Accenture Announces Key Leadership Appointments

Accenture today announced a number of appointments to its executive leadership team, effective Sept. 1, including new group chief executives for its Business Consulting and Outsourcing growth platforms and four of its five operating groups.

“As we begin our new fiscal year on Sept. 1, these appointments will help power Accenture’s growth and build on the success we’ve achieved over the past several years,” said William D. Green, Accenture’s chief executive officer. “When you combine the expertise and fresh perspective that the newest members of our executive leadership bring to the table with the deep experience of our current leadership team, Accenture is poised for even greater success in the years ahead.”

New leaders for two of the company’s three growth platforms, through which Accenture develops its knowledge capital; builds world-class skills and capabilities; and creates, acquires and manages key assets central to the development of solutions for clients, are:

Kevin M. Campbell: Group Chief Executive–Outsourcing
In his new role, Mr. Campbell, 46, has ultimate responsibility for the development and delivery of Accenture’s application outsourcing, infrastructure outsourcing and business process outsourcing services and solutions. He most recently served as Senior Managing Director–Business Process Outsourcing, responsible for developing new areas of opportunity for Accenture’s BPO capabilities; he also had operational and client management responsibility for BPO. Mr. Campbell rejoined Accenture in 2005 from Hewitt Associates, where he was market strategy and development leader of Hewitt’s HR outsourcing business. Mr. Campbell was previously with Accenture from 1982 until 1999. He succeeds Joellin Comerford, who will work closely with Mr. Campbell through the transition process. Additionally, Ms. Comerford will take on strategic assignments in the execution of Accenture’s strategic growth agenda as well as work directly on Accenture’s largest and most complex assignments.

Gartner Says Many Enterprises Are Frustrated With Their BPO Relationships Due To A Lack Of Understanding Of Their Service Agreement

Hype Cycle Report Examines 27 of the Most Compelling and Topical BPO Service Offerings

Through 2009, 50 percent of organizations involved in business process outsourcing (BPO) relationships will experience cost overruns and unacceptable service delivery quality, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner analysts attribute this frustration by enterprises to a lack of understanding of their specific BPO offerings in terms of market hype versus true market maturity.

“It’s clear that buyer’s across the market are experiencing consistent and pervasive hype concerning which processes and service providers can truly deliver on the promise of business process outsourcing,” said Lisa Stone, research vice president for Gartner.

“Companies must set up an internal BPO strategy in order to block out the hype and determine the best offering for them to achieve their goals,” Ms. Stone said. “This consists of measuring the environment, identifying the drivers behind why BPO is being considered and deciding which approach is best for entering into a BPO relationship. Then use a structured sourcing process through vendor evaluation, contracting and negotiating and creating an internal management support team to ensure that all details are in place to support the service before signing an outsourcing contract.”

IDC Forecasts Growth for Remote Access Services Software as Businesses Develop Continuity Plans

With tensions broiling in the Middle East, renewed threats for commercial aviation, and hurricane season upon us, businesses are assessing their risks and disaster recovery plans to meet potential security threats and natural disasters. A critical part of any disaster recovery plan is ensuring business continuity by providing employees, partners, and other constituencies with access to critical resources and data while they are away from the office. Remote access services software is one way to ensure this. According to IDC, remote access services are just now being recognized for their business continuity potential and this market is expected to experience a year-over-year growth rate of 34% through 2010.

Remote access services software has the potential to grow across many horizontal and vertical markets, IDC believes. It can be used by both consumers and businesses, as anyone with a PC is a possible customer. Remote access services use screen-sharing technology that enables one PC to stream its desktop to a remote PC by an Internet connection. Once on the remote PC, the user can access all of the applications sitting on their desktop via a Web browser. These products are offered as a service, but vendors may allow the application to be hosted within a customer’s datacenter as well.

To date, remote access services products have experienced the most success in the prosumer market. Now, there is a strong push to market these services to corporations. As a result, vendors are offering more than one version of the software, often with expanded administration and control functionality for IT professionals. Interestingly, vendors have found that their prosumer customers are often the ones that provide the initial inroad for corporate adoption.

LogicaCMG Buys Swedish IT Services Company WM-Data

This deal was the talk of the day in all IT gazettes:

In an effort to expand its reach, IT consultancy and outsourcing company LogicaCMG Monday said hat it plans to buy WM-data Nordic in a deal worth £882 million ($1.6 billion) in cash and shares.

WM-data, a Swedish IT services company, will help LogicaCMG target the Nordic region, the company said. LogicaCMG now mainly serves customers in the U.K., Netherlands and France but has been looking to grow into additional regions. WM-data is strongest in Sweden but also has customers in Finland, Norway and Denmark, said analysts at research firm Ovum.

The combined company would become the second-largest listed IT services company in Europe by market capitalization and would rank in the top 20 companies globally in terms of IT services revenue, LogicaCMG said. Combined, the companies earned more than £3 billion in revenue in 2005. Together, they have nearly 40,000 employees in 41 countries.