Our Communities, Our Commitments: 2012-2013 Corporate Citizenship Report (Executive Summary)

Accenture is a global management consulting,technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 289,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Our clients span the full range of industries around the world and include 91 of the FORTUNE Global 100 and more than three quarters of the FORTUNE Global 500. And, of our 100 largest clients in fiscal 2013, 91 have been clients for at least 10 years.Since its inception, Accenture has been governed by six core values that shape the culture and definethe character of our company, guiding how we behave and make decisions: Client Value Creation,One Global Network, Respect for the Individual,Best People, Integrity and Stewardship.With our core values at its heart, corporate citizenshipis an ongoing journey for Accenture. We take thoughtful actions to bring positive change, for today and for the future. This includes creating long-term value for th ecommunities in which we live and work, strengthening our business and enhancing our contribution to society.In these pages, we highlight our impact in fiscal 2012 and 2013 across each of the five pillars of our corporate citizenship reporting strategy: Corporate Governance, Skills to Succeed, Environment,Our People and Supply Chain

Connected Women: How Mobile Can Support Women's Economic and Social Empowerment

This report explores how mobile services provided by Vodafone and the Vodafone Foundation are enabling women to seize new opportunities and improve their lives. Accenture Sustainability Services were commissioned to conduct research on the services and to assess their potential social and economic impact if they were widely available across Vodafone's markets by 2020. It showcases the projects and the work of those involved and also poses the question -- what would the benefit to women and to society at large be if projects such as these were taken to scale and achieved an industrialscale of growth? This reflects the Foundation's commitment not solely to the development of pilots but rather the Trustees' ambition to see projects which lead to transformational change. In order to understand this more deeply, the Report looks at the benefits for women and society and providessome financial modelling for how the engagement of commercial players could achieve industrial, sustainable growth in these areas. Accenture has provided the modelling and, given the public benefit and understanding which the report seeks to generate, these are shared openly for all in the mobile industry to understand and share. It is the Trustees' hope that the collaboration with Oxford University and Accenture in the delivery of this Report will stimulate not only the expansion of existing charitable programmes but will also seed other philanthropic, social enterprise or commercial initiatives

Talent Investments Pay Off: Executive Briefing - Advocate Health Care Realizes Returns for Investments in Education Assistance

An analysis of Advocate Health Care's Education Assistance Program (EAP), conducted by Accenture and partner Lumina Foundation, shows a 4-percent return on every dollar invested in tuition assistance for the health system. For Advocate's business and administrative workforce, EAP generates a 58-percent ROI

Knowledge Management at Accenture - Case Study

Accenture is the world’s leading management consulting and technology services company with more than 75,000 employees in 47 countries. (See Appendix A for a comparison with other management consultancies.) The company generated net revenues of US $11.6 billion for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2002. Accenture split from Andersen Worldwide in August 2000. Accenture went public in a$1.6 billion initial public offering in August 2001, and trades as ACN on the New York Stock Exchange. Accenture consultants work in eight service lines: Strategy and Business Architecture, Human Performance, Customer Relationship Management, Finance and Performance Management, Supply Chain Management, Technology Research and Innovation, Solutions Engineering, and Solutions Operations. These capabilities are then matrixed across five operating groups: Communications and High Technology, Government, Financial Services, Products, and Resources. Careers are stepped in a five-tier hierarchy: Partners, Associate Partners, Managers, Consultants and Analysts. Accenture’s Knowledge Management (KM) organization mirrors the consulting practice, but has different promotion time frames and fewer top executives. Partner Jill Smart reports directly to Gill Rider, Chief Leadership Officer and Managing Partner, Human Resources on company KM efforts (See Appendix B). Accenture has invested fifteen years, countless people hours, and over US $500 million to support the KM strategy’s technological and organizational aspects. According to Chairman and CEO Joe Forehand, The execution of our business strategy is dependent on how we create, share and protect knowledge. Knowledge sharing is the essence of how we bring innovations to change the way the world works and lives. The company estimates savings each year, but does not have quantified benefit data. Moreover, the vast KM databases and people networks give Accenture an edge over competitors and a platform for the future. Thomas Davenport, director of an Accenture research center and a frequent author on KM, shared "Companies have come to realize that there is a benefit to effective and explicit management of knowledge and that the opportunity cost-- e.g. the cost of ignorance -- is even harder to quantify than its benefits.

Why do commercial companies contribute to open source software?

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link belowMany researchers have pointed out that the opensource movement is an interesting phenomenon that is difficult to explain with conventional economic theories. However, while there is no shortage on research on individuals’ motivation for contributing to opensource, few have investigated the commercial companies’ motivations for doing the same. A case study was conducted at three different companies from the IT service industry, to investigate three possible drivers: sale of complimentary services, innovation and open sourcing (outsourcing). We offer three conclusions. First, we identified three main drivers for contributing to opensource, which are (a) selling complimentary services, (b) building greater innovative capability and (c) cost reduction through open sourcing to an external community. Second, while previous research has documented that the most important driver is selling complimentary services, we found that this picture is too simple. Our evidence points to a broader set of motivations, in the sense that all our cases exhibit combinations of the three drivers. Finally, our findings suggest that there might be a shift in how commercial companies view opensource software. The companies interviewed have all expressed a moral obligation to contribute to open source

Talent Investments Pay Off: White Paper - Cigna Realizes Return on Investment from Tuition Benefits

Investing in college tuition as an employee benefit helps companies attract and retain top talent, but a new study of Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI) shows there's another compelling reason for employers to embrace the benefit: it improves the bottom line.An analysis of health insurer Cigna's Education Reimbursement Program (ERP) shows every dollar the company puts into the program is returned and generates an additional $1.29 in savings—a 129 percent return on investment. Lumina Foundation, a national foundation focused on increasing postsecondary attainment partnered with Cigna to design the study, which was conducted by Accenture, a leading global professional services company."We've long known that when companies support their employees' pursuit of a postsecondary education, it improves employees' lives and addresses our nation's overall need to increase talent in our workforce," said Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of Lumina Foundation. "With the release of this study, we also can further demonstrate that investing in employees' tuition isn't a benefit cost, but rather a valuable investment that positively impacts organizations' bottom line. That should entice more C-suite leaders to embrace this approach."The study of Cigna's ERP offers a rare glimpse at the financial impact of tuition assistance programs. About 60 percent of employers offer such support—investing an average of 10 percent of their learning and development budgets on tuition assistance—but only two to five percent of organizations evaluate the return of these investments. Cigna's study examined differences in rates of promotions, transfers, and retention between employees who took advantage of ERP and employees who did not participate from 2012 to 2014, isolating factors such as employee tenure that could impact findings.The study shows that Cigna's ERP program increases career opportunity and employee retention, which drives financial payback. Program participants are 10 percent more likely to be promoted, 7.5 percent more likely to be transferred within Cigna, and eight percent more likely to stay at the company, reducing across-the-board talent management and recruiting costs

E-government: A comparison of strategies in local authorities in the UK and Norway

In Europe almost all countries have implemented some form of e-government, not to mention the UK and Norway which are now both well into their sixth year of e-government implementation. These six years have seen various strategic plans formulated, implemented and also intermittently postponed in the two countries. Although time may result in the amplification of e-government experience for Norway and the UK, the postponement of implementation deadlines indicates that not only political and social issues, but also strategic and organisational issues need to be addressed when formulating plans for deploying e-government. Using empirical research this paper examines the strategies adopted by the UK and Norway in the context of aligning central and local government plans for implementing e-government services. While technical, political and social issues are considered as key areas to be addressed in any e-government exploitation plan; this paper examines how different perspectives on e-government definition, strategy, awareness and related organisational change influence implementation. The need to align central and local e-government plans, guidelines for local level implementation, user centred solutions, strong leadership and a common understanding of the definition of e-government are highlighted in the paper as some of the key components of good e-government implementation practice

Internship Experience at Accenture

This paper discusses my internship experience at Accenture and all of the things I learned from it. I worked out of Dallas, Texas, and it was a 10-week internship. Some of the things I discuss include financial management, financial analysis, profit margins, and professionalism. I cannot express how amazing this experience was and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work for Accenture. I hope you enjoy my experience and the key takeaways I had from it

Ole Miss Accountant – Fall 2007

Cover story: Accenture retiree inducted into Accountancy Hall of Famehttps://egrove.olemiss.edu/omaccountant/1016/thumbnail.jp

How is Human Capital Management Defined and Managed in Large Companies?

[Excerpt] The employer — employee relationship is in disarray: 59% of workers feel their company favors profits over people, 58% believe there are limited growth opportunities in their organization, and 69% would be more satisfied if their employer better utilized their skills and abilities. Thus, a company must consider how to reinvent people strategy to improve engagement. This summary will illustrate the value of strategic human capital management, outline how organizations have adopted a human capital mindset, and provide recommendations for the future workplace