The Accenture Solution
Three of the key lines in Accenture's integration and consulting business are solutions engineering, which includes core systems design, systems architecture and systems building practices; technology research and innovation, which runs three technology labs; and Accenture's outsourcing business.
In solutions engineering, Accenture has spent the last few years getting closer to the technology platforms it believes are going to be dominant in the enterprise space,J2EE, Unix and Microsoft Windows and .NET. The other priority is the enterprise software space, which has been enjoying a resurgence of late.
"There was a view two years ago, as e-commerce was booming, that maybe enterprise solutions were passe and not much of a growth market," says managing partner of technology business solutions James Hall, who names SAP, PeopleSoft and Oracle as key partners. "That's very far from the truth. It remains a fast-growing and very important marketplace for us."
In addition to continually shaping and reshaping those solution areas, Hall's other mission is to keep Accenture's delivery process competitive from a cost perspective, finding ways the company can reduce pricing without affecting the quality of the overall solution. That effort resulted in the opening late last year of a brand-new solution center in India to join existing facilities in Spain and Manila.