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Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With approximately 177,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$21.58 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2009. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

Accenture Alliances
Accenture has alliances with both established and early-stage technology companies whose capabilities complement its own, either by enhancing a service offering, delivering a new technology or helping extend Accenture services to new geographies. Alliances help Accenture deliver innovative solutions far faster than any company could do alone. Find out more.

Accenture Career Experience
The Accenture Career Experience is how we describe the total relationship our people have with Accenture while they work for the company.

Accenture Career Framework
The Accenture Career Framework addresses how careers are developed and managed.

Accenture Customer Contact BPO Services
Accenture’s global customer contact centers leverage the right combination of cost, capability and location to help clients streamline their customer-service functions. This unit forms part of the business process outsourcing services within Accenture—for more information, see Business Process Outsourcing growth platform.

Accenture Development Partnerships
Accenture Development Partnerships is a not-for-profit group that makes high-quality consulting services available at greatly reduced costs, to organizations working with developing economies. Find out more.

Accenture Finance and Accounting BPO Services
Accenture’s global finance and accounting business process outsourcing centers leverage the right combination of cost, capability and location to help deliver:

• Streamlined financial operations.
• Substantial and sustained operating cost savings.
• Transformational business outcomes with less risk and less capital.
• High performance.

This unit forms part of the business process outsourcing services within Accenture—for more information, see Business Process Outsourcing growth platform.

Accenture Delivery Centers
Accenture delivery centers are facilities where teams of Accenture professionals use proven methodologies, tools, architectures and metrics to create and/or manage technology-based solutions or manage business processes for clients. Each center is part of the Accenture Global Delivery Network.

Accenture Global Delivery Model
The Accenture Global Delivery Model is a strategic approach that enables the company to draw on the benefits of resources from around the world—including specialized technology and business process skills, language fluency, proximity to clients and time-zone advantages—to deliver high-quality services. Emphasizing reduced risk, speed to market, quality and predictability, the global delivery model enables Accenture to provide clients with price-competitive services and solutions that drive higher levels of performance. Find out more.

TextAccenture Global Delivery Network
Accenture uses a global sourcing approach that leverages a worldwide network of more than 50 delivery centers. By sharing common methods, tools, architectures and processes, Accenture professionals working at delivery centers can collaborate with those at client sites to deliver reliable service. See also industrialization.

Through global sourcing, we bring together the right mix of people, skills and capabilities to provide our clients with price-competitive and cost-effective solutions and services, with consistently high quality, reduced risk and speed-to-market. Our global network offers the flexibility of multiple facilities providing 24x7 coverage for the seamless delivery of services to clients. See also Business Process Outsourcing growth platform, Technology growth platform or find out more.

Accenture HR BPO Services
Provides outsourced human resources services that promote high levels of performance, productivity and satisfaction at a lower cost. This unit forms part of the business process outsourcing services within Accenture—for more information, see Business Process Outsourcing growth platform.

Accenture Innovation Center
See assets.

Accenture Institute for High Performance
See assets.

Accenture Insurance BPO Services
Offers a comprehensive outsourcing solution for insurance companies, delivered out of specialized processing centers in Europe, America and Asia. This unit forms part of the business process outsourcing services within Accenture—for more information, see Business Process Outsourcing growth platform.

Accenture Learning BPO Services
Offers a comprehensive learning outsourcing solution for companies looking to transform their training capabilities rapidly. This unit forms part of the business process outsourcing services within Accenture—for more information, see Business Process Outsourcing growth platform.

Accenture Procurement BPO Services
An outsourcing services leader that helps clients achieve high performance by reducing the costs of doing business. This unit forms part of the business process outsourcing services within Accenture—for more information, see Business Process Outsourcing growth platform.

Accenture Solutions Group
A cross-industry entity that provides a high level of capability in SAP, Oracle and other enterprise solutions, including integration. It also drives Accenture's thought leadership in new and emerging vendor solutions.

Accenture Supply Chain Services
Formed in 2009, this group is busy making a market in providing supply chain services to global clients. It forms part of the Business Process Outsourcing growth platform.

Accenture Technology Consulting
Accenture Technology Consulting helps clients transform their current IT capabilities to enable their vision for high performance. Find out more.

Accenture Technology Labs
Accenture’s technology and research and development organization has a track record of more than 16 years of turning technology innovation into business results. It enables clients to access innovative, patent-protected technology solutions and prototypes. Accenture Technology Labs are located in Northbrook, Illinois; Palo Alto, California; Sophia Antipolis, France and Bangalore, India. See assets or find out more.

Accenture Technology Solutions
A wholly-owned subsidiary of Accenture, Accenture Technology Solutions builds, deploys and maintains technology solutions for Accenture clients around the globe. Solutions are focused on application development, systems administration and technology implementation.

Accenture System
An Accenture system is any system that is owned by, controlled by, or operated on behalf of Accenture. This includes outsourced systems.

Alliances
See Accenture alliances

Analyst
New college/university graduates generally join Accenture as analysts. Employees at analyst level focus on developing their core skills. Having gained sufficient experience, they move on to supervise and train others.

Analyst Training Program
The Accenture training program followed by most college/university graduates entering the company as analysts. During the first three weeks, these analysts embark on a general induction followed by intensive technical skills training that covers both programming and Accenture development methodologies. Before new analysts start their first live assignment (usually at a client site), they also receive training specific to the team and project they will be joining. See also buddy, career counselor, start group.

Application Outsourcing Services
See Technology growth platform.

Architecture
See Enterprise Architecture.

Area of Business Focus (role)
One of the three components assessed to determine a senior executive’s level and the role he or she plays in the company. The six areas of business focus are:

• Business Development
• Client Account Leadership
• Client Service Delivery
• Innovation and Capability Development
• Operations
• Management
  

Asset
In Accenture jargon, assets are software or infrastructure solutions built and owned by Accenture that can be sold on to clients. These solutions represent the fruits of our long experience in a particular area, and so represent the ideal solution to a common issue in particular industry or sector. Accenture assets are key elements of our intellectual property.

Physical assets are physical property owned by Accenture such as:

• Accenture Delivery Centers: Facilities where teams of Accenture professionals use proven methodologies, tools, architectures and metrics to create and/or manage technology-based solutions or manage business processes for clients. Each center is part of the Accenture Global Delivery Network.
• Accenture Innovation Centers: Facilities typically focused on one specific type of work and dedicated to the development of innovative assets and offerings to enable high performance.
• Accenture Institute for High Performance Business: A center for “thinking and acting,” where formal research efforts nurture ideas from the frontier of business thinking through to commercial viability.
• Accenture High Performance Business Showcase: A state-of-the-art, multimedia facility that brings the results of Accenture’s High Performance Business research to life for clients. A showcase demonstrates the distinctive elements of High Performance Business through immersive content, focused solutions and interactive discussions with resources around the globe who are helping deliver solutions to help clients achieve high performance.
• Accenture Technology Labs: Accenture’s formal research and development organization and facilities focused on conducting technology-trend research and developing assets to help clients leverage innovation. Find out more.

Intellectual assets often form part of offerings and include:

• Knowledge assets: These assets capture Accenture’s understanding, perspective and experience on an industry or a functional area or a technology. Examples are points of view, business processes and leading practices, benchmarks and metrics, business architectures, diagnostic tools, application architectures, marketing and sales materials.
• Enablement tools: Enablement tools include Accenture’s tools and processes leveraged to deliver Accenture’s solutions and services. Examples are development tools, platform accelerators, implementation tools, repositories, technical architectures, infrastructure software.
• Applications: Applications include Accenture’s solution-based assets and represent tangible intellectual property embodied in hard assets. Examples are transferable software, solution construction aids and application accelerators.
  

Avanade
Avanade is a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft that leverages the Microsoft platform to deliver enterprise technology solutions. Avanade creates value for its customers by designing, building and deploying customized, reliable architectures and scalable infrastructures to increase profitability, improve speed to market and accelerate growth. Avanade forms part of the Technology growth platform. Find out more.

Audit
An official examination of records or system configuration to check their accuracy, or the report of such an examination.