These aren't all management consultants. There's a lot of outsourced call centers, somewhat low-skill workers, systems integrators, etc. The vast majority do "real work" as opposed to just producing slideware. That said it's almost impossible to run a 800000 person company without treating your employees a bit like a herd of sheep.
Accenture do a lot of stuff. I've seen them do IT support functions for example – a whole load of boring leg-work stuff that could be automated, but might as well just be out-sourced to someone in a country with lower wages.
I'm sure for every management/marketing consultant, there are 5 developers and 20 people doing various data entry or support tasks.
Their 10% to 12% profit margin indicates they either have massive overhead, or more likely, they do not actually collect on that “$300 to $400 per hour” they charge.
Their revenue per employee shows an interesting history including what would now be considered over hiring recently... but there's also a distinct downward trend for the revenue per employee.
My experience with Accenture over the years, which may or may not be representative of the IT services branch, is that they hire for cheap at their centers in India, and bill 50x of what they pay the workers.
I have nothing against them. I understand that Accenture goes for the lowest pay possible. Quality is delivered accordingly.
Smart and experienced engineers in places like India have better things to do than working for Accenture.
It is still fascinating to see how big companies with supposedly smart people, keep overpaying for these IT mills. There is not a single one I have interacted with (Atos, Accenture, Tata), that hasn't provided a subpar service for a sky high fee.
> It is still fascinating to see how big companies with supposedly smart people, keep overpaying for these IT mills.
Blame management for this one - they still think that tech is an operational cost overhead, not a strategic long-term interest, for their companies, which is why a company like hertz paid a company like accenture $32 million for a site that was never delivered.
People cite these big numbers but the typical Tata-like reality is $70-80 an hour billed with $40-50 paid to the developer. The guy you have to wake up three or four times a day. This is much lower than the local consultancies which need at least $125 an hour with $80-90 going to the dev.
I have seen the same contractor kept around for 12 years, slapped down upon applying for FTE after ten years (GE). They would rather pay more than allow them into the FTE ranks--unless their pedigree fits. Humiliating.
I used to hire and manage contractors as an FTE and was a contractor initially at GE. As such, I participated in the yearly consultancy hourly negotiations and onboarding with HR. Had a spreadsheet with all of the consultants and their hourly rates for our division. When I hired I would only consider the $125 and up candidates.
I work at a small consultancy now where I'm a partner. We don't do any business with GE but we do contract with other large companies willing to pay our rates. And they do so happily, even through pandemics and downturns. Our consultants keep the majority of the billing rate--save for expenses like office space and other business expenses and the "sales team" (some of which also bill). FTEs overall are the lowest paid. Even the "managers." Few evaluate the deal because they reason that they get severance or will not be laid off as readily. Ignoring the fact that the contractor already built in the severance and doesn't want to go to the Christmas party.
I worked for an on-shore body shop, once upon a time. The reason why the compnay was successful was bc of the poor experience our clients had with off-shore body shops, like accenture - we fixed their work.
Given how poor the work they product is, I'll take that "retenue" and toss it in the nearest garbage can. [1]
They really are bad, I don't think people get the full extent of it until they experience it first hand.
I've been in client meetings where the devs (and managers) from an offshore Indian consultancy were in. Putting aside the huge language barrier due to the thick accent, they were barely able to comprehend English instructions. And to top it all off, they simply didn't know what they were doing (in this case Salesforce). Literally the thing they were hired as "experts" in, they couldn't do. All with zero shame throughout the whole ordeal. But the cheap price-tag and mountains of hidden technical debt were worth it for the client it seems.
After the meeting and talking with the client, I went ahead and assigned a go-getter junior from our side to research and figure out what needed to be done, handed it on a platter to them after a few hours, and they still couldn't figure it out when I asked about it weeks later.
What they were experts in, though, is re framing their failings on something or someone else. Instead of "we don't know where to find the API keys for this Salesforce API in the Salesforce GUI (and can't be bothered to google it)", they say "we would like to have a workshop about how you are integrating with our Salesforce API." where they weasel information out of others and make it seem like other parties did something wrong.
Had exactly the same interaction with Accenture, just with a different third party integration (ServiceNow?).
They couldn't even start the process of developing the integration. At some point, we assigned a guy to guide them somehow. Their lead would then report progress to our VP. At some point after a couple months, this guy announced that they finished the project, and were ready to move on to the next one.
What they didn't disclose was that the integration was basically done by our guy, who was too good-hearted to leave them alone. Of course, when it was time to start the new project, they had the same issue, we assigned another of our guys to help them, just that, this time, he was having none of it.
Still they lasted for several months after that (and at least a full team re-org).
