Accenture Receives “Strong Positive”, Highest Possible Rating Given, in Leading Analyst Firm’s Consumer Goods Industry Sales Force Automation MarketScope Report

NEW YORK - Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has received a “Strong Positive” – the highest possible rating given – in Gartner’s report entitled “MarketScope for Sales Force Automation in the Consumer Goods Industry”1 for its Accenture CAS solution.

“We believe that this rating from Gartner confirms our strong position in the marketplace, and proves correct the many leading consumer products companies that have already benefited from the Accenture CAS software product,” said Stefan Joneck, who leads Accenture’s consumer goods industry software business.

The Gartner MarketScope rating follows Accenture’s acquisition of CAS, the leading provider of customer management and mobility solutions, in January 2011. The Accenture CAS software product combines Accenture’s consumer goods industry experience and global reach with the CAS software to create an integrated suite of retail execution and trade promotion management software applications and services. These include direct store delivery, field service, and trade promotion optimization. The Accenture CAS software product is part of the Accenture Software portfolio of products.

Fabio Vacirca, who leads Accenture’s Consumer Goods & Services practice in Europe, Latin America and Africa, added: “Increasingly demanding consumers, greater competition and rapidly changing technologies are revolutionizing the way people shop. Winning at the shelf will become even more important for consumer products companies than it is today, and we believe that the Accenture CAS solution is best placed to help companies achieve that goal.”

Gartner provided a comparative evaluation of Accenture along with 19 other leading providers of sales force automation solutions. To be considered in Gartner’s MarketScope, vendors must have at least $5 million in consumer goods SFA product revenue from consumer goods customers, specific to one or more of six key field sales processes. These processes are category management, trade promotion management, trade promotion optimization, volume planning, retail execution and monitoring, and settlement. These criteria automatically eliminate many startups as well as service providers that do not have a solution.

[1] Gartner “MarketScope for Sales Force Automation in the Consumer Goods Industry” by Dale Hagemeyer, March 9th, 2011.
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About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 215,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$21.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2010. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

Accenture Software combines deep technology acumen with industry knowledge to develop differentiated software products. It offers innovative software-based solutions to enable organizations to meet their business goals and achieve high performance. Its home page is www.accenture.com/software.

MarketScope Disclaimer
The MarketScope is copyrighted March 9th, 2011 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.