Avanade

Avanade Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Technology Services IT Consulting
Founded	April 4, 2000
Headquarters	Seattle, Washington
Key people	Adam Warby, CEO Andrew White, COO Steve Stone, CFO Tyson Hartman, CTO Chris Miller, CIO
Revenue	$1 billion (fiscal year 2010)
Employees	14,000
Parent	Accenture, Microsoft
Website	www.avanade.com

Avanade Inc., a subsidiary of Accenture plc., is a multinational IT consulting and software company that develops business software from a Microsoft products platform. Founded on April 4, 2000, Avanade is atypical amongst many systems integrators such as IBM and HP in that Avanade's services are specialized to the Microsoft software platform. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company had 9700 employees in 34 countries at the close of its fiscal year 2009. Avanade has 5,000+ badged staff located offshore in India, China, the Philippines, Spain, Morocco, Argentina and Slovakia who work in Accenture-owned delivery centers as part of a global delivery network.^[1]

History

Avanade was formed in April 2000 as a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft. Ownership was initially split between the two founding companies, with Accenture owning 51% and Microsoft 49%.^[2] In 2001, however, Accenture increased its ownership to become the majority owner and Avanade became a subsidiary of Accenture.^[3]

Through the joint venture, Accenture and Microsoft looked to enter what they perceived to be a largely untapped market for Microsoft-focused consulting services for companies in the Fortune 1000.^[4][5]

Acquisitions

To-date, Avanade has acquired five other firms:

• In 2003, Avanade acquired Brisbane-based DCG, a firm specializing in ebusiness consulting and integration.^[6]
• In 2003, Avanade acquired St. Louis-based G.A. Sullivan, a technology services company.^[7]
• In 2005, Avanade acquired Chicago-based en’tegrate, a services firm specializing in Microsoft AX deployments.^[8]
• In 2007, Avanade acquired Copenhagen-based HOB Business Solutions, a services firm specializing in Microsoft Dynamics AX solutions.^[9]
• In 2008, Avanade acquired Ghent, Belgium-based Quadreon, a services firm specializing in Microsoft Dynamics AX solutions.^[10]
• In 2010, Avanade acquired the US portion of the CRM practice from Ascentium, a US based consulting firm.^[11]

Operations

Avanade operates its business throughout 42 cities in America, Europe, Asia, South America, and the Pacific. These locations include:

Americas

• United States
• Canada
• Brazil - opened office in São Paulo 1 October 2010

Europe

• Belgium
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom

Asia Pacific

• Australia
• China
• India
• Japan
• Malaysia
• Philippines
• Singapore
• Thailand

Africa

• South Africa - launched on 1 September 2011

India and the Philippines supply Avanade with offshore consultants housed in parent company Accenture's delivery centers. Overall, these offshore workers comprise over 40% of Avanade's total workforce. Avanade relies heavily on offshore workers in India, China and other developing countries to help their customers achieve reduced costs.^[1][12][13]

Services

Avanade services center around three primary areas: application development and integration with the Microsoft .NET platform, infrastructure services aimed at streamlining, upgrading, and securing customer infrastructure investments, and a third, emerging area around delivering packaged ERP and CRM solutions, such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics AX.^[1]

Avanade's Service Line portfolio:

• Application Development
  • Application Integration
  • Application Lifecyle Management
  • Application Renewal
  • Azure Services
  • Digital Marketing
  • e-Commerce
  • Rich Internet Applications
• Customer Relationship Management
  • AOS for CRM
  • CRM for Consumer Packaged Goods
  • CRM for Insurance
  • CRM for Partner Relationship Management
  • CRM for Wealth Management
• Enterprise Resource Planning
  • Avanade Maufacturing
  • Avanade Professional Services
  • Avanade Retail Management
  • Avanade Wholesale Distribution
• Technology Infrastructure
  • BPOS Migration
  • Desktop Transformation
  • Elastic Datacenter
• Business Intelligence
  • Intelligent Warehousing
  • Performance Analytics
• Collaboration
  • Expert Source
• Outsourcing
  • Application Management for Commerce
  • Application Management for Dynamics AX
  • Application Management for Dynamics CRM
  • Application Management for MOSS
  • Application Management for .NET
  • Capacity Services
  • Infrastructure Outsourcing

Finances

According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, as of 2008, Avanade is 80 percent owned by Accenture plc (formerly Andersen Consulting), a multinational software and outsourcing firm. Microsoft owns about 17 percent of the company. The original founding members and early employees own the remaining 3 percent.

Avanade's business model is heavily dependent on Accenture. Nearly 65% Avanade's revenue comes from Accenture, primarily by serving as a subcontractor to Accenture.

In fiscal year 2007, Avanade grew revenues by 23% to $593 million and increased its global number of employees by 22%. Revenues were led by the company’s operations in North America (51%), followed by Europe (39%), then Asia Pacific (9%)

As of 2008, almost half of Avanade’s 8,000 workforce are Accenture employees on contract to Avanade. [1] A significant portion of Avanade's total revenue is obtained by subcontracting for Accenture and Microsoft. In fiscal year 2007, that amounted to more than 70% of total revenue for the company.^[1]

In 2007, 2008 and 2009, Avanade was believed to have undertook several rounds of layoffs. [2]

In 2000, Avanade was formed as a joint venture between Accenture, then Andersen Consulting, and Microsoft. Microsoft contributed $385 million cash ^[14] to support Avanade.

Awards

From Microsoft:

• Microsoft Global Enterprise Partner of the Year six times: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2001 (All 6 jointly awarded to Avanade and parent company Accenture)^{[15][16][17][18]}
• Microsoft Dynamics: President’s Circle and Inner Circle, 2007 and 2005^[19] 2006,^[20][21]

Additionally, Avanade work has received recognition via awards given to its clients:

• Microsoft Pinnacle Awards given to Avanade clients, Haldex and Wellmark, 2007 (award posting) and BGE Home, 2005 (award announcement)
• ZDNet awarded International SOS with its Smart 50 award, 2006. (announcement)
• Training Magazine’s Top 125 Global List, Feb 11, 2010 ([3])
• Avanade Recognized by IDG’S COMPUTERWORLD as One of the Best Places to Work in IT, June 15, 2009([4])

List of Avanade Awards won during 2009(award name / month / geography):

• Brill Street's Top 50 Generation Y Employers Chicago Oct US-Central
• Computerworld: 100 Best Places to Work in IT Jun Global
• Consulting Magazine: Best Firms to Work For Sept Global
• Crain's Chicago Business: Best Places to Work in Chicago Sept US-Central
• CRF Institute: Top Employer (Avanade Spain) Oct Spain
• Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle and President’s Club Aug Global
• Microsoft Enterprise Alliance Partner of the Year (Joint w/Accenture) Jun Global
• Microsoft Midwest Region Sales Excellence Partner Sep US-Central
• Microsoft Northeast Enterprise District Partner of the Year Oct US-East
• Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal: Top 25 IT Consulting Firms Oct US-East
• Computable: Women in IT Nov Netherlands
• Datamanager: Top 100 Nov Italy
• El Economista: Top Employer Oct Spain
• RRHH Digital: Top Employers 2009 Spain Oct Spain
• Computerworld: Top 100 Software and Services Sep Italy
• Sirmi: Top 200 Nov Italy
• Training Magazine: 2010 Top 125 Feb Global

Criticism

Some projects undertaken by Avanade have failed to deliver the desired objectives, the 2006 "CSTARS" project being one of the more publicly criticised projects. CSTARS was supposed to provide streamlined procedures and increased efficiencies for the State of Colorado's Dept. of Revenue. It took over 7 years to develop at a cost of about $10 million, but was unplugged in April 2007, just seven months after it was launched.^[22]

An independent report conducted by North Highland Co. found multiple problems with the project, although North Highland Co. acknowledged the State of Colorado had a "terrible reputation" for handling its computer problems, and Rep. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, said, "I suspect the failure rests on the shoulder of the legislature."^[23]

Legal Issues of Note

In 2006, Avanade began filing financial disclosure reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a requirement even for the privately held Avanade when their number of shareholders exceeded 500. (Avanade had 1,100 shareholders at the time of first filing in 2006.) [5]

While writing about the contents of the public SEC disclosure, Seattle Times noted that then Avanade CEO Mitch Hill's brother, Mark Hill, was on Avanade's payroll with a $7,000-per-month contract. Mark Hill, who is chairman of California's Marin County Republican Central Committee, was employed by Avanade to facilitate the company "in developing business with certain California governmental agencies." [6]

In May 2008, CEO Mitch Hill announced that he would be leaving Avanade to be replaced, per Board of Directors vote, by UK General Manager Adam Warby. Warby, a UK citizen, announced he will continue to work from Avanade's London office while Avanade remains headquartered in Seattle, Washington, USA. [7]

References

External links

• Avanade's Website www.avanade.com
• Avanade CRM Portal Avanade CRM Portal
• Avanade's Consultant's Blog Space The Avanade Advisor
• Avanade Inc. Fact Sheet as listed on Hoover's