"The Avanade Success Story
I rarely mention by name organisations who I have done business with in the past. However, today I want to mention a little known IT consultancy called Avanade. It is a company born out of a unique partnership between Microsoft and Accenture and is a global IT player specialising in the Microsoft platform. It is not Avanade’s undoubted technological expertise which fascinates me, its the organisations ability to deliver outstanding profitability to its shareholders and world-class delivery capability to its customers.
The pursuit of excellence is a means to an end for Avanade.
My regular readers and friends will tell you that I have very few good things to say about the top 10 global IT consultancies. We all know that these guys are contributors to the persistent problem that is 70% IT project failure rates. However, Avanade is an exception to the rule, which has partially restored my faith in this sector of the economy.
Despite being a minnow in the world of global IT consulting (turning over around $500 million pa) Avanade punches way above its weight, and in my view will grow to be one of the worlds major players and perhaps even eclipse its big brother Accenture. Bets are on !
Avanade’s outstanding profitability /delivery capability stems from its ability at the company’s inception to cherry-pick the best aspects of the Microsoft and Accenture deliver/ business models and combine these into something special. I cannot detail the business models actually used by Avanade, but I can tell you that the delivery model is the most professional I have ever come across, bound together by ethics and a level of dedication and motivation among its staff that is unparalleled in the industry. Every Avanade employee is obsessed with their clients and what they do. Avanade “people” live and breath Avanade because they believe they are working for an organisation which employs the best of breed and will only tolerate excellence in everything they do.
In order to retain its staff, Avanade does not focus on sky-high salaries, but a real commitment to invest in its people. Combine some of the best in-house training with a clear and achievable career path and you have the makings of a dynamite delivery team, which will go anywhere, work any hours and achieve the impossible with the newest technology.
On the project management side of things Avanade has a higher than average project success rate, which has been partly made possible through the employment of some of the best project managers and associated project management process I have ever come across. Quality is the name of the game with regular audits and standards applied wherever you look. If you’re a project manager who has made his/her way up the greasy pole using spin then Avanade is not going to be for you . These guys only employ Jedi project managers who are obsessed with the tough world of real project delivery. If you’re a Project Manager wanting to work for a company which represents the future of IT project management then give Avanade a call.
I have been told that some competing organisations have tried to emulate the Avanade business /delivery models and failed. Avanade is a unique organisation and in my view will grow up to be one of the world’s largest IT consultancies in coming years. If it ever decides to go public I will be the first in the queue to buy shares. "