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In 2013, Accenture launched a new business services group entitled Accelerated R&D Services,^[1] or Life Sciences Accelerated R&D Services.^[2]

my gut feeling is that nobody who has influence over this article will accept this unless there is an article about this entity. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 00:58, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I'm back again with a few more suggestions for this page. As discussed above, I'm working here on behalf of Accenture, and so have a financial COI. I thus won't make any direct edits to the article.

• First, the net revenue figure has, once again, been changed to the wrong figure, despite the source used having the correct figure of $28.6 billion. Can someone please change this figure back to the correct amount?

• Related, given the constant changes to this figure, I'm wondering what editors would think about semi-protecting this page for a bit, in the hopes that the edit will stick a become a bit more evergreen so we don't have to keep revisiting it?

• Second, there were recently two links added to the External links section ("Accenture's Customer List" & "Accenture's Partner List") to Spiderbook, a commercial website for finding connections at possible client's companies; this doesn't seem appropriate to be linked here, so I'd like to ask that these links be removed.
• Finally, Accenture recently changed the name of it's Business Process Outsourcing unit; it's now called simply "Accenture Operations". However, there isn't a third-party source that discusses this. Their website has been updated, though, and from the language therein (and the URL), you can see that Operations has supplanted the BPO language. The name change is also discussed in this blog post. I realize this isn't great in terms of sourcing, but if an editor is willing to make this change under the Growth platforms section so that the page is accurate, I'd appreciate it.

If you have any questions about this, let me know! Cheers, ChrisPond (Talk · COI) 15:04, 22 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

 Done. Silver seren took care of numbers 1 and 2 by restoring an earlier version. The revenue figure has been fixed and those inappropriate external links have been removed. I had a look at number 3 (including the links you posted). While there isn't a specific third-party source, the claim itself is not a controversial one - it's just the name of a functional division. My personal view is that a primary source would be acceptable for that particular undisputed fact anyway. If someone has a significant objection then we can revisit it. Stalwart111 22:02, 23 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Please provide a full financial statement source in order to support the information provided in financial figures. I just don't understand why one source for revenue while another source for other figures. It would better to provide one common source. See other articles like Microsoft, Google or GE.--♥ Kkm010 ♥ ^{♪ Talk ♪} ߷ _{♀ Contribs ♀} 23:27, 30 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, but your efforts so far have been to blindly edit-war things into the article without discussing them here and your first contribution to the talk page is to question why something that has been explained several times has been done a particular way? Maybe start by having a read of what has been discussed previously - I think you'll very quickly have an answer to your question. Stalwart111 04:05, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I concur with Stalwart on this. I understand and acknowledge your point, ♥ Kkm010 ♥. It would be best to have a full financial statement source, however, we have been doing thing this way for awhile. Accenture is a huge messy multinational, and unless I were doing financial statements analysis for an employer (e.g. as due diligence for M&A, debt rating or securities issuance) there's no way I'm doing that here. Also, that isn't what Wikipedia is for, regardless. We only update about 5 financial data points in this article, so referencing a full financial statement is overkill. Keep in mind that we are providing what iis of most interest on this article based on feedback, and that numerous editors have settled into a routine of updates, despite some (like myself) being strongly opposed to paid editing. Chris Pond is scrupulous, Stalwart and I implement or push back as needed, various others with greater authority (or age, or experience, or low tolerance for nonsense) intercede periodically. It works. Stalwart made a good suggestion to you.--FeralOink (talk) 21:30, 9 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

ChrisPond, I meant to ask you a question. Should we continue to have Accenture listed as part of Wikiproject Chicago at all? I think it was discussed before. Accenture could be in a lot of other better suited WikiProjects than Chicago, or just one fewer than it is part of currently would be okay!
Second point, yes, thank you for asking that those Spiderbook URLs be removed. They were totally inappropriate/ spammy.--FeralOink (talk) 21:39, 9 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

• made the following changes--added criticism section and included obama care in Honour's list. Rim sim (talk) 10:23, 30 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I've undone one of the additions and amended the other. The awarding of a contract (and a fairly minor one in the context of the company) is not an "award" that would fit into that section. The other addition included a word-for-word block quote (uncredited) lifted from the source article. I've left the note itself but I've removed the uncredited quote. St★lwart¹¹¹ 14:02, 30 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand the reason for this revert. The numbers don't need interpretation and come from the annual report, the same as the 2013 numbers. --NeilN ^{talk to me} 15:16, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there. As ChrisPond has in past, I am working as a consultant to Accenture to help them improve this article. After reviewing the content, I have several updates to suggest. Many of these changes are simply maintenance and do not significantly alter the content of the article. However, because of my financial COI, I will not be making any updates myself and instead ask other editors to review my proposed material carefully.

Firstly, I'd like to propose updating the number of clients in the Fortune Global 100 that appears in the intro. The most current figure is 89 and can be sourced to this Chicago Tribune article.

•  Done This edit has been made. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 14:02, 2 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Secondly, the Growth Platforms section may also be updated. There have been some changes to both Accenture's Technology and Operations growth platforms and as a result, the language about them can be revised to better reflect what each is responsible for. This article describes the realignment of Technology under new leadership and the broadening of Operations to include infrastructure and cloud services. The new language and sourcing I'm proposing are below:

In addition, there are now 2014 rankings available to update several of the items in the Awards and Honors section. These updates are below and include the first five bullets currently in the section. I have not added any new awards, just corrected the ones already listed to represent the most current standings and recent sourcing.

Finally, I'd like to suggest removing two sections:

• The Workforces subsection is outdated and lacks sourcing. The company eliminated its workforces in September 2014 and they were not replaced with a comparative structure.
  •  Done This one has been removed. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 14:02, 2 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
• The Notable Recent Projects section is also outdated and, due to the nature of using the word “recent” in the heading, would need frequent updates to stay current. Not to mention, having a section like this invites edits adding information that's not necessarily encyclopedic. I'd like to suggest removing it and placing future noteworthy projects in the ‘’History’’ section instead, which is more typical for company articles than a section like this that collects "recent" work.

Thanks in advance for reviewing these requests and please do let me know if there are any questions or feedback on the above. If these changes seems appropriate, I'd appreciate if another editor could make them in the article. Thanks. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 21:47, 23 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Pinging this page again to see if any editors who watch this article can help with the above request. Also, the details of the company's headquarters in the infobox is incorrect: Accenture is not headquartered in San Francisco. There's no citation given, so can this be removed? Technically, the company doesn't have an official headquarters, although it is incorporated in Ireland, so saying "incorporated headquarters are in Dublin, Republic of Ireland" in the introduction wouldn't be entirely wrong. Thanks! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 22:09, 12 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi 16912 Rhiannon, sorry I haven't had a chance to get to this before today. I was able to have a quick look a couple of days ago but there were some concerns and I didn't want to address them inadequately. The first item I've addressed and have made that change with that reference. The last (in the comment preceding this one) has also been addressed in the infobox and in the lede.

The first of the proposed changes (the larger two) has a few problems. The two aren't particularly strong - one is an "anonymous" article which would seem to be a copy-paste of a company press release and the other is a release of information from the company. The language they are proposed to support is a little flowery. Nothing too problematic but those two citations alone are probably not strong enough to justify it. Probably just a matter of toning down the language a little and finding some alternate sources. #1 probably isn't of much value and #2 is a primary source.

The second change is fine. I might do that in one hit once we get the first one sorted.

I agree with the last two items. "Notable" means something specific around here and none of those projects are "notable". That said, they might be "significant" to the company. But we probably need a list of actually significant projects and not just the recent ones. I'll get rid of the workforces section now.

Happy to discuss anything in more detail if we need to. St★lwart¹¹¹ 23:33, 12 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Stalwart111, thanks so much for taking a look at these for me and making those first few edits. I'm looking again into sourcing for the Technology and Operations information and I'll work on adjusted wording for that, too. Once I have that, I'll ping you here to check it out. In the meantime, I wanted to ask what you think the best course of action is for the Notable Recent Projects section? Are you ok with deleting that entirely or do you think the listed projects should be incorporated into the History section? Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 15:00, 15 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I think that section has two problems - the "notable" part and the "recent" part. "Notable" means something specific here and while readers might not understand that, its strange to include a list of "notable" projects when none of them are actually notable (with articles of their own). In that sense, they should be projects that are significant (to a broader audience than just the company) or significant to the company's history (projects that led to considerable growth or the opening of a new regional office or something along those lines). In that sense, we're looking for projects significant to the company's history and so including them in the history section makes sense. But we need to decide, first, which projects should be included. The "recent" part is a problem also - why only the "recent" projects? That doesn't really make sense. St★lwart¹¹¹ 22:51, 15 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Stalwart111: many apologies for taking so long to come back to you on this. I've been working with the Accenture folks to see if there was any additional sourcing for the Technology bullet point, however, I've been unable to find any really strong sources. The best I have is an All Things D piece which mentions the research and development arm of the Technology growth platform. However, since the existing language in the article is so "flowery" (to borrow a term from your earlier reply), and not fully supported by the existing source, so I'm loath to say it's fine to leave it as is. What do you think to using the company's website plus the All Things D article, and amending the wording to make it less jargony?

For the Operations bullet, there's just a little bit of industry-speak that's necessary (BPO -- happily there is a Wikipedia article for this, so it isn't left to readers to work it out), but otherwise, I have pared it down significantly and found another, stronger source. What do you think about the below updated wording?

If this language works for you, would you be able to add it into the article in place of the current bullet points? Also, I think you were coming down in favor of moving the Notable Recent Projects into the History. All three of the projects mentioned garnered media attention, and I think are high profile enough to be included in the company's History. The US-VISIT information doesn't currently have a source, but this Washington Post article can be used to support the first two sentences. Let me know what you think! Thanks again, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 20:46, 18 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'm certainly not the only person who can help with this so my opinion shouldn't be seen as carrying any more weight than anyone else's, but I still have concerns about those sources. They are still better than what is there at the moment so I would be happy to make those changes, but it would be good to get better ones if we can (and I will wait to see if that is possible). The "Lauchlan source" isn't really a "Lauchlan source" at all - it is large blocks of a statement from Nanterme interspersed with single lines from Lauchlan. That's not a problem, really, as Nanterme is a reliable source for information about his own company's operations. But it certainly isn't an "independent source" so a more independent source would be better. Analysis by someone of that statement, for example, would be a better option. Thoughts? St★lwart¹¹¹ 05:28, 19 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Stalwart111: I certainly agree that fully independent sources providing their own analysis of Accenture's operations would be ideal, however I have been unable to locate any recent ones clearly discussing either the Technology or Operations growth platforms. Given that the existing language for both is quite promotional and either unsourced, or the citation used is an Accenture source that doesn't actually support the information given, I do feel like the alternative language and sources I've provided are an improvement. In both cases, the wording is much more straightforward in its explanation of what those growth platforms do, more in line with what's appropriate for a primary source (or secondary source quoting a primary one) to support. Given all this, do you feel it's reasonable to go ahead with the changes? If you'd rather leave these two items and look at the other changes (the Notable Recent Projects section, and updating the awards information), I would absolutely understand. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 22:42, 20 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Just to follow up on my above comment, re: the Notable Recent Projects section, this information definitely isn't crucial to Accenture's history, so if editors were ok with it, I'd be just as happy to simply delete the section. Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 16:38, 25 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Pinging here again to see whether Stalwart111 or any other editors can help resolve the remaining requests for the updates. Just to make things clear, here's what remains and outcome of discussion so far:

• Updating language and adding sources for the Accenture Operations and Accenture Technology bullet points under Growth Platforms: Stalwart111 was concerned about the lack of independent secondary sourcing for all of the details for these, however the current language is entirely unsourced and quite promotional and the alternative version proposed adds citations and provides a more straightforward, non-promotional explanation of these growth platforms. (See v2 in collapse box above)
• Updating the Awards and Honors section
• Removing the Notable Recent Projects section: Stalwart111 and I have discussed this above and I do not believe there is a clear consensus one way or the other between removing entirely or moving the details into the History section. Since the information isn't vital to Accenture's history, I think it would be fine to remove entirely.

Hope someone can help with these requests. Please don't hesitate to ask if there are any questions at all. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 14:02, 2 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Since this has become so long and probably quite confusing to any new editors stopping by, I'm going to create a new section and summarize the requests and discussion there, as well as providing some additional sources and requests. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 15:52, 9 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Since I originally posted the above requests, some more items have come to my attention that can be updated in the article to correct some errors and bring things up-to-date. To make things simplest, I have closed the previous request and am putting all remaining queries under this one. Noting my financial COI again: I'm working as a paid consultant on behalf of Accenture and will not make any edits in the article myself.

Infobox and introduction corrections

• The dates in the infobox for Andersen Consulting no longer match the article text, they should be 1989-2001
• Foundation date in the infobox should be 1989, to match up with the above
• The revenue in the infobox should be $30.0 billion net, as is noted in the introduction
• Number of employees can be updated to 323,000 (February 2015)
  • Citation:<ref name=Factsheet>{{cite web |url=http://newsroom.accenture.com/fact+sheet/ |title=Accenture Fact Sheet |author= |date=28 February 2015 |work=accenture.com |publisher=Accenture |accessdate=9 April 2015}}</ref>
• The number of current clients from the Fortune Global 100 should be 89 per the source cited, not 91

Updating Awards and Honors

Since I previously proposed updating this section, some of the awards and rankings have released their 2015 details, so I've put together an updated draft below.

Remove Notable Recent Projects

As discussed previously with Stalwart111, the Notable Recent Projects section currently is lacking in citations and the projects listed are not actually notable. We didn't reach a clear outcome on whether to remove or move the details into History, but I'd be absolutely fine with simply removing this section, since the projects listed are not vital to Accenture's history.

Update Operations and Technology wording

The current language for Operations and Technology bullet points under Growth Platforms is entirely unsourced and quite promotional. I've prepared an alternative version that adds citations and provides a more straightforward, non-promotional explanation of these growth platforms. Although Stalwart111 was concerned about the lack of independent secondary sourcing for all of the details for these, the proposed wording is, I believe, an improvement on the existing wording.

If anyone is able to take a look at the above and make the changes in the article as they feel appropriate, that would be fantastic. Also, just as a heads up, I'm working on getting a new map released by Accenture to replace the current one in the article, so I'll post details of that here once the image is available. Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 15:56, 9 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]