Introduction
Accenture is a multinational professional services company that provides strategic, digital, technology, and operations services. Founded in 1989, Accenture has grown to become one of the world’s largest companies with over 500,000 employees in more than 120 countries.
In this article, we will take a closer look at the Accenture organization, its history, its services, and its impact on the world.
Overview of Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The organization provides end-to-end capabilities from combining deep industry expertise with data-driven insights to build software solutions that help organizations become more agile and digitally enabled.
Accenture’s unique strengths lie in its focus on business performance Improvement by helping clients better align their business processes and IT investments to their desired outcomes. Accenture is known for its industry depth, functional domain expertise and approach to execution. The company has global reach with offices worldwide, including Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America & Caribbean, Middle East & Africa and North America serving global clientele from industries such as financial services; government; healthcare; manufacturing; telecommunications; energy & resources; media & entertainment; or retail.
The organization has its roots in the established accounting firm of Arthur Anderson founded in 1922 which became Andersen Consulting in 1989 before being rebranded as Accenture in 2001. It focuses on creating value for clients by delivering high quality services through focusing on agility, innovation, anticipating needs of customers and collaboration that drive excellence. The core values of the organization are ‘Trust comes first’ – doing what it says it will do ; ‘Client obsession’ – exceeding expectations ; ‘Innovation mindset’ – continually seeking new ways to do things better ; and ‘One Global Network’ – harnessing the best people for each challenge around the globe .
Services
Accenture is a global professional services company that provides services in strategy, consulting, digital, technology, and operations. They employ around 496,000 people across the world, and they offer their clients a wide range of services. From corporate strategy to digital transformation, Accenture’s services can help clients by providing them with the right strategy, people and technology.
Let’s take a closer look at the services they offer:
Consulting Services
Accenture is a global professional services company, offering consulting and outsourcing capabilities across strategy formulation, development and operation of technology and business processes. The company offers four primary consulting services including digital transformation, technology integration, enterprise operations and business process outsourcing. These services provide clients with the support needed to build and execute strategy, as well as to improve performance.
- Digital Transformation: Accenture helps clients adapt quickly to changes in market conditions through digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and advanced analytics. The company’s teams have expertise in areas such as business model design, customer experience design, data modeling, new product launches and complex IT implementations.
- Technology Integration: Accenture helps organizations align their business processes with their IT architecture in order to facilitate data sharing across departments and improve overall efficiency. The company has deep knowledge of multiple software packages as well as expertise in developing customized solutions that can be deployed swiftly on premise or on cloud-based environments.
- Enterprise Operations: Accenture’s teams specialize in helping clients analyze existing operations practices against challenges they are currently facing. They also support the selection of effective tools for all operational tasks from process analysis to reengineering processes for improved productivity.
- Business Process Outsourcing: Accenture’s team provides comprehensive solutions for businesses that want to outsource certain activities or processes either on an ad-hoc basis or on an ongoing basis to maximize cost savings or operational efficiency gains. This allows companies to focus resources on more strategic objectives while freeing up personnel from performing mundane tasks leaving them more time for innovation and higher value work that improves overall performance.
Technology Services
Accenture delivers technology services that help organizations become more productive, efficient and innovative. Our industry-focused approach combines deep technology expertise with an understanding of how business and people interact to create tangible results across the entire enterprise. With more than 40 years of experience, we help clients unlock value in their IT infrastructure, driving strategic advantage and yielding cost savings through comprehensive service offerings that include:
- Cloud services: Cloud solutions ranging from hybrid infrastructure to SaaS.
- Data management: Tools and services that provide insight into data and applications across all platforms.
- Information architecture: Strategies for leveraging digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics and mobility to optimize operations.
- Security: Solutions that identify risks, threats and vulnerabilities across an organization’s systems; safeguard data; protect critical assets; ensure compliance; secure endpoints; support network access control measures; maintain privacy policies; manage identity authentication protocols; deliver strong authentication processes; provide event logging capabilities; and develop incident response plans.
- Networking: Professional services around core networking infrastructure — operating systems (OS), virtualization, storage area networks (SANs), Local Area Networks (LANs) — as well as software defined networks (SDNs), security policies/configurations (IPSec or SSL VPN) or Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).
Digital Services
Accenture provides a full range of digital services for organizations that are looking to maximize their potential. These services can range from creating new user interfaces and data analytics to helping companies manage their digital strategies in the ever-evolving digital landscape. Leveraging these capabilities, Accenture helps customers realize new opportunities, create improved customer experiences, increase efficiency and improve operations.
The digital portfolio of Accenture includes:
- Digital strategy: Utilizing data and insights to identify opportunities and create tailored strategies that enable business growth.
- Platform engineering: Designing, building and integrating platform solutions to create custom applications that enable organizations to meet their specific needs.
- Experience design: Developing user experience (UX) strategies that help create interesting and engaging interfaces across multiple devices while also improving usability.
- Artificial intelligence (AI): Implementing AI, bots, machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), computer vision techniques and natural language processing (NLP) to automate processes and solve complex problems.
- Data engineering: Capturing valuable information from various sources by finding the right ways to normalize, process and store data for later use.
- Analytics & Insights: Using predictive analytics models to uncover trends or patterns in large datasets to provide actionable insights for decision making.
- Cloud services & architecture: Migration of applications from traditional infrastructure such as on premise servers into cloud based platforms like Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services with emphasis on scalability, elasticity & cost effectiveness of IT investments.
Clients
Accenture is a global professional services company that works with clients from all over the world. The types of clients range from government, corporate, and non-profits, to technology, banking, healthcare and more. Accenture helps its clients improve their business operations and enhance their brand by providing services such as strategy, consulting, digital, technology, and operations.
In this article, we will discuss the types of clients that Accenture works with and how they can benefit from the company’s services.
Fortune 500 Companies
Fortune 500 companies form the backbone of the Accenture corporate portfolio. These are some of the world’s most influential and powerful organizations, representing diverse industries including technology, financial services, automotive, logistics, energy, insurance and media & entertainment.
As a global strategic partner of these organizations and through mutual trust and collaboration, Accenture has been at the forefront of major industry transformations and consistently delivering meaningful improvement to their businesses.
Based on varied client requirements, Accenture provides a wide range of services covering social engagement, digital transformation & intelligence applications as well as operations optimization. As part of this partnership and commitment to providing optimal results for all involved stakeholders, our teams leverage high-quality project management capabilities such as agile practices combined with our deep domain knowledge for tailored solutions in existing business processes. We offer a comprehensive range of services ranging from strategy development to implementation & value realization with experienced consulting resources combined with back-office operations expertise from skilled professionals across industries & domains. This type of continuous innovation has enabled us to stay ahead in an ever-evolving technological landscape for utmost success for both clients & ourselves alike.
Government Agencies
Government agencies often hire consulting firms like Accenture to fill certain needs. Knowing that they can trust not just the soundness of their recommendations, but their discretion in the implementation of those recommendations is vital.
Accenture provides government agencies with financial valuation expertise and analysis, planning, analysis and optimization services and turnkey programs. Their consultants are highly knowledgeable regarding government contracts, public-sector operations and compliance requirements, providing clients with valuable insights that help point them in the right direction for doing business and achieving their goals.
Accenture has been trusted by many national governments to advise on critical projects and provide essential services to ensure success. From large federal departments to local municipalities, from national defense contracts to state welfare issues – Accenture’s role as an advisor has proven invaluable time and time again. They have lent their expertise in crafting effective policies for foreign governments, assisting federal programs on a range of topics from homeland security initiatives to infrastructure modernization projects for government agencies around the globe.
Non-Profits
Non-profit organizations are a major part of Accenture’s client base. Over the years, Accenture has developed strategic partnerships with some of the world’s leading social agencies including the United Nations and International Labour Organization, as well as local and national charitable service providers. For non-profits, Accenture provides technology solutions and consulting strategies to help:
- Enhance efficiency – Nonprofit organizations are often impacted by limited resources and extensive demands, which can make streamlining operations time consuming. Accenture provide solutions that enhance an organization’s workflow process so it can become more secure, efficient, and cost effective.
- Improve capability – Although nonprofits rely heavily on generous donations from supporters, to meet increasing demands in many areas it takes up to date infrastructure capabilities. With solutions for CRM systems, data analytics tools and secure cloud storage platforms, Accenture assists nonprofits in staying up to date with industry trends while maintaining their mission objectives.
- Extend reach – Nonprofits frequently find difficulty in sharing their progress stories due to outdated marketing methods or limited budgets that restrict outreach opportunities. By providing social media tools such as webcast streaming services or cloud based software that supports paid campaigns on Google Ads or SEO methodologies that encourages ROI growth; Accenture aids nonprofit clients in capitalizing on timely opportunities while tackling challenging scenarios along the way.
Leadership
Leadership is an essential part of the Accenture organization and it plays a major role in the success of the organization as a whole. Accenture’s leaders strive to foster a collaborative and inclusive culture that emphasizes growth and innovation. Moreover, they are focused on developing and empowering the strategic leaders of tomorrow, who can apply their skills to drive the success of Accenture’s customers and people around the globe.
Let’s dive deeper into the leadership at Accenture and explore what makes them successful.
CEO and Board of Directors
The CEO of the Accenture Organization is Julie Sweet. She is the foremost leader of the company, spearheading its direction and strategy. Sweet has been with Accenture for more than 20 years, taking on a variety of leadership roles before being named as CEO in 2019.
The Board of Directors at Accenture is responsible for providing oversight and strategic guidance to the company. The board is comprised of a diverse group of individuals from various backgrounds and experience sets, including industry leaders and academics. Currently, up to 12 directors are listed on the board, including Julie Sweet as well as current and former corporate executives from a variety of industries. The chairperson of the board is Joe Forehand, who previously served as Chairman & CEO at Accenture from 2001 to 2004, and has held positions at AT&T Mobility LLC, Crown Central Petroleum Corporation and Texaco Inc.
Executive Leadership
The Accenture leadership team is comprised of experienced and inspiring business leaders, each of whom is responsible for the strategic decisions that guide the company. At the top of this group is Executive Leadership, whose members are comprised of Board members, Vice Chairmen and Chief Executives from multiple regions.
The Chairman & CEO sets forth Accenture’s long-term vision and strategy with a focus on delivering accelerative growth to the company. He chairs meetings with the Executive Leadership Team for strategic decisions and sets broad policy directives.
The Vice Chairmen lead their respective geographic regions and lines of business, making sure that each region or line performs in accordance with Accenture’s overarching strategy.
Board Members represent important elements of our value chain – clients, consultants, industry partners – have direct contact with our clients and shareholders to ensure we continue to meet their changing expectations.
Business Unit Leaders are responsible for managing all aspects within their areas of responsibility, ranging from sales strategy development to operations delivery across a range of portfolios including:
- Strategy & Consulting
- Digital Marketing
- Technology
- Security & Risk
- Digital Manufacturing
- Healthcare & Life Sciences
- and many more.
Culture
At Accenture, the culture is all about unlocking potential for clients, for employees, and for society at large. They value integrity and trust and seek to create an inclusive environment where everyone can innovate and feel valued. They focus on creating an environment that celebrates diversity of thought and encourages collaboration, creativity and innovation.
Let’s dive into the culture of Accenture in more detail:
Diversity and Inclusion
At Accenture, we embrace diversity and inclusion as core values. We believe that an inclusive environment encourages people to truly be themselves and make their most meaningful contributions, enabling us to achieve a greater level of creativity, innovation and performance in our solutions and services. We are committed to making Accenture a great workplace for all by creating an environment where everyone feels respected, valued and supported.
At Accenture, we strive for a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities in which we work and live around the world. To meet this goal, we are committed to engaging every employee in a culture that celebrates differences, recognizes excellent performance regardless of gender or other divisions of identity, and strives continually to identify opportunities for our diverse leaders to excel at all levels. Leaders must model inclusive behavior through participation in company-wide initiatives such as unconscious bias training programs and promoting multicultural problem solving teams.
Our goal is to ensure an open collaborative atmosphere in which people can bring their whole selves to work regardless of ethnicity or religion; gender identity or sexual orientation; age; physical capabilities; geographic location; financial status; lifestyle; qualifications or any other intrinsic characteristic. We have developed comprehensive policies related to equality across all areas such as recruitment, development, advancement and retention—all designed with the explicit aim of fostering respect while operating with integrity throughout the global business community.
As our commitment evolves further each year through collaboration with external organizations such as Catalyst: Expanding Possibilities & Converging Our Difference (ePOC) organization dedicated to workplace inclusion worldwide—we remain ever-mindful that real change begins on both small-scale local levels right up to wilder landscapes on large-scale global levels within our organization’s community hub programs maximizing impact wherever necessary in meeting goals towards diversity initiatives at all times no matter how far away those goals might seem!
Workplace Environment
At Accenture, employee engagement and satisfaction are a top priority. The company offers a comprehensive and engaging workplace environment that fosters collaboration, innovation, and professional development. The company promotes an open-door policy and encourages employees to engage in meaningful dialogue with their colleagues and supervisors.
Accenture also offers a host of benefits that enable employees to balance their work life with their personal life. These include flexible work hours, on-site childcare centers, generous vacation policies, and comprehensive health plans. The company also provides employees with access to many amenities such as gyms, libraries, cafes and recreational areas that encourage creativity and collaboration.
The culture at Accenture is highly inclusive and diverse. The company celebrates its diversity through social activities like “Mugging for Diversity” events where the over 600 nationalities of the global workforce meet for some friendly competition in sports such as soccer or basketball. Additionally, the company holds numerous events throughout the year for employees to celebrate their different faiths or cultures through food, music or dance festivals.
Finally, Accenture also encourages employees to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives such as ProBono assignments or volunteerism opportunities they can participate in both internally within the organization as well as externally within local communities worldwide. In these ways Accenture continues to build an engaging culture conducive to empowering its people while making a positive impact globally through innovative business solutions!
Financials
Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Accenture operates in over 120 countries and has a total revenue of more than $41 billion. Accenture’s financials show a strong performance year over year, which makes the organization a great investment opportunity.
In this section, We will take a deeper dive into Accenture’s financials and how it affects their performance.
Revenue
Accenture is a global professional services company with revenues of $43.2 billion in fiscal 2016. This was a 4% increase over the prior year’s revenue of $41.6 billion and reflects continued strong demand for the company’s services across key areas such as digital, cloud and security.
The company operates in 120 countries around the world, offering management consulting, technology and outsourcing services to public and private sector clients.
Accenture has continued to grow its business through organic growth as well as acquisitions. During the 2016 fiscal year, these included major deals such as the purchase of marketing automation firm Acquia, cloud system provider Instfinity, web analytics firm Telmetrics and supply chain software provider Planview Systems. These deals have helped to expand Accenture’s service capabilities in areas such as analytics, artificial intelligence and cloud technology, further widening its global reach.
The strong performance delivered by Accenture during 2016 was reflected in its reported net income of $3.4 billion for the period – representing an increase of 16% over 2015’s figure of $2.9 billion – driven by robust sales growth and improved cost control measures implemented by management during the year.
Profitability
As a leading global professional services company, Accenture drives value for its clients by delivering innovative and cost-effective solutions. One key driver of the company’s profitability is its broad portfolio of services and products, which are designed to meet evolving client needs.
Profits also result from Accenture’s long-term focus on improving efficiencies to deliver quality work faster and more reliably than competitors, and harnessing industry-leading technologies to clear away market obstacles, cut costs and provide better insights. In addition, the company benefits from its diverse base of clients from a range of industries, ensuring that both upswings and downturns in any one sector don’t have an impact on overall financial performance.
Accenture provides market readiness through unique digital capabilities that enable deeper customer engagement with improved insights into customer behavior and preferences. This enables the company to continuously generate new sources of revenue through deep analytics generated by data science tools such as machine learning and AI algorithms.
The power of Accenture partnerships is another factor boosting financial performance. These relationships generate additional value through opportunities to collaborate with leading technology providers and grow in new markets faster while still maintaining strong relationships with clients. With cutting-edge processes such as robotic process automation (RPA) driving rapid automation gains with high accuracy, this has provided an increasingly efficient way for customers to operate leading IT landscapes reducing cost while increasing quality results delivery in time frames never before seen before.
Stock Performance
Accenture’s stock has been an impressive performer over the years, with a total return of 440% for the 10-year period ended December 31, 2019. Over this period, Accenture’s net margin was more than 10%, suggesting that it consistently produces solid profits and drives shareholder returns even in difficult economic environments. In addition to its strong fundamental measures, Accenture also has diverse end markets and offers valuable services like digital marketing and AI capabilities which have allowed it to thrive in a rapidly changing technological and economic landscape.
Accenture is one of the most attractive stocks for long-term investors because its core business is evergreen and recurring in nature. It does not require large capital investments to grow so it enjoys an attractive return on assets (ROA) profile. The company has recognized the importance of capitalizing on emerging technologies by making strategic investments in technology startups such as Apigee Corporation or investing heavily in building out its cloud capabilities. Furthermore, as organizations become increasingly reliant on automation processes powered by machine learning or natural language processing (NLP) abilities, Accenture is well equipped to benefit from this trend with its vast engineering talent base available to deploy across customer organizations.