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

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

#101

Post by awinter-py » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:54 PM UTC

> According to a presentation at a MuleSoft conference in 2018 they had at the time around 1,800 IT systems, 6 database vendors, and 30 rental processing systems

'30 rental processing systems' interesting opportunity. the airbnb / squarespace rental ecosystem has a bunch of standards for syncing bookings, but I think they mostly amount to exchanging ical files. would be neat to develop a modern open protocol for inventory + then develop a hosting business around it -- applications in cars, retail (like that 'pointy' company google bought), sharing economy

like IBM is doing this now, zero chance their system is usable https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/inventory-visibility?topic=data-...

or this mckinsey whitepaper that's clearly not a thing you can use without a bespoke contract https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Retail/...

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

#102

Post by alexose » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:55 PM UTC

pembrook wrote: post #44

It’s impossible to overstate how funny the shenanigans get when you combine a technologically incompetent legacy big Co. with one of these big professional services firms. The IT consulting firm will tell you they have experience with literally everything. They’ll dig up a case study from one of their 400 offices somewhere, claiming to be experts on whatever the topic is. Meanwhile, in actuality, your project will be…

I worked alongside one of these firms on a government contract. I was impressed by how perfectly optimized they were to extract money. The team's function was to report perfect KPIs at all costs. Managers spent virtually all their time bringing in more developers.

Because "delivering a usable product" wasn't incentivized (specifically the 'usable' part, or what usability even meant), it was simply a race to generate specs, report on them with glowing optimism, and then stick as close to the letter of the specs as possible.

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

#103

Post by 0xCAP » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:55 PM UTC

I've never witnessed a single skilled professional working at Accenture in 10+ years of IT career. Period.

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

#104

Post by lowercased » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:56 PM UTC

orf wrote: post #38

> In its revised suit, Hertz states that Accenture represented that they had “the best talent in the world" > Hertz claims that they were far from experts in these technologies and that Accenture was deceptive in their marketing claims. Colour me surprised. > Accenture also failed to test the software, Hertz claims, and when it did do tests "they were seriously inadequate, to the point of being misleading." It didn't…

> bunch of executives asleep at the wheel who lacked even the most basic technical skills needed to see that it was a fantasy...

At some point, someone with technical acumen took stock of the situation and said "this is garbage". Why does this step always come last?

WTF. "They said they were the best, but they lied!" I bet you as Hertz had some competent technical folks who could have vetted them. You either have them inhouse (but you've overlooked them for years) or you engage an inspector/reviewer to vet the claims or review previous work. I buy a car, I can get a private inspection done. I buy a house, I get a house inspector to verify the claims.

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

#105

Post by doctor_eval » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:59 PM UTC

I worked as a vendor in a large telco project run by Accenture. In the middle of the project they “changed methodologies” - at the customer’s expense. Despite (IMO) selecting the right methodology up front being the whole point of hiring a company like Accenture, the managers at the telco were totally fine with this change - they were all working their asses off to ensure they got a gig at Accenture once the project was complete, they didn’t care about the telco at all.

The manager I worked under was absolutely complicit in this process of ripping off the customer. And while he was one of the worst managers I’ve ever worked with, he was very good at his main job, which - as I came to understand - was to get a job at Accenture.

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

#106

Post by TrackerFF » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 10:07 PM UTC

pembrook wrote: post #44

It’s impossible to overstate how funny the shenanigans get when you combine a technologically incompetent legacy big Co. with one of these big professional services firms. The IT consulting firm will tell you they have experience with literally everything. They’ll dig up a case study from one of their 400 offices somewhere, claiming to be experts on whatever the topic is. Meanwhile, in actuality, your project will be…

Learning by doing, while billing your clients $xxx/hr

The consultant way.

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

#107

Post by stuff4ben » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 10:08 PM UTC

Out of curiousity, what would the HN crowd recommend for the tech stack for a project like this? They had Angular, Mulesoft, and some other cruft I'm sure thrown in. What technology/languages/frameworks would work well enough to support Hertz and their subsidiaries for now and into the future?

Here's what I'd choose as someone who hasn't done something like this in his 25 year career: Some front-end framework (is React still relevant?), Java/SpringBoot, Kubernetes/KNative, some mesh, some back-end mainframe integration with their legacy systems...

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

#108

Post by antisthenes » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 10:09 PM UTC

bob1029 wrote: post #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.

Entirely feasible if there are a multitude of teams at Hertz with hands in the cookie jar.

Trying to coordinate between 10+ managers of varying seniority (in a legacy company who's struggling with tech) and prevent scope creep at the same time is an absolute nightmare scenario.

I'd hate to be the Business Analyst in charge of that.

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

#109

Post by vsareto » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 10:09 PM UTC

orf wrote: post #38

> In its revised suit, Hertz states that Accenture represented that they had “the best talent in the world" > Hertz claims that they were far from experts in these technologies and that Accenture was deceptive in their marketing claims. Colour me surprised. > Accenture also failed to test the software, Hertz claims, and when it did do tests "they were seriously inadequate, to the point of being misleading." It didn't…

The more stories I hear about this, the more I'm inclined to be an executive-asleep-at-the-wheel because apparently they get paid a lot, do a terrible job, and nothing happens to them.

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

#110

Post by micromacrofoot » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 10:11 PM UTC

UltimateFloofy wrote: post #52

pembrook wrote: post #44

It’s impossible to overstate how funny the shenanigans get when you combine a technologically incompetent legacy big Co. with one of these big professional services firms. The IT consulting firm will tell you they have experience with literally everything. They’ll dig up a case study from one of their 400 offices somewhere, claiming to be experts on whatever the topic is. Meanwhile, in actuality, your project will be…

I was being billed at > $300/hr when I first got out of school at 21 as consultant. 24 would make someone a senior consultant!

My first job billed my time at $200/hr and my salary was $28k. I was 21 and they would literally put me on projects solo. Once a client was on retainer the execs disappeared and let fresh college grads do the work, it’s a total scam.

I tried another agency job 2 years later and it was exactly the same. Changed again a year later, and the same story. Had enough experience to quit and go freelance at that point.