000 from $30,741,000
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Accenture Best Practices:Selected Listing for Findings #1 through #5 Supply Chain Inventory Processes: Supplies, Work-in-Process, Finished Goods/Services  Inventory products are managed by skilled analyst & consultants  Business is contract-driven; less than 1 yr. Roadmap Design Flow  Cross-functional team-oriented supply chain  Contracts in excess of $100M supported by specialized sales team  Contracts and direct/indirect managed by senior managing partners and project managers from supply requisition to customer delivery  CRM, SRM, and marketing strategies at the back and front ends of SC controlled by project manager and managing partner (sales staff)
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Consultancy Conclusion andFinal Recommendations Explanation Gaps and SWOT  Internal operations accessibility  2 of 5 areas evaluated failed to meet limited Competency Level III  External source analysis  External SWOT Analysis used Design Structure – Human Resource Design Structure – Physical  Human resource capital is  No production facilities company’s strongest asset  Standard office-oriented  Proper organization chart alignment to maximize OPSCM  Consolidation and expansion initiatives should be aggressive Operating Tactics – Performance  Areas of concern: Knowledge Measurement, Evaluation, & productivity and employee turnover Improvement Programs Design Structure - Facility  Primary focus on identifying Operating Tactics – Best systemic trends and Practices  Leading edge of technology weaknesses innovation  Fine’s Strategic Value  Current operations performing at Assessment Model  Utility/Cloud computing OPSCM Competency Level III  No clear-cut weaknesses  Full IT network integration companywide  OPSCM Competency Level III
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References D.F, Chen. (2010,May26). Exclusively interview Accenture. Retrieved from enet website: www.enet.com.cn/cio/ J.F,Gao.(2011,August 26). Nine criteria for management consulting. Retrieved from cqn website: http://www.cqn.com.cn/news/zgpp/461170.html "Groundswell: Accenture's Borderless Workplace." Forrester Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/managing/accenture_borderless Accenture, Plc (1994, Fall). Accenture Global Delivery Network: A Focus in India Retrieved October 24, 2011from http://www.accenture.com/us-en/search/Pages/ Emerald Insight.com (2011). Emerald: Research You Can Use Retrieved October 24, 2011from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1598020&show=html Interviewed: Abhishek Srivastava, ESQ. (10/01/2011; 10/15/2011; 10/31/2011; 11/05/2011; 11/12/2011) Accenture Alumni (2001 – 2009); London, UK. www.Accenture.com (accessed 11/18/2011; Accenture – UK; Accenture - India) Patrick C. Fedric, Managing Partner Financial Services (1997 – present; Accenture Germany, Accenture, UK; and Accenture San Francisco, USA). Datamonitor (2011 June 30). Accenture plc: Company profile. . New York, NY: Datamonitor. pp. 1-12 Employeesbenefit. (2008 July). Case study: Accenture. USA. p.9 Jacobs, F. R. & Chase, R.B. (2011). Operation and supply chain management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin pp. 449
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Q&A Thank you!

Editor's Notes

#4 Accenture plc: Overview and DescriptionBackgroundAccenture is a global management consulting company specializing in technology and outsourcing services. The key that services lies in, “collaboration in experience, comprehensive capabilities, combining industries and business functions; extensive research on cutting edge fortune 100 global 100 companies. Accenture model is used both through businesses and governments alike!” Accenture has offices, and operations are in 200 cities in 54 countries. Accenture currently maintained revenues of $25.55 B; and Accenture’s NYSE ticker is “CAN”, while, Accenture is a member of S&P 500, Russell 1000, & Fortune Global 500 firms. Accenture has 4800 senior corporate employees, employs approximately 236,000 altogether across 130 countries. International Offices (as of 2011)Andorra1Argentina2Belgium5Bolivia1Austria2Bermuda5Chile1Botswana2Ireland5Colombia1Greece2Japan5Ecuador1Philippines2Malaysia5Egypt1Poland2Mauritius5Hungary1Korea (South)2South Africa5India1Turkey2Australia6Indonesia1Brazil3China (Peoples Rep. Of)6Israel1Czech Republic3Luxembourg6Kenya1Hong Kong3France8Morocco1Norway3Italy8New Zealand1Portugal3Switzerland9Nigeria1Singapore3Canada10Romania1Slovakia3Spain10Russia1Denmark4Germany11Taiwan1Finland4Netherlands20Ukraine1Mexico4United Kingdom25Venezuela1Sweden4United States26Thailand4Source: MergentOverviewThe geographic regions covered through Accenture products have included: Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe/Middle East/ Africa (EMEA), and headquartered in Dublin; Ireland. Operating income is $ 3.47 B, net income of $ 2.55 B, Total assets of 15.731 B, and total equity of $ 3.878 B. On incorporation of Accenture (19 July, 2001) issues IPO @ $14.50 per share, generated approximately, $1.7 B, high @ $15.25, and closed @ $15.17. Accenture has a current P/E Ratio of 17.1, price to sales ratio of 1.49, price to book value 10.37, and price to CF ration of 13.30. The company has a “Zero” debt/equity ratio, a Leverage ratio of 4.1, and a BV/Share of 5.62.
#6 Operation Supply Chain ManagementAccenture plc. offers consulting, technology, and outsourcing services in communications, electronics, high technology, media, and entertainment industries worldwide. Services include customer relationship management, finance and performance management, talent and organization performance, supply chain management, technology consulting, and business process outsourcing services.
#7 Competitive Strategy As outlined in the original proposal, Accenture is pursuing a competitive strategy of service leadership. This service leadership is pursued by Accenture’s sheer size and global reach, as well as its wide variety of offerings. Luefschuetz (2010) describes Accenture as a “one-stop shop” and also states that this strategy as “While Accenture does have robust management consulting capabilities, it is not recognized in the same vein as the pure-play corporate strategy and operations management providers such as McKinsey, Bain, BCG, or Booz… Accenture may not have the brand awareness of the high-end strategy firms for delivering pure corporate strategy services, it brings a compelling value proposition to bear when articulating its full-lifecycle delivery capabilities.”As illustrated by the graph, we found evidence that two of the five areas evaluated did not meet Competency Level III. These gaps will be further explained later in this report. In determining these gaps and some of our recommendations, we also took into consideration external SWOT analysis conducted by third parties.
#8 Human Resource Management Processes:Description: Accenture in London, UK has: 100 Managing partners, 200 senior project consultants/ managers, 200 project consultants, 400 analysts. Accenture specializes in execution of client strategies, pre-determined, and proactively executable through service leadership. Accenture also maintains several offices across UK, and Europe. The London, UK office is located:Accenture – London, UK senior partners are responsible for maintaining company accounts, doing direct/ and indirect client sales. Client sales support is provided over $100 Million dollars. Recommendation: Set up branches in the central region of China such as Wuhan, and Xian will increase the market share of Accenture in China and maximize human resource output capacity.For the offices in the US, Accenture should review the relationships between their operating groups and determine if they are “practicing what they preach” and fully collaborating with each other. If they are indeed fully collaborating, the company may want to consider updating their organization charts to reflect “full channel integration” between departments and customer: Exhaust companywide cross-functioning utility. In matters concerning we also think that it is imperative to modify Best Practices that better 1) reflects the incorporation within the (human resource design) infrastructure an integral and integrative strategic design instead of one that is modular and is structured more traditionally in architecture, 2) to make teams through individual cross-functional teams, 3) increase employee retention, thus decreasing turnover ratios, and 4) improve quality of life companywide through incentive programs that encourages aggressive initiatives for the promotion of a balance between personal and professional.Information Technology Management Processes: Description: The software applications, hardware systems and components, and various other IT tools, devices and processes in Accenture’s IT infrastructural and global network is mostly proprietary and therefore are not available for full disclosure to outside sources. Our team’s access to these limited resources compound the difficulty of providing a thorough assessment analysis of both Accenture’s internal and external global IT architecture network capabilities and regional physical design planning and structure as they are merge together seamlessly to run efficiently and effectively manage day-to-day business activities. In addition to amalgamation of the optimal utility of advanced planning in the physical layout and configuration of office space, since Accenture is a service provider instead of your typical manufacturer of products, human resource capital is critical to the execution and performance of business process, or business process outsourcing (BPO), from a technical standpoint. Attracting talent who specialize in technology and possess those highly-advanced skills to run core business operations built not exclusively but largely on the backbone of complex and sophisticated computer software and applications, hardware, and mobile devices to facilitate customer transactions is of utmost importance and calls for a substantial part of the organization’s workforce to be certified and highly competent. Recommendation: We recommend that Accenture continue its development of proprietary intellectual property generated by its R & D department for internal and external IT purposes, but with emphasis on much more open-source collaboration - shared collaboration - with its many partners and other extended enterprises. Its IT infrastructure solidly rests on OSCM Level III, but it could easily be accelerated to Level IV stage if the company proposes new third-third initiatives that will incorporate utility computing or some a similar computing application. In addition, our recommendation for Best Practices for Accenture is to 1) incorporate within the (IT design) infrastructure an integral and integrative strategy instead of one that is modular and is structured more traditionally in architecture, 2) make teams through individual cross-functional teams, and 3) drive collaborative network expansion and connectivity through innovation and renewal of Strategic Value Assessment (SVA).
#9 Finding No. 1 – Stabilize the company’s knowledge productivity 3.1 Description As a consulting company, Accenture’s product is based on the knowledge of employees and company’s innovations. Unlike information, knowledge is less tangible and depends on employee cognition and awareness. Knowledge is some combination of context sensing, personal memory and cognitive processes. Measuring the knowledge asset means putting a value on people, both as individuals and more importantly on their collective capability, and other factors such as the embedded intelligence in an Accenture’s computer systems. Accenture is volume/efficiency-focused, and has experienced an enormous increase in its number of employees since 2001. As a direct result, this has reduced its knowledge productivity. Accenture’s strategy is based on hiring more employees annually to produce increasingly more Turn Over in return. From TREFIS, Accenture’s business analysis showed that in management consulting area. Accenture had 17 employees available in a particular division for handling projects but can be utilize for 84% and had highest bill rate per hour that mean people or knowledge is a valuable asset to Accenture.Therefore, our team had analysis Accenture Human Resource competency with gap and SWOT to be Competency Level II. Accenture plc is a classic management system in management consulting, where: apart from orientation, Accenture organizational learning takes place at the end-term, feedback occurs at the end –term project to building –up Accenture organization knowledge and company-wide management cycle. The collaboration between knowledge creating and productivity in company are effective i.e. training new-joiner, continuous learning program, knowledge exchange and learning between college, and so on. Nevertheless, Accenture can stabilize knowledge productivity by archiving human resource Competency Level III. 3.2Recommendation First, Accenture can get into leveraging knowledge, looking at adding value through its development. To do that they have to move into new areas of knowledge networking and knowledge utilities - people enriching the knowledge asset through collaborative work. Second, Accenture can conduct an Information Audit (Knowledge Inventory). Identify current knowledge and information resources (or entities), their users, usage and importance. Identify sources, cost and value. Classify information and knowledge by its key attributes. Develop knowledge maps. As knowledge management gains prominence, this is sometimes called a knowledge inventory "knowing what you know". Third, Accenture plc should concern about how to reduce employee turnover rate to keep knowledge asset with the company by: Hiring the right people from the start, most experts agree, is the single best way to reduce employee turnover. Interview candidates carefully, not just to ensure they have the right skills but also that they fit well with the company culture, managers and co-workers.Setting the right compensation and benefits is important too. Work with human resources to get current data on industry pay packages, and get creative when necessary with benefits, flexible work schedules and bonus structures.Review compensation and benefits packages at least annually. Pay attention to trends in the marketplace.Pay attention to employees’ personal needs and offer more flexibility.Bolster employees’ engagement. Employees need social interaction and a rewarding work environment. They need respect and recognition from managers, and a challenging position with room to learn and move up.Managers often overlook how important a positive work environment is for staffers, and how far meaningful recognition and praise from managers can go to achieve that. Awards, recognition and praise might just be the single most cost-effective way to maintain a happy, productive work force.Simple emails of praise at the completion of a project, monthly memos outlining achievements of your team to the wider division, and peer-recognition programs are all ways to inject some positive feedback into a workforce. Also, consider reporting accomplishments up the chain. A thank you note to the employee is good. Copying higher-ups makes that note even more effective.To make it easier to identify accomplishments, ask the team for weekly or monthly updates of their achievements. Ask for specific numbers, examples or emails of praise from co-workers or customers.Outline challenging, clear career paths. Employees want to know where they could be headed and how they can get there. Annual reviews or midyear check-ins are one obvious venue for these discussion. 3.3Justification Our team evaluates Accenture’s human resource strategy from information in Accenture’s website and news from internet by gap and SWOT analysis. As a service based company, Accenture’s management consultant offered their customer with varieties of management solutions from trained consultants. Accenture focus on employee training and continuing learning process are effectively and highly successful. However, to containing and leveraging customers satisfaction our team recommended that Accenture should categorize, manage, measure, and expand the knowledge to achieve Competency Level III. 3.4Implementation In the short term, Accenture should review and manage their knowledge inventory, manage the knowledge that they possess and investigate and explore new areas. And also review their human resource policies, company culture, and employee turnover rate. Investigated the reason why employees leave the company, which department are the highest, and when it occurred the most. In the long term, Accenture should implement the knowledge map to explore and obtain the clearer picture of what their have and where their can achieve. Followed by, analyze which area is worth for internal training or hiring (i.e. market trend, customer request). And how to expand the area which service is not essential by collaborative outsourcing with their current partner or new candidate. Also, Accenture should revise Human resource policies to suited company culture and employee needs. 4.0 Finding No. 2 – Promote Cross-functional, Interdependent Relationships 4.1 Description Accenture plc, a global giant is a successful company in western part of global operations. Accenture plc has had several challenged in the past few years. Some of these challenges have been due to economic downturn in global economy, reallocation of revenue resources to sustain global operations, and relocation of strategic “flagships” due to changing market conditions. One area where Accenture has had challenges is “harvesting” IT consulting in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries. Accenture is ranked as Level II in cross-functional Innovation & Level II in interdependency relationships. Accenture plc has used a “sustainable” model that has given it a global hallmark. However, Accenture has failed to innovate this model to meet new markets or interdependency relationships in those countries. According to Team #2’s research on Accenture plc, it is an important reason what Accenture plc has not done better in Global markets. 4.2 RecommendationOn a global level, Accenture needs to use intellectual capital within regional clusters to build collaboration in global operations, rather follow a bureaucratic process. Conservative methods would protect Accenture but not validate Accenture as a first mover advantage in consultancy with BRIC countries (Patrick, 2011). As exhibited above, People Process Improvements (PPP) would be first initiated as a value added policy to existing Accenture plc policies. It would be done in three stages, at all company level: the PPP would first teach core competencies based on new finding through a pilot study in BRIC countries. First step, train all corporate employees, secondly – transfer those skills through DNA replication to non-corporate jobs, and thirdly – evaluate the outcome through (BSC) balance scorecards (Toru, 2002).4.3 Justification A key element of knowledge based communities is to facilitate “open Innovation” through common shared goals in conversance. Accenture plc currently has two separate schools that teach the same modules rather than integrate these modules through integral integration. A study done at NRI 2006 validates knowledge based communities on the use of open innovation (NRI No.115, 2007). Teams can only become cross-functional once expectations are met through similar ways in intellectual capital, performance & measurement, and current stage of GDP.4.4 Implementation This is an internal reform, which will add value to external environment, and help to make the company a first tier mover. Therefore, to sustain this type of program would require a pilot program for two consecutive years (2011 – 2013). Information would be gauged/ and policies developed from (2013 – 2014), initially training corporate managers (2014-2015), and effective from January 2018. Through using this aspect of Accenture plc, value will be added to consultant Inventory, and bottom line profit through effective training. OPSCM Level III requires a collaboration that will be met through lateral and horizontal integration. 5.0 Finding No. 3 – Introduce mining and refining processes to Accenture 5.1 Description Data mining is the practice of automatically searching large stores of data to discover patterns and trends that go beyond simple analysis. Data mining uses sophisticated mathematical algorithms to segment the data and evaluate the probability of future events. Data mining is also known as Knowledge Discovery in Data (KDD).The key properties of data mining are automatic discovery of patterns, prediction of likely outcomes, creation of actionable information, and a focus on large data sets and databases. Data mining can answer questions that cannot be addressed through simple query and reporting techniques. Next step to data mining is data refining, which is a process that refines disparate data within a common context to increase the awareness and understanding of the data, remove data variability and redundancy, and develop an integrated data resource. It is the process of data optimizing. Data refining is very important, it makes sure that the data stored in a database during the requirements analysis are not redundant and integrity relationship is maintained. In this aspect, data is refined by making sure that all relationships between entities and corresponding attributes are secure and accurate. 5.2Recommendation Do not wait to get started. Market and technology change frequently, take action faster than competitors to avoid losing key customers. Review organization's strategic plan and business plan, defining measures that can drive improvement, and building measures that really fit the problem. Data mining can help get things back on track.Comprehensive and more accurate analysis can improve data mining results. Successful data mining requires three families of analytical capabilities: reporting, classification and forecasting.Deployment is the key to data mining ROI. Deployment simply means getting the information, in a usable format, to the place where it is needed. 5.3Justification Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 236,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. It provides marketing solutions to customers. As a result, knowledge based data information is vital to the company. For example, Saipem, which is one of the world’s leading oil and gas engineering and construction contractors, has awarded Accenture (NYSE: ACN) a contract to deliver a data management solution to support Saipem’s onshore projects around the world. Accenture will design and deliver a customized data management system to help plan, monitor and manage the entire lifecycle of engineering and construction projects in up to 35 countries. The Accenture Engineering, Project and Data Management (EPDM) solution will integrate engineering data, such as design quantities, and project management data, such as scheduling information, enabling Saipem to estimate construction work volumes and requirements, remotely plan on site activities, and track physical progress. As can be seen, a great deal of data information is essential to Accenture. This knowledge based data could come from staffs’ working experience and problem solving solutions, in addition, data mining is another way to collect valuable data for the company, which helps improve performance and achieve goals. Data mining enables a company to go beyond reporting and OLAP (online analytical processing) to learn not only what happened in operations, but also why things happened. The data we have is often vast, and noisy, meaning that it is imprecise and the data structure is complex. This is where a purely statistical technique would not succeed, so data mining is a solution. 5.4Implementation Like many businesses, Accenture have invested in some combination of enterprise resource planning (ERP), data warehouse and reporting software. However, these investments were important but lacked leverage for three key reasons: They primarily replaced and updated existing ways of getting things done - which means their value was only a marginal improvement in productivity.Because so many organizations implemented them in more or less the same time period, they didn't offer a competitive advantage.Because they only deal with past events, they cannot effectively predict changes or outcomes. It would seem that Accenture should invest in data mining, though it seems to be a risky investment. However, when look a little closer, the risk is not great. In fact, it is probably much more risky not to take the plunge into data mining. Today, data mining can make the difference in every industry and organization throughout the world. Through data mining, Accenture could use the results to determine not only what customers want, but also predict what they will do.Findings No. 4: Explore and investigate new possible innovative strategies Description (summarize the highlights in the observations and analysis) Accenture Plc., a global management consulting company, has very high revenue; however, its profit margin is quite low when compared with top consulting companies such as Deloitte Consulting LLP, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), and HP Enterprise Services, LLC. At the end of year 2010, for example, Accenture’s profit margin is about 8% whereas IBM’s profit margin is nearly 15% (Yahoo finance.)The low profit margin implies that Accenture might have a wrong business plan. In other words, Accenture Plc.’s supply chain strategy does not match with its competitive strategy. The answer is yes in some countries and no in other countries, according to OP300 team# 2’s research. Although we assume that Accenture has a correct matching between its supply chain strategy and its competitive strategy, it does not mean that Accenture Plc. can increase its profit margin. Accenture Plc. has to find its profit zone and how Accenture to increase its Economic Value Added (EVA). The first possible reason that Accenture Plc. loses its profit zone is its customers change. Most Accenture Plc.’s clients are companies involving Information Technology. Information Technology typically changes very fast. Thus, Accenture Plc. is likely to get low profit if they cannot find new profit zone, or new potential customers. Moreover, when Accenture Plc.’s old clients expand their business in oversea countries such as India and China, Accenture Plc. has to open its business in oversea countries as well. Unfortunately, international countries have different regulations that it is possible that Accenture Plc. cannot adapt its business with the new business environment.The second possible reason that Accenture Plc. has low profit margin is Accenture Plc. still has level II competency. This is because Accenture Plc. has limited abilities to share resources such as IT systems and people among all offices in 53 countries Accenture Plc. is preparing to launch private cloud computing in the next couple years. The private cloud computing is possible to save the costs of capital and to increase Accenture’s consultant capacities in some countries. However, Accenture Plc. does not report how to secure its information and knowledge when it uses the private cloud computing in developing countries.OP300 team#2 uses a SWOT analysis and a Gap analysis as tools for finding possible solutions for Accenture Plc. Now, Accenture has level II competency, and the following recommendation help Accenture Plc. to level III competency. Recommendation First, Accenture offices in each countries should review its business plans to ensure that its supply chain strategies matching with its competitive strategies.Second, a private cloud computing is possible to save Accenture’s costs of capital by reducing its fixed assets of information infrastructure. The private cloud computing also increase sits revenues and reduces costs. Accenture offices in 53 countries sharing IT platforms and databases can increase their abilities to offer various types of consultant services. Accenture’s consultant services are more standardized.Third, Accenture Plc. should concern about the security of sharing information via cloud computing among offices in different countries.Fourth, a joint venture is a business strategy that Accenture Plc. can save the cost of its network resource (people, technology, and process). A joint venture is appropriate when Accenture Plc. runs its business in foreign countries. Moreover, a joint venture with different industries is a strategy to increase its competitiveness. For example, Accenture Inc. has joined its business with Microsoft Company since April 4, 2000. Then, Accenture Plc. gives its new business named Avanade. Avanade is a global IT consulting company that specialized itself in solving using Microsoft enterprise technology. Fifth, Accenture Plc. should rotate its employees continuously in order to avoid the problems from high employee turnover rate. Justification When used gap analysis finding the difference between current performance and possible performance, OP300 team#2 finds that Accenture Plc. has the following gap. First, OP300 team#2 evaluate Accenture’s supply chain strategy from information in Accenture’s website and news from internet how Accenture Plc. treats its clients. Accenture Plc. seems to use highly responsiveness as its supply chain strategy in every office in 53 countries. Each country has different market competitive strategies. Standardized supply chain strategy may not work, so Accenture Plc. should change its supply chain strategy for matching with competitive strategy in different market of each country. Second, Accenture Plc. has a little share real time information between offices in different countries, although Accenture Plc. has trained its employees working in different countries with the same materials and it has teleconference meetings regularly. In other words, Accenture’s IT network design is insufficient for supporting sharing real time information. If Accenture Plc. has private cloud computing, the companies can use share real time information and can use analysts with cheap price in developing countries. Third, Accenture Plc. has a high rate of employee turnover. However, no information shows that Accenture Plc. rotates employees continuously. OP300 team#2 concerns this point because it is the problem of human resource. However, it is possible that Accenture Plc. has rotated its employees, but the company does not publics its internal management, so OP300 team#2 does not know the real information. In our research, small offices in some countries such as Thailand, the rotated employee program might not work because the limited number of employees.Fourth, Accenture’s offices in some countries such as China and the United States shows that Accenture Plc. has collaborate with its suppliers and its client continuously. However, Accenture offices in other countries such as Thailand have very low collaboration and coordination with suppliers, but they still have collaborated with its clients who are international businesses. Implementation In the short term, Accenture should do as the following. First, Accenture Plc. should review its business plan to ensure that its competitive strategy matches with its supply chain strategy. Then, they should prepare to set its new business plan. Second, Accenture Plc. should set security policies before setting private cloud computing. Third, Accenture should rotate its employees continuously to avoid problems from high employee turnover rate.In the long term, Accenture should do as the following. First, Accenture Plc. should change its business plan and redesign its operating tactics and execution managements. Second. Accenture should implement its private cloud computing for sharing information, insourcing, and outsourcing. Third, Accenture should joint business with potential companies in different industries. Fourth, Accenture should concern long-term collaboration with suppliers and clients.Findings No. 5: Create new alliances and innovation centers Description: Accenture plc.’s existing global supply chain and supply channel network is enormously broad and expansive. With over 150 current partners alliances in the industry providing various management consultation services in 200 cities in 53 country, there is never a dull moment to exploit this rich body of expert knowledge in intellectual property and human resource capital to further expand Accenture’s business in geographical regions less inviting, more daunting as a major barrier to entry due to cultural and religious norms, unfavorable political climates that are not salient towards global free market enterprise, and local economic conditions such as inadequate tax and fiscal infrastructure and the absence of anti-trust legislation to protect foreign multinational companies’ rights to appropriate fair trade locally. These among other factors are some basis fundamental issues for which Accenture has had to consider in their strategic planning initiatives for the establishment of new partner alliances and during overall decision-making processes to determine how to coordinate these new partnerships in Accenture’ global delivery network and innovation centers network, as well.Accenture’s US global delivery hubs are located in the cities of Tampa, Pittsburgh, Wilmington, Murray Hill, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Houston, San Antonio, and Pendleton. These data/delivery centers are part of 50 global centers around the globe, operated by 141,000 network specialists. Moreover, in order for Accenture to decrease lead-time for new innovative design business solutions product roll-out internationally, the company has logistically placed three major R & D global regional hubs – North America, Europe, and Asia - in the cities of Murray Hill, Maryland, Rome, Italy, and Bangalore, India.Recommendation: Because Accenture strong partner alliances is composed of some of the more notable Fortune 500 IT and similarly-related companies in the world today who, due to a strong and continual presence in not only developed nations but also in lesser developed and emerging ones as well, it is imperative that Accenture maintains a symbiotic relationship with its partners to help increase brand-name recognition and market share worldwide and to use one another as a hedge against unstable economies in both host and neighboring countries, who may honor similar regional customs that will have a significant impact on business activities, and as a leverage to gain entrance in untapped markets where any number of the company’s portfolio of member alliances already hold a market presence. It is largely inherent in the core business philosophy many firms in the IT industry, because of the immense collaborative nature of the business, to operate its supply chain operations and supply channels as an OPSCM Level III competency. Although the company is designated as an OPSCM competitive advantage service provider which is more associated with OPSCM level II process activities, Accenture’s global delivery network is an OPSCM Level III competency design model, because of its unique brand of technology tools and applications that are deployed throughout a sophisticated and complex web of advanced technology interfaces with other corporations who specializes in the field. Therefore, we recommend that Accenture continue to use the “piggyback-style” strategy on the efforts of its partners to help Accenture sidestep various landmines that are commonly associated with freshman firms attempting to gain entry into new territory. The power of Accenture’s new alliances is the key to opening the door to new business and retaining good health in its relationship with existing partners, strategic positioning with new alliances through mutual global planning initiatives for market entry and expansion, built solidly on fiduciary allegiance and camaraderie, open source planning, and shared capital resource planning.In regards to its innovation centers, this is an area in need of great improvement and both future tactical and strategic expansion missions should be top priority. To capture potential future sales in newer markets, we recommend that Accenture increase its innovation centers facility global network to mitigate delays in delivery times of newly created solutions tools and applications (see chart to left for a sample of system tools and apps) within its expanding delivery network system and to make integration and network compatibility among its partners transition smoother. Justification: As in every case with all businesses, the number one priority is to ensure that the company is healthy enough to generate enough revenue to pay off short-term, or current, liabilities, pay down long-term debt obligations and long-term liabilities, and to have enough NOPAT and FCF to make any number of capital investments for long-run growth. Therefore is essentially critical to Accenture’s value chain processes to ensure that new partner alliances are assimilated into Accenture’s business process and supply chain operations in targeted logistical regional points to take advantage of opportunities in less developed and emerging regions and positioned itself for building future business rapport and establishing a functional module precedent as a first-mover in neighboring closed societies. The information highway is allowing many firms such as Accenture to use technology to transcend borders and this is one of the company’s strongest assets and advantages that will help the organization catapult over some cultural hurdles that may impede on further growth. Once local communities experience the positive impact from the infusion of new jobs, personal income, and improved quality of life, it will be very difficult for certain governing bodies to refuse this economic opportunity created by Accenture and its portfolio of partners. The best example of Accenture impact from a logistical standpoint can be seen in the country of India where growth has accelerated and has become a fixture of its economy and community at large. The evidence of such growth is somewhat shown in the regional sales bar chart below, illustrating how well the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa region which includes India has outperformed marginally or significantly more than the other two macro regions, Americas and Asia Pacific. Hence, it becomes obviously apparent that there is great potential in the Asia Pacific along with further growth in remote areas not represented by the figures in this chart. Moreover, even the healthier regions’ output can be improved as advancement in technology such as aggregate planning systems, enterprise resource planning systems, and other similar resource planning systems will enhance suppliers, distributors, and clients mobility and process capabilities, whether it pertains to supplier relationship management, distribution relationship management, or customer relationship management. Currently, Accenture has 2,718 patents pending and has issued 600 US patents and 524 non-US patents through its R & D program. In addition, R & D facility spent $503M, $384, and $435 for 2011, 2010, and 2009, respectively. Value of fixed capital assets (property and equipment0 increased in 2011 from a year ago from $569,000,000 to $659,000,000. Rental expense totaled $493,734,000 in 2011, a slight increase, while third-party sub-lease rose to $32,503,000 from $30,741,000, which was also slightly increased. These and other figures not included here reflect the ongoing investment activities of the firm which indicates a continual commitment and willingness by decision makers for the furtherance of expansion projects in a global context. As more and more countries become early or late adopters of technological innovation, Accenture must be ready to seize these opportunities and can easily do so by maintaining transparent, shared collaboration with its existing partners and by extending this relationship to future ones, as well, especially if those alliances are already embedded in the targeted region. Implementation: The implementation phase of increasing new global partner alliances and innovation centers that are a part of Accenture’s global delivery network for short- and long-term planning initiative can be achieve in a three-stage process. Step 1: Develop and establish a cross-functional exploratory committee composed of members from Accenture and its alliances who are operating business activities in targeted countries or regions to execute and perform a feasibility and economic impact study analysis which includes barriers to entry factors such as cultural and political norms and resistance, fiscal and economic policy for both the host area and its surrounding territories, and logistical hedges or safe-havens in open societies close by targeted area as an exit strategy during unforeseen events that may disrupt supply chain operations or threaten viability and vitality of business operations. These series of activities should precede any approved investment activities in the selected regions. Step 2: As part of an exploratory committee initiative, implement pre-emptive measures to better assess and gauge many of the factors addressed in step no. 1 in the form of lobbyists and other special groups, smaller and less intrusive in size, who are skilled in assimilating well within the culture that will provide first-hand evaluation of strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities that will be included in final assessment of the targeted region. Internal information obtained through this type of activity may be a way the make proper observations of any subtle nuances in the business climate of the targeted region that disadvantageous for future expansion efforts. Transportations modes, city grids, Internet accessibility and correlating privacy issues, IT infrastructure, both landline and mobile utility, expected fixed expenditure and payment cycles, local environmental impact concerns stemming from possible longer working office hours, which is a major quality of life and employee morale issue with Accenture currently, and merger and acquisitions standard protocol and procedure, if any, to position the company to build a stronger local alliance and presence in the local region. Step 3: The final implementation step to gain new alliances and increase innovation centers will involve mostly the latter. Once it has satisfactorily proven that new alliances have been established in expansion projects or logistically placed in the vicinity, then it would be in the best of interest of Accenture to consider cautiously expanding its innovative center network to regional areas for which due diligence has been executed extensively and recorded and the a valid track record of a long-term and strong presence by one of the company’s alliances has demonstrated profitability and sustainability over periods of time. If an alliance (s) presence has met these among other criteria, then Accenture’s decision makers can commence and comfortably move to “go-through” phase to begin capital expenditure towards innovation centers expansion efforts. Since the Asia Pacific region generates the lowest amount in revenue and has the fewest number of OPSCM Level III capability-configured offices, with some regions being juxtaposition in close proximity to bordering close societies, it may not be prudent to commit a substantial increase in capital resources for the purpose of acquiring new alliances in these regions or even build innovation centers until those regional markets are better disposed to welcome open collaboration in free enterprise. Intellectual property and other key capital assets could be subjugated to compromise, which may also ignite political and business friction and conflicts of interest.
#10 Finding No. 1 – Stabilize the company’s knowledge productivity 3.1 Description As a consulting company, Accenture’s product is based on the knowledge of employees and company’s innovations. Unlike information, knowledge is less tangible and depends on employee cognition and awareness. Knowledge is some combination of context sensing, personal memory and cognitive processes. Measuring the knowledge asset means putting a value on people, both as individuals and more importantly on their collective capability, and other factors such as the embedded intelligence in an Accenture’s computer systems. Accenture is volume/efficiency-focused, and has experienced an enormous increase in its number of employees since 2001. As a direct result, this has reduced its knowledge productivity. Accenture’s strategy is based on hiring more employees annually to produce increasingly more Turn Over in return. From TREFIS, Accenture’s business analysis showed that in management consulting area. Accenture had 17 employees available in a particular division for handling projects but can be utilize for 84% and had highest bill rate per hour that mean people or knowledge is a valuable asset to Accenture.Therefore, our team had analysis Accenture Human Resource competency with gap and SWOT to be Competency Level II. Accenture plc is a classic management system in management consulting, where: apart from orientation, Accenture organizational learning takes place at the end-term, feedback occurs at the end –term project to building –up Accenture organization knowledge and company-wide management cycle. The collaboration between knowledge creating and productivity in company are effective i.e. training new-joiner, continuous learning program, knowledge exchange and learning between college, and so on. Nevertheless, Accenture can stabilize knowledge productivity by archiving human resource Competency Level III. 3.2Recommendation First, Accenture can get into leveraging knowledge, looking at adding value through its development. To do that they have to move into new areas of knowledge networking and knowledge utilities - people enriching the knowledge asset through collaborative work. Second, Accenture can conduct an Information Audit (Knowledge Inventory). Identify current knowledge and information resources (or entities), their users, usage and importance. Identify sources, cost and value. Classify information and knowledge by its key attributes. Develop knowledge maps. As knowledge management gains prominence, this is sometimes called a knowledge inventory "knowing what you know". Third, Accenture plc should concern about how to reduce employee turnover rate to keep knowledge asset with the company by: Hiring the right people from the start, most experts agree, is the single best way to reduce employee turnover. Interview candidates carefully, not just to ensure they have the right skills but also that they fit well with the company culture, managers and co-workers.Setting the right compensation and benefits is important too. Work with human resources to get current data on industry pay packages, and get creative when necessary with benefits, flexible work schedules and bonus structures.Review compensation and benefits packages at least annually. Pay attention to trends in the marketplace.Pay attention to employees’ personal needs and offer more flexibility.Bolster employees’ engagement. Employees need social interaction and a rewarding work environment. They need respect and recognition from managers, and a challenging position with room to learn and move up.Managers often overlook how important a positive work environment is for staffers, and how far meaningful recognition and praise from managers can go to achieve that. Awards, recognition and praise might just be the single most cost-effective way to maintain a happy, productive work force.Simple emails of praise at the completion of a project, monthly memos outlining achievements of your team to the wider division, and peer-recognition programs are all ways to inject some positive feedback into a workforce. Also, consider reporting accomplishments up the chain. A thank you note to the employee is good. Copying higher-ups makes that note even more effective.To make it easier to identify accomplishments, ask the team for weekly or monthly updates of their achievements. Ask for specific numbers, examples or emails of praise from co-workers or customers.Outline challenging, clear career paths. Employees want to know where they could be headed and how they can get there. Annual reviews or midyear check-ins are one obvious venue for these discussion. 3.3Justification Our team evaluates Accenture’s human resource strategy from information in Accenture’s website and news from internet by gap and SWOT analysis. As a service based company, Accenture’s management consultant offered their customer with varieties of management solutions from trained consultants. Accenture focus on employee training and continuing learning process are effectively and highly successful. However, to containing and leveraging customers satisfaction our team recommended that Accenture should categorize, manage, measure, and expand the knowledge to achieve Competency Level III. 3.4Implementation In the short term, Accenture should review and manage their knowledge inventory, manage the knowledge that they possess and investigate and explore new areas. And also review their human resource policies, company culture, and employee turnover rate. Investigated the reason why employees leave the company, which department are the highest, and when it occurred the most. In the long term, Accenture should implement the knowledge map to explore and obtain the clearer picture of what their have and where their can achieve. Followed by, analyze which area is worth for internal training or hiring (i.e. market trend, customer request). And how to expand the area which service is not essential by collaborative outsourcing with their current partner or new candidate. Also, Accenture should revise Human resource policies to suited company culture and employee needs. 4.0 Finding No. 2 – Promote Cross-functional, Interdependent Relationships 4.1 Description Accenture plc, a global giant is a successful company in western part of global operations. Accenture plc has had several challenged in the past few years. Some of these challenges have been due to economic downturn in global economy, reallocation of revenue resources to sustain global operations, and relocation of strategic “flagships” due to changing market conditions. One area where Accenture has had challenges is “harvesting” IT consulting in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries. Accenture is ranked as Level II in cross-functional Innovation & Level II in interdependency relationships. Accenture plc has used a “sustainable” model that has given it a global hallmark. However, Accenture has failed to innovate this model to meet new markets or interdependency relationships in those countries. According to Team #2’s research on Accenture plc, it is an important reason what Accenture plc has not done better in Global markets. 4.2 RecommendationOn a global level, Accenture needs to use intellectual capital within regional clusters to build collaboration in global operations, rather follow a bureaucratic process. Conservative methods would protect Accenture but not validate Accenture as a first mover advantage in consultancy with BRIC countries (Patrick, 2011). As exhibited above, People Process Improvements (PPP) would be first initiated as a value added policy to existing Accenture plc policies. It would be done in three stages, at all company level: the PPP would first teach core competencies based on new finding through a pilot study in BRIC countries. First step, train all corporate employees, secondly – transfer those skills through DNA replication to non-corporate jobs, and thirdly – evaluate the outcome through (BSC) balance scorecards (Toru, 2002).4.3 Justification A key element of knowledge based communities is to facilitate “open Innovation” through common shared goals in conversance. Accenture plc currently has two separate schools that teach the same modules rather than integrate these modules through integral integration. A study done at NRI 2006 validates knowledge based communities on the use of open innovation (NRI No.115, 2007). Teams can only become cross-functional once expectations are met through similar ways in intellectual capital, performance & measurement, and current stage of GDP.4.4 Implementation This is an internal reform, which will add value to external environment, and help to make the company a first tier mover. Therefore, to sustain this type of program would require a pilot program for two consecutive years (2011 – 2013). Information would be gauged/ and policies developed from (2013 – 2014), initially training corporate managers (2014-2015), and effective from January 2018. Through using this aspect of Accenture plc, value will be added to consultant Inventory, and bottom line profit through effective training. OPSCM Level III requires a collaboration that will be met through lateral and horizontal integration. 5.0 Finding No. 3 – Introduce mining and refining processes to Accenture 5.1 Description Data mining is the practice of automatically searching large stores of data to discover patterns and trends that go beyond simple analysis. Data mining uses sophisticated mathematical algorithms to segment the data and evaluate the probability of future events. Data mining is also known as Knowledge Discovery in Data (KDD).The key properties of data mining are automatic discovery of patterns, prediction of likely outcomes, creation of actionable information, and a focus on large data sets and databases. Data mining can answer questions that cannot be addressed through simple query and reporting techniques. Next step to data mining is data refining, which is a process that refines disparate data within a common context to increase the awareness and understanding of the data, remove data variability and redundancy, and develop an integrated data resource. It is the process of data optimizing. Data refining is very important, it makes sure that the data stored in a database during the requirements analysis are not redundant and integrity relationship is maintained. In this aspect, data is refined by making sure that all relationships between entities and corresponding attributes are secure and accurate. 5.2Recommendation Do not wait to get started. Market and technology change frequently, take action faster than competitors to avoid losing key customers. Review organization's strategic plan and business plan, defining measures that can drive improvement, and building measures that really fit the problem. Data mining can help get things back on track.Comprehensive and more accurate analysis can improve data mining results. Successful data mining requires three families of analytical capabilities: reporting, classification and forecasting.Deployment is the key to data mining ROI. Deployment simply means getting the information, in a usable format, to the place where it is needed. 5.3Justification Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 236,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. It provides marketing solutions to customers. As a result, knowledge based data information is vital to the company. For example, Saipem, which is one of the world’s leading oil and gas engineering and construction contractors, has awarded Accenture (NYSE: ACN) a contract to deliver a data management solution to support Saipem’s onshore projects around the world. Accenture will design and deliver a customized data management system to help plan, monitor and manage the entire lifecycle of engineering and construction projects in up to 35 countries. The Accenture Engineering, Project and Data Management (EPDM) solution will integrate engineering data, such as design quantities, and project management data, such as scheduling information, enabling Saipem to estimate construction work volumes and requirements, remotely plan on site activities, and track physical progress. As can be seen, a great deal of data information is essential to Accenture. This knowledge based data could come from staffs’ working experience and problem solving solutions, in addition, data mining is another way to collect valuable data for the company, which helps improve performance and achieve goals. Data mining enables a company to go beyond reporting and OLAP (online analytical processing) to learn not only what happened in operations, but also why things happened. The data we have is often vast, and noisy, meaning that it is imprecise and the data structure is complex. This is where a purely statistical technique would not succeed, so data mining is a solution. 5.4Implementation Like many businesses, Accenture have invested in some combination of enterprise resource planning (ERP), data warehouse and reporting software. However, these investments were important but lacked leverage for three key reasons: They primarily replaced and updated existing ways of getting things done - which means their value was only a marginal improvement in productivity.Because so many organizations implemented them in more or less the same time period, they didn't offer a competitive advantage.Because they only deal with past events, they cannot effectively predict changes or outcomes. It would seem that Accenture should invest in data mining, though it seems to be a risky investment. However, when look a little closer, the risk is not great. In fact, it is probably much more risky not to take the plunge into data mining. Today, data mining can make the difference in every industry and organization throughout the world. Through data mining, Accenture could use the results to determine not only what customers want, but also predict what they will do.Findings No. 4: Explore and investigate new possible innovative strategies Description (summarize the highlights in the observations and analysis) Accenture Plc., a global management consulting company, has very high revenue; however, its profit margin is quite low when compared with top consulting companies such as Deloitte Consulting LLP, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), and HP Enterprise Services, LLC. At the end of year 2010, for example, Accenture’s profit margin is about 8% whereas IBM’s profit margin is nearly 15% (Yahoo finance.)The low profit margin implies that Accenture might have a wrong business plan. In other words, Accenture Plc.’s supply chain strategy does not match with its competitive strategy. The answer is yes in some countries and no in other countries, according to OP300 team# 2’s research. Although we assume that Accenture has a correct matching between its supply chain strategy and its competitive strategy, it does not mean that Accenture Plc. can increase its profit margin. Accenture Plc. has to find its profit zone and how Accenture to increase its Economic Value Added (EVA). The first possible reason that Accenture Plc. loses its profit zone is its customers change. Most Accenture Plc.’s clients are companies involving Information Technology. Information Technology typically changes very fast. Thus, Accenture Plc. is likely to get low profit if they cannot find new profit zone, or new potential customers. Moreover, when Accenture Plc.’s old clients expand their business in oversea countries such as India and China, Accenture Plc. has to open its business in oversea countries as well. Unfortunately, international countries have different regulations that it is possible that Accenture Plc. cannot adapt its business with the new business environment.The second possible reason that Accenture Plc. has low profit margin is Accenture Plc. still has level II competency. This is because Accenture Plc. has limited abilities to share resources such as IT systems and people among all offices in 53 countries Accenture Plc. is preparing to launch private cloud computing in the next couple years. The private cloud computing is possible to save the costs of capital and to increase Accenture’s consultant capacities in some countries. However, Accenture Plc. does not report how to secure its information and knowledge when it uses the private cloud computing in developing countries.OP300 team#2 uses a SWOT analysis and a Gap analysis as tools for finding possible solutions for Accenture Plc. Now, Accenture has level II competency, and the following recommendation help Accenture Plc. to level III competency. Recommendation First, Accenture offices in each countries should review its business plans to ensure that its supply chain strategies matching with its competitive strategies.Second, a private cloud computing is possible to save Accenture’s costs of capital by reducing its fixed assets of information infrastructure. The private cloud computing also increase sits revenues and reduces costs. Accenture offices in 53 countries sharing IT platforms and databases can increase their abilities to offer various types of consultant services. Accenture’s consultant services are more standardized.Third, Accenture Plc. should concern about the security of sharing information via cloud computing among offices in different countries.Fourth, a joint venture is a business strategy that Accenture Plc. can save the cost of its network resource (people, technology, and process). A joint venture is appropriate when Accenture Plc. runs its business in foreign countries. Moreover, a joint venture with different industries is a strategy to increase its competitiveness. For example, Accenture Inc. has joined its business with Microsoft Company since April 4, 2000. Then, Accenture Plc. gives its new business named Avanade. Avanade is a global IT consulting company that specialized itself in solving using Microsoft enterprise technology. Fifth, Accenture Plc. should rotate its employees continuously in order to avoid the problems from high employee turnover rate. Justification When used gap analysis finding the difference between current performance and possible performance, OP300 team#2 finds that Accenture Plc. has the following gap. First, OP300 team#2 evaluate Accenture’s supply chain strategy from information in Accenture’s website and news from internet how Accenture Plc. treats its clients. Accenture Plc. seems to use highly responsiveness as its supply chain strategy in every office in 53 countries. Each country has different market competitive strategies. Standardized supply chain strategy may not work, so Accenture Plc. should change its supply chain strategy for matching with competitive strategy in different market of each country. Second, Accenture Plc. has a little share real time information between offices in different countries, although Accenture Plc. has trained its employees working in different countries with the same materials and it has teleconference meetings regularly. In other words, Accenture’s IT network design is insufficient for supporting sharing real time information. If Accenture Plc. has private cloud computing, the companies can use share real time information and can use analysts with cheap price in developing countries. Third, Accenture Plc. has a high rate of employee turnover. However, no information shows that Accenture Plc. rotates employees continuously. OP300 team#2 concerns this point because it is the problem of human resource. However, it is possible that Accenture Plc. has rotated its employees, but the company does not publics its internal management, so OP300 team#2 does not know the real information. In our research, small offices in some countries such as Thailand, the rotated employee program might not work because the limited number of employees.Fourth, Accenture’s offices in some countries such as China and the United States shows that Accenture Plc. has collaborate with its suppliers and its client continuously. However, Accenture offices in other countries such as Thailand have very low collaboration and coordination with suppliers, but they still have collaborated with its clients who are international businesses. Implementation In the short term, Accenture should do as the following. First, Accenture Plc. should review its business plan to ensure that its competitive strategy matches with its supply chain strategy. Then, they should prepare to set its new business plan. Second, Accenture Plc. should set security policies before setting private cloud computing. Third, Accenture should rotate its employees continuously to avoid problems from high employee turnover rate.In the long term, Accenture should do as the following. First, Accenture Plc. should change its business plan and redesign its operating tactics and execution managements. Second. Accenture should implement its private cloud computing for sharing information, insourcing, and outsourcing. Third, Accenture should joint business with potential companies in different industries. Fourth, Accenture should concern long-term collaboration with suppliers and clients.Findings No. 5: Create new alliances and innovation centers Description: Accenture plc.’s existing global supply chain and supply channel network is enormously broad and expansive. With over 150 current partners alliances in the industry providing various management consultation services in 200 cities in 53 country, there is never a dull moment to exploit this rich body of expert knowledge in intellectual property and human resource capital to further expand Accenture’s business in geographical regions less inviting, more daunting as a major barrier to entry due to cultural and religious norms, unfavorable political climates that are not salient towards global free market enterprise, and local economic conditions such as inadequate tax and fiscal infrastructure and the absence of anti-trust legislation to protect foreign multinational companies’ rights to appropriate fair trade locally. These among other factors are some basis fundamental issues for which Accenture has had to consider in their strategic planning initiatives for the establishment of new partner alliances and during overall decision-making processes to determine how to coordinate these new partnerships in Accenture’ global delivery network and innovation centers network, as well.Accenture’s US global delivery hubs are located in the cities of Tampa, Pittsburgh, Wilmington, Murray Hill, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Houston, San Antonio, and Pendleton. These data/delivery centers are part of 50 global centers around the globe, operated by 141,000 network specialists. Moreover, in order for Accenture to decrease lead-time for new innovative design business solutions product roll-out internationally, the company has logistically placed three major R & D global regional hubs – North America, Europe, and Asia - in the cities of Murray Hill, Maryland, Rome, Italy, and Bangalore, India.Recommendation: Because Accenture strong partner alliances is composed of some of the more notable Fortune 500 IT and similarly-related companies in the world today who, due to a strong and continual presence in not only developed nations but also in lesser developed and emerging ones as well, it is imperative that Accenture maintains a symbiotic relationship with its partners to help increase brand-name recognition and market share worldwide and to use one another as a hedge against unstable economies in both host and neighboring countries, who may honor similar regional customs that will have a significant impact on business activities, and as a leverage to gain entrance in untapped markets where any number of the company’s portfolio of member alliances already hold a market presence. It is largely inherent in the core business philosophy many firms in the IT industry, because of the immense collaborative nature of the business, to operate its supply chain operations and supply channels as an OPSCM Level III competency. Although the company is designated as an OPSCM competitive advantage service provider which is more associated with OPSCM level II process activities, Accenture’s global delivery network is an OPSCM Level III competency design model, because of its unique brand of technology tools and applications that are deployed throughout a sophisticated and complex web of advanced technology interfaces with other corporations who specializes in the field. Therefore, we recommend that Accenture continue to use the “piggyback-style” strategy on the efforts of its partners to help Accenture sidestep various landmines that are commonly associated with freshman firms attempting to gain entry into new territory. The power of Accenture’s new alliances is the key to opening the door to new business and retaining good health in its relationship with existing partners, strategic positioning with new alliances through mutual global planning initiatives for market entry and expansion, built solidly on fiduciary allegiance and camaraderie, open source planning, and shared capital resource planning.In regards to its innovation centers, this is an area in need of great improvement and both future tactical and strategic expansion missions should be top priority. To capture potential future sales in newer markets, we recommend that Accenture increase its innovation centers facility global network to mitigate delays in delivery times of newly created solutions tools and applications (see chart to left for a sample of system tools and apps) within its expanding delivery network system and to make integration and network compatibility among its partners transition smoother. Justification: As in every case with all businesses, the number one priority is to ensure that the company is healthy enough to generate enough revenue to pay off short-term, or current, liabilities, pay down long-term debt obligations and long-term liabilities, and to have enough NOPAT and FCF to make any number of capital investments for long-run growth. Therefore is essentially critical to Accenture’s value chain processes to ensure that new partner alliances are assimilated into Accenture’s business process and supply chain operations in targeted logistical regional points to take advantage of opportunities in less developed and emerging regions and positioned itself for building future business rapport and establishing a functional module precedent as a first-mover in neighboring closed societies. The information highway is allowing many firms such as Accenture to use technology to transcend borders and this is one of the company’s strongest assets and advantages that will help the organization catapult over some cultural hurdles that may impede on further growth. Once local communities experience the positive impact from the infusion of new jobs, personal income, and improved quality of life, it will be very difficult for certain governing bodies to refuse this economic opportunity created by Accenture and its portfolio of partners. The best example of Accenture impact from a logistical standpoint can be seen in the country of India where growth has accelerated and has become a fixture of its economy and community at large. The evidence of such growth is somewhat shown in the regional sales bar chart below, illustrating how well the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa region which includes India has outperformed marginally or significantly more than the other two macro regions, Americas and Asia Pacific. Hence, it becomes obviously apparent that there is great potential in the Asia Pacific along with further growth in remote areas not represented by the figures in this chart. Moreover, even the healthier regions’ output can be improved as advancement in technology such as aggregate planning systems, enterprise resource planning systems, and other similar resource planning systems will enhance suppliers, distributors, and clients mobility and process capabilities, whether it pertains to supplier relationship management, distribution relationship management, or customer relationship management. Currently, Accenture has 2,718 patents pending and has issued 600 US patents and 524 non-US patents through its R & D program. In addition, R & D facility spent $503M, $384, and $435 for 2011, 2010, and 2009, respectively. Value of fixed capital assets (property and equipment0 increased in 2011 from a year ago from $569,000,000 to $659,000,000. Rental expense totaled $493,734,000 in 2011, a slight increase, while third-party sub-lease rose to $32,503,000 from $30,741,000, which was also slightly increased. These and other figures not included here reflect the ongoing investment activities of the firm which indicates a continual commitment and willingness by decision makers for the furtherance of expansion projects in a global context. As more and more countries become early or late adopters of technological innovation, Accenture must be ready to seize these opportunities and can easily do so by maintaining transparent, shared collaboration with its existing partners and by extending this relationship to future ones, as well, especially if those alliances are already embedded in the targeted region. Implementation: The implementation phase of increasing new global partner alliances and innovation centers that are a part of Accenture’s global delivery network for short- and long-term planning initiative can be achieve in a three-stage process. Step 1: Develop and establish a cross-functional exploratory committee composed of members from Accenture and its alliances who are operating business activities in targeted countries or regions to execute and perform a feasibility and economic impact study analysis which includes barriers to entry factors such as cultural and political norms and resistance, fiscal and economic policy for both the host area and its surrounding territories, and logistical hedges or safe-havens in open societies close by targeted area as an exit strategy during unforeseen events that may disrupt supply chain operations or threaten viability and vitality of business operations. These series of activities should precede any approved investment activities in the selected regions. Step 2: As part of an exploratory committee initiative, implement pre-emptive measures to better assess and gauge many of the factors addressed in step no. 1 in the form of lobbyists and other special groups, smaller and less intrusive in size, who are skilled in assimilating well within the culture that will provide first-hand evaluation of strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities that will be included in final assessment of the targeted region. Internal information obtained through this type of activity may be a way the make proper observations of any subtle nuances in the business climate of the targeted region that disadvantageous for future expansion efforts. Transportations modes, city grids, Internet accessibility and correlating privacy issues, IT infrastructure, both landline and mobile utility, expected fixed expenditure and payment cycles, local environmental impact concerns stemming from possible longer working office hours, which is a major quality of life and employee morale issue with Accenture currently, and merger and acquisitions standard protocol and procedure, if any, to position the company to build a stronger local alliance and presence in the local region. Step 3: The final implementation step to gain new alliances and increase innovation centers will involve mostly the latter. Once it has satisfactorily proven that new alliances have been established in expansion projects or logistically placed in the vicinity, then it would be in the best of interest of Accenture to consider cautiously expanding its innovative center network to regional areas for which due diligence has been executed extensively and recorded and the a valid track record of a long-term and strong presence by one of the company’s alliances has demonstrated profitability and sustainability over periods of time. If an alliance (s) presence has met these among other criteria, then Accenture’s decision makers can commence and comfortably move to “go-through” phase to begin capital expenditure towards innovation centers expansion efforts. Since the Asia Pacific region generates the lowest amount in revenue and has the fewest number of OPSCM Level III capability-configured offices, with some regions being juxtaposition in close proximity to bordering close societies, it may not be prudent to commit a substantial increase in capital resources for the purpose of acquiring new alliances in these regions or even build innovation centers until those regional markets are better disposed to welcome open collaboration in free enterprise. Intellectual property and other key capital assets could be subjugated to compromise, which may also ignite political and business friction and conflicts of interest.
#11 1.3Summary of Reports #1 and #2 1.3.1 Explanation As we had little access to the internal operations of Accenture, a significant amount of our analysis was based on information from external and third party sources. Report #1 covered Accenture’s Design Structure and Report #2 covered the Operating Tactics as indicated in Figure x below. Effective audits of these two areas would uncover areas in Accenture’s OPSCM which fall short of the desired Competency Level III, which we will refer to as gaps.As illustrated by the design, we found evidence that two of the five areas evaluated did not meet Competency Level III. These gaps will be further explained later in this report. We also took into consideration external SWOT analysis conducted by third parties when determining some our recommendations, summaries below. DataMonitor June 30, 2011(Professor Yang, 2004. San Francisco State University. Operation Management) While the above SWOT is from 2004, we consulted with our internal contact, Mr. AbhishekSrivastava ESQ., and he believes that the SWOT is still accurate today. 1.3.3 Design Structure – Physical As a service company, Accenture does not have production facilities per se, but we believe it is important for them to have a presence in geographical regions where there is a demand for their services. Because Accenture has over 200 offices in 94 countries worldwide, it is difficult to believe that this is a shortcoming for the company. In our audits, we observed the following, which may be of significance: It appears that Accenture may have the opportunity to consolidate operations in several regions of the United States, reducing the number of offices while still maintaining presence and “closeness” to the customer. (Report #1, Section III)Our experts in the China market believe that while Accenture has a strong presence on China’s east coast, there may be opportunities for Accenture to expand into the central region of China (Report #1, Section IV)Accenture’s Thailand operations are in a developing stage, and this is an example of Accenture expanding into emerging markets. There are continuous opportunities for Accenture to expand, and they need to continue this process (Report #1, Section III, Report #2, Section 1.5.1c). 1.3.4 Design Structure – Human Resource Accenture’s Human Resource Structure employs over 230,000 employees worldwide, and well recognized as a leader in HR management and training. In his book Human Resource Management, Mathis describes this as “What Accenture does for its own employees illustrates one reason why it is widely used by clients.” Accenture also seems to have the correct organizational structure to be able to optimize their OPSCM, having a COO which oversees all of the relevant departments. Accenture also seems to have a complex cross-matrix organization, with xxx saying that the service lines “represent broad functional areas needed to support most client engagements.”However, in Report #2, we did record some concerns, with two significant items reported below. Accenture has hired a significant amount of employees over the last few years, which has placed a significant strain on their knowledge productivity. (Report #2, Section 1.5.1b) The management consultant position seems to experience significant employee turnover (Report #2, Section 1.5.3a) 1.3.5 Design Structure – Technical Structure As a global operation, and also as the foremost consulting company and one of the top IT outsourcing companies, Accenture is acutely aware of cutting edge new technologies, and is also at the forefront of deploying these technologies internally. For Accenture, these technologies need to enable worldwide communication and collaboration between employees, and we believe they are satisfying this requirement. As an example, Accenture has created a “Borderless Workplace - one of the largest deployments of communication and collaboration technologies ever implemented by any organization.” (Groundswell). While we did not find significant faults in Accenture’s technical structure, there are a couple of areas which they should monitor and look to improve. The first is that they need to maintain their presence on the cutting edge, exploring the use of cloud computing to better enable employees. Accenture also needs to ensure that the technologies are fully available to their offices in emerging regions so that these offices are fully enabled and integrated into Accenture. 1.3.6 Operating Tactics – Performance Measurement, Evaluation and Improvement Programs Our Audit Teams did not have the visibility within the company to be able to determine what performance measurement, evaluation and improvement programs Accenture has in place. We know that Accenture does indeed have these programs in place, as they have been written about in books like Chapter 2 of “The Learning Advantage – Blending Technology, Strategy, and Learning to Create Lasting Results”, which is titled “Transforming Learning at Accenture – Driving High Performance with Strategic Technology Supported Programs.” Instead, the teams focused their efforts on trying to identify patterns which would indicate areas where these types of programs may be lacking or not in place. Our search lead us to back to potential issues in Personnel Design, and also to “a mix of strategies, sales, technology, and financial suggestions that are not pertinent to performance evaluation and improvement programs.” (Dawe, P300-14TPeval.t2.doc) As a result of our teams not uncovering any actual gaps, and based on external references and Accenture’s reputation, we believe that Accenture is performing at a Competency Level III in this area. 1.3.7 Operating Tactics – Best Practices Our Audit Team provided an analysis of Accenture based on Fine’s Strategic Value Assessment Model, which identified areas for improvement, but according to Dawe, “not valid gaps in competencies.” There are several valid recommendations which we will detail in the next section, “Additional Insights and Recommendations” Because we did not specifically identify any shortcomings in Best Practices, we will consider the Competency Level III based on Accenture’s proven track record as a premiere business management consulting companies in the world, and as a leader in their development of and internal implementation of best practices in the areas of employee referral, retention and training, examples provided below. “… the value of these activities is shown in the fact that almost 39% of Accenture’s open U.S. jobs are filled by current employees who change and/or increase their job levels. What Accenture’s employee retention program emphasizes is that the firm does not just consult about HR and other services for clients, but also does for itself what many current and potential clients need to do, which is to view HR planning and retention as crucial for organizational success and growth.” (Mathis) “Accenture did win some prestigious awards like ERE Media award for its most innovative employee referral program.”(Case Study – Accenture’s best practice referral recruitment, http://www.referralrecruitment.com/home/accenture) “… organizations can successfully use learning programs for major business impact, and can run learning like a business. Today, we are helping Accenture advance toward high performance through innovative learning solutions that generate a measurable, positive impact on Accenture’s bottom line. We are also delivering important efficiencies, spending more than 40 percent less on learning and development today than five years ago, even as our workforce has grown by 50 percent during that same time.” (Smart, Return on Learning: Training for High Performance at Accenture) “To stay ahead of the competition and to maximize the impact on the performance of its own workforce, Accenture is working in all these areas (Learning and knowledge management)” (Smart, Return on Learning: Training for High Performance at Accenture)

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