5 ms·

You are spot on with "work carried out poorly by offshore resources". My current company made a business model from taking over projects that Accenture screwed

by 988747 6y ago

You are spot on with "work carried out poorly by offshore resources". My current company made a business model from taking over projects that Accenture screwed up, and doing them properly. And boy, there is no shortage of such projects :)

murph-almighty 6y ago
If only you could get the projects _prior_ to Accenture screwing them up. Just eliminate the middleman, yaknow?
- xwolfi 6y ago
  It's impossible, there are layers and layers of management that need to see Accenture fails before trying a more rational alternative. I'm not sure why, but we have consultants explaining us how an if/else business workflow is in fact an "AI robot employee" that we even need to give a human name to, before we switch to normal/cheaper if/else-enabled languages, once it fails to do if/else properly.
  - sgt101 6y ago
    > I'm not sure why, but we have consultants explaining us how an if/else business workflow is in fact an "AI robot employee" that we even need to give a human name to, before we switch to normal/cheaper if/else-enabled languages, once it fails to do if/else properly. I will explain. MONEY.
- wayoutthere 6y ago
  The reason Accenture is as successful as they are is because they have a top-notch sales engine. But it’s well known they’re just as full of BS as the big 4 consulting firms, except the big 4 have some niches that they’re really good in. As far as I can tell, Accenture is a consulting sales engine with an offshore body shop attached.
  - ep103 6y ago
    That is literally their purpose. Don't want to go through the hassle of offshoring your entire IT / enginering or other division, and will be gone before the inevitable rot and overages kick in? Accenture will happily do that for you, and figure out how to abuse the H1b program enough to fill as many bodies with offshore people in your onshore location as you need to justify your realestate purchase. I genuinely think accenture might be one of the most powerful companies in the world, just because of how many entire departments of so many major internaional corporations actually report to accenture management, not the parent company.
    - wayoutthere 6y ago
      Accenture is just the one where the “white face” runs the show so they can charge higher bill rates. Companies HQed in India (TCS, Wipro, etc) just hire white people to talk to senior leaders (which is so common I have literally been called the “white face” multiple times as a Caucasian person delivering consulting services to enterprise IT orgs despite working for a company that only staffs on-shore).
      - ep103 6y ago
        Yeah, exactly. I was in that role, though it took me a few months to figure out that that's really what it was.
  - vendiddy 6y ago
    Do you have any insight into how their sales engine works? I'm curious because it's a shame that projects go to companies like Accenture when are so many qualified teams out there.
    - ethbr0 6y ago
      (A) Existing relation with customer (including pre-negotiated MLA that legal signed off on, and ranch rates) & (B) safety of a big company (if project fails, legal can threaten and Accenture will throw bodies at it to mostly-finish). Anyone who has never worked at a large enterprise probably doesn't understand how time consuming and annoying getting a new legal signoff can be. I've worked at both consulting companies and customers hiring and using consultants. When consulting is successful, it's usually because the client knows when they want built. When consulting is a failure, it's usually because the client is too incompetent to even clearly identify their own needs. And if the client, who by definition possesses the most detailed knowledge of the requirements, doesn't know what they need then the entire enterprise is doomed to failure.
- koonsolo 6y ago
  At least they don't have to put any effort into setting customer expectations :D.
- rukuu001 6y ago
  This is what Accenture is very good at - selling into large orgs.
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  That would involve attracting good developers though. Few companies manage to do that, especially if the job involves integrating ERP systems.
wyclif 6y ago
Anecdotal, and I avoid judging the merits of any company based on a single employee, but the only Accenture staff I know lives here in SE Asia and she's offshore labour. When I've talked to her, I found it interesting that she had great difficulty explaining what she does at Accenture. What I gather is that it does indeed involve a lot of PowerPoint slides, Excel spreadsheets, scheduling apps, and mostly "workflow" type productivity. I've never been able to find out if they actually make anything, but I suspect not.
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  It honestly sounds like a lot of busywork and pretending to be busy. I was once in a bi-weekly sprint demo meeting (whole department). The team of consultants that were actually relocated to my country from India to keep a closer eye on them (iirc it was Infosys?) showed their work, and... it was a powerpoint presentation with a single slide with a single bullet point saying they think they found the source of a bug and will work on it next sprint.
temp5565_65 6y ago
As ex-Accenture, I can totally believe you. I was once on a project where a guy took more than a month to deliver a codebase that was negative in value - we spent more dev time untangling and cleaning up the utter cr*p that he produced than it would have taken to scrap the whole thing and rewrite it from scratch.

by 988747 6y ago

murph-almighty 6y ago

If only you could get the projects _prior_ to Accenture screwing them up. Just eliminate the middleman, yaknow?

xwolfi 6y ago
It's impossible, there are layers and layers of management that need to see Accenture fails before trying a more rational alternative. I'm not sure why, but we have consultants explaining us how an if/else business workflow is in fact an "AI robot employee" that we even need to give a human name to, before we switch to normal/cheaper if/else-enabled languages, once it fails to do if/else properly.
- sgt101 6y ago
  > I'm not sure why, but we have consultants explaining us how an if/else business workflow is in fact an "AI robot employee" that we even need to give a human name to, before we switch to normal/cheaper if/else-enabled languages, once it fails to do if/else properly. I will explain. MONEY.
wayoutthere 6y ago
The reason Accenture is as successful as they are is because they have a top-notch sales engine. But it’s well known they’re just as full of BS as the big 4 consulting firms, except the big 4 have some niches that they’re really good in. As far as I can tell, Accenture is a consulting sales engine with an offshore body shop attached.
- ep103 6y ago
  That is literally their purpose. Don't want to go through the hassle of offshoring your entire IT / enginering or other division, and will be gone before the inevitable rot and overages kick in? Accenture will happily do that for you, and figure out how to abuse the H1b program enough to fill as many bodies with offshore people in your onshore location as you need to justify your realestate purchase. I genuinely think accenture might be one of the most powerful companies in the world, just because of how many entire departments of so many major internaional corporations actually report to accenture management, not the parent company.
  - wayoutthere 6y ago
    Accenture is just the one where the “white face” runs the show so they can charge higher bill rates. Companies HQed in India (TCS, Wipro, etc) just hire white people to talk to senior leaders (which is so common I have literally been called the “white face” multiple times as a Caucasian person delivering consulting services to enterprise IT orgs despite working for a company that only staffs on-shore).
    - ep103 6y ago
      Yeah, exactly. I was in that role, though it took me a few months to figure out that that's really what it was.
- vendiddy 6y ago
  Do you have any insight into how their sales engine works? I'm curious because it's a shame that projects go to companies like Accenture when are so many qualified teams out there.
  - ethbr0 6y ago
    (A) Existing relation with customer (including pre-negotiated MLA that legal signed off on, and ranch rates) & (B) safety of a big company (if project fails, legal can threaten and Accenture will throw bodies at it to mostly-finish). Anyone who has never worked at a large enterprise probably doesn't understand how time consuming and annoying getting a new legal signoff can be. I've worked at both consulting companies and customers hiring and using consultants. When consulting is successful, it's usually because the client knows when they want built. When consulting is a failure, it's usually because the client is too incompetent to even clearly identify their own needs. And if the client, who by definition possesses the most detailed knowledge of the requirements, doesn't know what they need then the entire enterprise is doomed to failure.
koonsolo 6y ago
At least they don't have to put any effort into setting customer expectations :D.
rukuu001 6y ago
This is what Accenture is very good at - selling into large orgs.
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
That would involve attracting good developers though. Few companies manage to do that, especially if the job involves integrating ERP systems.

wyclif 6y ago

Anecdotal, and I avoid judging the merits of any company based on a single employee, but the only Accenture staff I know lives here in SE Asia and she's offshore labour. When I've talked to her, I found it interesting that she had great difficulty explaining what she does at Accenture. What I gather is that it does indeed involve a lot of PowerPoint slides, Excel spreadsheets, scheduling apps, and mostly "workflow" type productivity. I've never been able to find out if they actually make anything, but I suspect not.

Cthulhu_ 6y ago
It honestly sounds like a lot of busywork and pretending to be busy. I was once in a bi-weekly sprint demo meeting (whole department). The team of consultants that were actually relocated to my country from India to keep a closer eye on them (iirc it was Infosys?) showed their work, and... it was a powerpoint presentation with a single slide with a single bullet point saying they think they found the source of a bug and will work on it next sprint.

temp5565_65 6y ago

As ex-Accenture, I can totally believe you. I was once on a project where a guy took more than a month to deliver a codebase that was negative in value - we spent more dev time untangling and cleaning up the utter cr*p that he produced than it would have taken to scrap the whole thing and rewrite it from scratch.