For the first time, Accenture has cracked the top 50 on Fortune magazine’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” list—and ranks #2 in the newly-expanded Infotech Services category.

Accenture checks in at #49 on the overall "most admired" list. In the Infotech Services category, Accenture received a 7.46 score behind IBM’s top score of 7.55. However, Accenture ranked higher than IBM in people management, use of corporate assets, and quality of management.

“Breaking into the top 50 is a terrific accomplishment for Accenture, and we are incredibly proud of the deep, differentiated skills that our people bring to our clients every day,” Chairman & CEO Bill Green said. “This ranking reflects our people’s commitment and contribution to delivering high performance—in our work with clients and also in how we run our business.”

Fortune published only one list for 2009, rather than separate lists for the “World’s Most Admired” and “America’s Most Admired” companies. The changes reduced the number of smaller American companies and increased the number of foreign competitors.

To compile the Infotech Services category ranking, Fortune, with assistance from the Hay Group, asked executives, directors and equity analysts to rate America’s largest companies within their industries. Respondents rated companies within their own category on nine criteria: innovation; people management; use of corporate assets; social responsibility; quality of management; financial soundness; long-term investment; quality of products/services; and global competitiveness.

Seventeen Accenture senior executives responded to this year’s survey. How these senior executives ranked Accenture across the criteria counted for 10 percent of Accenture’s overall score. The category ranking involved no input from clients.

For the list of the top 50 companies overall, the Hay Group asked respondents across all categories to select the 10 companies they admired most in any industry. Respondents chose from a list of companies that ranked in the top 30 percent of their industry or the top 25 percent of all companies in last year’s survey. Many of Accenture’s clients would have had the opportunity to weigh in on this ranking.