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Hertz paid Accenture $32M for a website that never went live (2019)

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Re: Hertz paid Accenture $32M for a website that never went live (2019)

#11

My main question is: who hires Accenture for this kind of job, for no less than $32m??? They would be my last point of call, literally after my mum, and maybe even after my dog. At least he's cheap.

Hertz hired a new CIO in 2015, and you can't just come in and keep the ship running in the same direction. You need new, big, flashy changes! Not just $32M, actually over $400M in changes, to prove the CIO knows what he's doing. Compare the article with the CIO's self provided description of his 3 years at Hertz(from his Linkedin): > I was hired by Hertz to integrate and optimize technology infrastructure following t…

>My Achievements Include [...]

These all look like your typical resume inflating BS.

Reminds me of the Silicon Valley series satire from Mike Judge.

Re: Hertz paid Accenture $32M for a website that never went live (2019)

#12

My main question is: who hires Accenture for this kind of job, for no less than $32m??? They would be my last point of call, literally after my mum, and maybe even after my dog. At least he's cheap.

> My main question is: who hires Accenture for this kind of job, for no less than $32m

The cheapest people possible.

Re: Hertz paid Accenture $32M for a website that never went live (2019)

#14
"Content Management – Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) was the tool of choice to update and revise the content that appears on the website."

If you want to blow a massive development budget AEM is a great choice; otherwise I'd advise you to pick a different content system.

This decision alone probably sunk multiple millions of dollars.

The platform license alone for their operating scale was probably a half million or a million. What you get with that license is... the world's most complex and difficult content management system, that you now have to develop your whole platform around. Since it's so difficult to learn and work with you basically need a full time AEM specialist team, which again blows your budget up potentially in the range of millions of dollars, and then continues to burn strong every time you need any kind of update.

Re: Hertz paid Accenture $32M for a website that never went live (2019)

#15
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The executive that hired Accenture paid them with OPM (pronounced "opium", known as "other people's money"). Accenture is a safe choice because nobody got fired for hiring Accenture. This executive likely jumped ship to another venture before the project failed, in the interim heralding themselves as a leader of a major strategic initiative. Long gone.

>nobody got fired for hiring Accenture Are you sure? It's not a name that inspires confidence.

Clients think a large consulting firm like Accenture can throw more bodies at the problem or rotate out under performers if things start to go wrong.

Re: Hertz paid Accenture $32M for a website that never went live (2019)

#16

A client paid me $7,500 for a site in 2011, approved the final version, but never got around to giving me the hosting information. It never went live. The screenshots were fine portfolio pieces and I spent their money, but I’m still annoyed by that.

Don't feel bad. I paid a consultant over $10,000 a year ago and didn't go live with their code. The reason was not them, it was me. I did something without asking our dev team and it was a bad idea. By the time I got to my senses, I had spent over 10K. The consultant was great though. As founders, we sometimes do shitty and idiotic things.

Re: Hertz paid Accenture $32M for a website that never went live (2019)

#17
You have to wonder what proportion of GDP is money sloshing around like this but not providing any real value. The consultants got their paychecks and spent their money in the real economy, but there seems to be a great deal of waste in the B2B space.

Re: Hertz paid Accenture $32M for a website that never went live (2019)

#19
> Accenture and Hertz engage in phase 1 of the project, producing a “solution blueprint” that describes the functionality, business processes, technology, and security aspects of the envisioned solution. Fees paid to Accenture for this phase total $7M.

7 million dollars for requirements gathering?

Hertz should have known better. I'd pay just to see these contracts for entertainment value.

Re: Hertz paid Accenture $32M for a website that never went live (2019)

#20
Tech consulting, of the type Accenture does, is so weird. I once got staffed on a multimillion dollar project to "predict general macroeconomic activity."

The story described in this article just sounds so classic. I'm consistently surprised that more consultants don't get sued.

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