Accenture Ends Year On A High, Looks For Growth In 2020

‘What we see is most of our clients are in the very early stages of their transformation journeys. The starting points and speed are different by industry and company, but the scope of the ambition is consistently broad … clients choose Accenture for their largest and most complex transformation programs,’ says Accenture CEO Julie Sweet.

Accenture grew sales during its recent fiscal year to just over $43 billion, and achieved record quarterly bookings, even as the company steered through the uncertainty caused by the death of its longtime CEO, the search for a new leader and her appointment.

“We have demonstrated once again the durability and resilience of our business,” Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said in a call this morning with investors to discuss the firm’s fiscal year 2019. “The strong demand for our services positions us very well for fiscal ‘20.”

For the fourth quarter, Accenture grew sales to $11.06 billion, up five-percent, year over year, with a net income of $1.1 billion for 10 percent growth in earnings per share or $1.74. The company said it achieved record new bookings of $12.9 billion split almost evenly between its consulting business – which booked $6.1 billion – and its outsourcing business, which booked $6.8 billion. The company said 16 clients had bookings greater than $100 million dollars each.

The company experienced broad based, double-digit growth in its three “key imperatives” digital, cloud, and security services, said Accenture CFO K.C. McClure.

“We continue to extend our leadership position with growth at about two times the market,” she said.

For the fiscal year, Accenture grew revenue to $43.2 billion up 5 percent year over year. Net income for the full fiscal year was $4.85 billion, for an earnings per share of $7.36. The company also achieved record bookings for the year of $45.5 billion.

Sweet said large enterprises continue to turn to Accenture for digital transformation solutions that streamline operations and provide better outcomes for their customers.

“What we see is most of our clients are in the very early stages of their transformation journeys,” she said. “The starting points and speed are different by industry and company, but the scope of the ambition is consistently broad … Clients choose Accenture for their largest and most complex transformation programs.”

Verizon hired Accenture to transform its customer services experience and reduce the time customers spent on the phone, and freed up Verizon employees to handle the most complex calls.

“We helped Verizon use artificial intelligence, coupled with our deep understanding of the industry, to create digital assistant experiences at scale that can now address more than 70 percent of Verizon’s calls,” Sweet said. “In many cases, a 20 minute call with an agent has been reduced to a three to four minute digital interaction, significantly improving the customer experience.”

Accenture also streamlined call centers operations for a utility company, and the New Mexico human services department is using Accenture solutions to reduce the time to provide newborns with medicaid by up to 75 percent, Sweet said.

For fiscal 2020, the company expects revenue growth to be in the range of 5 percent to 8 percent for the year, with first quarter to arrive in that range as well for $10.9 billion to $11.2 billion in sales, the company said.

“I know Pierre (Nanterme) our chairman and CEO who passed away in January, would have been very proud of the accomplishments this year of the nearly 500,000 people including more than 7,000 outstanding managing directors,” Sweet said.