John Kaltenmark
Director
Accenture Technology Consulting
Excellence in Technology
John Kaltenmark, director of Accenture Technology Consulting (ATC), sees the big picture. Kaltenmark, a former hockey player, likes to remind young consultants to pass the puck to where their teammate is going to be, not where they are now. He also practices what he preaches: when he and his
team sat down about six years ago to assess what clients would need in the years ahead, they saw that the best way to assist clients was to address the CIO's agenda rather than exclusively performing discreet technology projects.
"We thought, 'How could Accenture have the biggest impact, not just to make it through the dot-com bust, but more important, to emerge even stronger?'" recalls Kaltenmark. "The concept we developed was to address the whole of the CIO's agenda. That meant we would not just bundle our technology skills for systems integration or outsourcing work."
About a year ago, this vision officially birthed Accenture Technology Services, a 6,000-person strong organization that provides a complete portfolio of IT services. The staff was culled from Accenture's best and brightest technology consultants who were previously scattered across different industry groups, an IT strategy practice in the management consulting organization, systems integration, outsourcing and other areas of the firm.
A leading telecommunications infrastructure provider recently hired Accenture to help repatriate some IT functions it previously outsourced. Pre-ATC, the small project would have concluded once the transition was completed. Instead, ATC's experts looked at the big picture via a comprehensive diagnosis of the client's other IT functions. As a result, a $300,000 project grew into a $30 million project. More important, says Kaltenmark, "the company was delighted with the outcome, and so were we."
Kaltenmark reports that ATC has won hundreds of millions in work that may have otherwise passed on. "Prior to ATC, the different parts [of the firm's technology service expertise] used to essentially support sales and delivery of outsourcing and systems integration," says Kaltenmark. "There's nothing wrong with that, but we were missing opportunities. Not any longer."
—Eric Krell
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