لخّصلي

Internet was incepted in Bangladesh in 1996 and since
then it has been widely used to serve multiple purposes
(Ahmed et al., 2015). New information and communi-
cation technologies (ICT), in particular high-speed inter-
net, were changing the way companies did business,
transforming public service delivery and democratizing
innovation. With 10 per cent increased in high speed inter-
net connections, economic growth had been increased by
1.3 per cent (World Bank, 2014). While the challenges
faced by each developing country was largely determined
by its local, cultural, political and economic conditions;
some favourable factors were also there to aid in imple-
menting successful information technology (IT) strategies
(Ahmed et al., 2014). Internet penetration rates in the
developing countries continued to lag far behind than that
of the developed ones. Over the past decade, developing
countries had witnessed rapid but uneven growth in ICTs’
access and use (World Bank, 2011). In corporate arena, the
dominance of ICT could be defined by its impact on cost
efficiency and productivity. ICT was critical to any com-
pany’s growth because it incorporated standardization,scalability and minimalism in the business model (Ahmed
et al., 2014). Companies were using specific information
technologies to manage human resources, office manage-
ment and vehicle management as well as to support their
regular hardware and software requirements. From 2008 to
2013, over a 40 per cent growth rate was achieved in soft-
ware and information technology-enabled services (ITES)
industries resulting from high demand for IT automation
in domestic industries and improved IT infrastructure in
Bangladesh. ICT brought about amelioration on speed, dili-
gence, versatility and accuracy in business processes that
ultimately uplifted the overall performance of the company.
Due to the abundance of talented workforce and relatively
low wage rate, South Asia became one of the lucrative and
cost-effective choices for IT outsourcing. However, most of
the countries failed to capitalize the benefits except India
which accounted for half of global IT-business process out-
sourcing (BPO) services (amounts to revenue of USD 59
billion in 2011) (The Economic Times, 24 August 2011).
Information Technology in Bangladesh:
An Overview
Since 1980s, Bangladesh had commenced using computers
as a research and data manipulation tool. Thus, emergence
of IT in Bangladesh was brought into the ground. A series of
steps were taken in 1997 in order to gear up the IT sector in
motion by emphasizing exports of software and IT services
(Ahmed et al., 2015, 2016, forthcoming). The industry had
a worth of USD 400 million and employed approximately
70,000 professionals (Ahmed, 2014). The IT sector of
Bangladesh was backed up by an unprecedented progres-
sive policy where government allowed total duty-and-
tax-free import of all computer hardware and software
which encouraged the usage and applicability of computers
and related activities; hence, promoted the enlargement of
IT industry (The Daily Star, 6 January 2010; Wordpress,
2013). The local market had been the focus of some 110
IT companies competing to grab a chunk (Ahmed et al.,
2015, 2016, forthcoming). However, the exports by this
sector amounted to be around of USD 100 (annualized)
during the period 2012–2013 (Ahmed, 2014). This opti-
mism could be secured by the presence of favourable factors
such as trend of automation in local companies, large
demand in global offshore market and outsourcing industry
etc. (The Daily Star, 6 January 2010). This sector had long
left the stance of being a hardware vendor industry and
renewed itself by revolving around three major activities—
application services, engineering services and business
process services. About 8 per cent companies were estab-
lished through joint-venture with overseas companies or as
an offshore development centre, which were funded fully
by foreign investment. Availability of qualified and experi-
enced young graduates from various academic disciplines
at a low wage rate made the IT sector very prospective and
lucrative to entrepreneurs. The existence of high numbers
of young entrepreneurs made the sector very distinctive
from others and these young entrepreneurs were mainly
tech savvy young local graduates along with many home
returning foreign graduates. In confronting both local and
global economic competition, these young IT entrepreneurs
were invigorated the whole sector by conducting excep-
tional IT projects to put up successful and sustainable
IT businesses. The telecom sector, along with financial
institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and RMGs had
all initiated large scale business process automation pro-
jects to broaden the scope of software and ITES companies
(Shinkai & Hossain, 2011). Local availability of required
qualified IT skills (improved proficiency in English
language and analytical ability) at a relatively low-cost-
enabled Bangladesh to become one of the alluring desti-
nations for outsourcing. In addition, investment friendly
policies, e-governance projects and rapid development
of internet technologies were initiated by Bangladesh
government to provide added incentives in this arena
to deal with increased demand for IT services (Access
to Information Programme, 2011; Financial Express,
10 January 2009; Karim et al., 2011). As a result, IT
industry in Bangladesh had exhibited tremendous perfor-
mance in terms of employment creation, rapid growth and
contribution to country’s GDP.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information
Services (BASIS)1 and Bangladesh Computer Samity
(BCS)2 were two industry bodies representing the IT sector
of Bangladesh. According to BASIS (2015) there were 898
registered software and ITES companies (in addition to
many unregistered small and home-based software and IT
ventures) employing over 20,000 professionals. According
to another survey on 300 BASIS companies, almost 70
per cent of the companies were engaged in development
and maintenance of software and almost 50 per cent of
them were also providing various IT-enabled services such
as data/form processing, graphic/web design and content
management. Wider internet access, better connectivity and
introduction of online payment method worked like cata-
lysts to ensure an equal opportunity platform for all players.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission
(BTRC, 2015) points out that, at present, around 95 per cent
(51.982 million) use Internet through mobile network and
5 per cent (2.076 million) use broadband Internet. Socio-
demographic changes were inevitable when growing number
of internet users pushed the IT industry to the next level.
Local market was considered to be the major part of
business for the software and IT service (ITES) industry.
Approximately 63 per cent of BASIS member companies
were focused only in local market that had demonstrated
a healthy growth of around 25 per cent. While ITES com-
panies were accounted for 56 per cent of the total revenue
generated in the industry, rests were provoked by soft-
ware companies (BASIS, 2014). As mentioned before,
there were 898 existing software and ITES companies in
Bangladesh; however, only 20 per cent of them employed heir devotion in exporting products and services to over
30 countries. The industry experienced a 28.14 per cent
growth in export in the year 2011, creating more optimism
for the companies operating in the sector (BASIS, 2014).
Although the US market, notably North America was the
major importer of IT products from Bangladesh, other
countries such as UK, Australia, Japan, India, Netherlands
and UAE were gradually coming in the picture (Shinkai &
Hossain, 2011).
Accenture Bangladesh:
The Business in Brief3
Accenture and GPIT came up with an agreement on 27
June 2013 to sell the stock for USD 10 millions in order to
form Accenture Bangladesh (previously operating as GPIT)
as a new venture. It is one of the leading organizations in
the world providing management consulting, technology
and outsourcing services. They have offices and operations
in more than 200 cities in 56 countries with approximately
319,000 employees. It earned net revenues of USD 30
billion for fiscal year 2014 (Accenture, 2015). Accenture’s
four growth platforms: Accenture Strategy, Accenture
Digital, Accenture Technology and Accenture Operations
were the innovation engines through which it built world-
class skills and capabilities. It also developed social and
knowledge capital by harnessing and managing key assets
central to the development of integrated services and solu-
tions for its clients. Accenture promised to provide end-
to-end solutions for banking and non-banking financial
institutions, FMCG companies, pharmaceuticals and other
telecom companies. It started to recruit a team of talented
individuals internally and externally. The talent pool of
Accenture was solely dedicated to creativity, service and
efficiency. They were devoted to deliver client’s noticeable
transformations in their operational efficiency and strived
to provide end-to-end IT solutions in unsurpassed value
and quantity (GPIT, 2014). Accenture’s vision, as passed on
by GPIT, was to ‘become the most reliable Bangladeshi
IT company providing best value solutions both locally and
globally’ and their mission was to ‘Help transform business
through best IT solutions to reach new apex in productivity
and efficiency’ (GPIT, 2014). These goals gradually shaped
their strategy to be an outsourcing agent for international
firms and system integrator for both local and global busi-
nesses. Before being acquired by Accenture, GPIT Ltd. had
been modifying (starting from 2010, based on situational
factors such as the introduction of 3G communications in
2013) its strategic concerns to adapt with the rapid changes
in the market. Initially, it targeted Grameenphone (GP)4
as its only gigantic client to safeguard financial security.
However, it eventually realized to expand its customer base
internationally through constructing a rigorous business
strategy that assembled its strengths, opportunities and
organization-wide commitment (all of which can be consid-
ered significant competitive advantages for any IT firm).
Accenture Bangladesh: Management
Objectives at a Glance
Since its inception, Accenture Bangladesh has been strug-
gling to develop its value propositions. The growth of
IT-dependent businesses (10 new financial institutions
every year), de-pricing of internet cost and penetration of
internet connectivity forced the company to undertake
development initiatives through rigorous marketing of IT
solutions. It organized its services and people mainly in
three cross-functional teams. Accenture’s client engage-
ment team typically consisted of a combination of industry
experts, capability specialists and professionals with local
market knowledge. In 2015, they focused on an operational
strategy consisting of five major trends:
• ‘The Internet of Me’—a more personalized world;
• ‘Outcome economy’ where products became mean-
ingful from the results they produce;
• ‘Platform revolution’: Platform-based companies are
capturing more of the digital economy’s opportunities;
• ‘Intelligence enterprise’ with big data software intel-
ligence will make it easier for machines to make
better informed decisions;
• ‘Workforce re-imagined’: machines and humans
are amplified to do more conjointly (Shamsuddoha,
2015, p. 3).
The Critical Issues: Changing Times
The idea of GPIT was conceived by Oddvar Hesjedal, the
CEO of GP during 2008–2010. He envisioned establish-
ing an outsourcing hub in Bangladesh. With increasing
labour costs in India, and the decreasing cost of capital
in Bangladesh, the country was on the verge of becoming
a popular outsourcing destination. The company was initi-
ated to capture international contracts and acted as a system
integrator for local industry. Operating at local market
was a necessity for the company’s initial stages of survival.
Accenture was working to realize the vision of being
leader in the local market for enterprise grade IT software
and was also supervising to manage solutions for quality
mobile software in terms of design, maintenance and train-
ing. It also had selective partnerships with international
IT giants such as Huawei, Oracle, Dell, Cisco, Hewlett-
Packard and Microsoft to insert the international standard
product and service offerings for all of its deliverables. In
order to sustain its performance in Bangladesh, Accenture
had to deal with the following critical factors.
Frequent Changes in Management
Accenture Bangladesh including its previous identity
had relatively decent operation in Bangladesh with 400
employees during 2010–2012; it had already witnessed many changes regarding quality and quantity of workforce
size. Within that short span of time, the company had
experienced three CEO’s, two COO’s and three head of
marketing and numerous other top- and mid-level changes.
Therefore, every time a CEO or a COO had been changed,
strategic priority and cultural aspects were also altered
accordingly. In addition, it caused a very rapid conversion
of existing management team as well as subordinates,
pushed the company in creating job insecurity and caused
delay in applied operational activities. As a result, stability
of the company was also hampered.
Living Under the Shadow of Accenture
GPIT had confronted an identity problem from the very
beginning when it was inaugurated. It was mostly per-
ceived as an IT division of GP, rather than regarded as a
separate entity which was a sister concern of GP. It was
so because of the age, size, scope and influence of GP’s
business activities in local market. However, the issue
was resolved when Accenture acquired the key control
of ownership as it already had earned reputation of becom-
ing global leader in its industry. So, Accenture could be
able to come out from the shadow of GP to articulate its
fortune with own image.
Accenture integrated its business operation with tech-
nology in order to form a technology-enabled strategy.
Its business strategy, technology strategy and operation
strategy revolved around its operational model to drive up
value. A matrix structure form was found as operational
model of Accenture, where the first axis was dedicated to
operating groups, or industries of its clients. Broadly, the
five operating groups were:
• Communications, media and technology
• Financial services
• Products
• Resources
• Health and public services
The five operating groups further comprised 19 industry
subgroups. The accountabilities of these subgroups were
to bring about industry evolution through familiariz-
ing new applicable technologies and focusing on other
business issues.
The International Market: With a
New Entrant
Accenture had established itself as a leader in global
marketplace. It was well known for its offerings and capi-
talizing on evolving management trends and technologies
to benefit its clients. The company wide system integration
and business integration led the deployment of enterprise
resource planning (ERP), customer relationship manage-
ment (CRM) and electronic services. It was much easier
for Accenture to expand into international markets with
the image they had. Since Accenture was the leader in
their area, it would become easier for them to attract more
clients from different parts of the world. Moreover, taking
control of the Bangladeshi market was more convincingly
done by the management team inherited from GPIT.
The combination of local knowledge, international reco-
gnition of Accenture Bangladesh and the availability of
more resources were promising better performance for
Accenture in future.
Lack of Structured Marketing Efforts
Accenture Bangladesh including its previous identity faced
the challenges of delivering structured message of its
vision through proper promotional campaigns. Moreover,
it lacked a planned marketing team while operating in the
fastest growing and most competitive arena in Bangladesh.
Accenture only did its marketing through IT seminars,
fairs and sponsorship of some local software expos, which
could barely highlight its full potentiality. Merely a primal
website was used to accomplish marketing communi-
cation, well evidenced for inadequate marketing efforts
until the end of 2011. The marketing budget and efforts
had begun to increase significantly since 2012, and the
company was being able to unify finally in terms of long-
term strategic objectives. The company started investing in
market research, and focusing its efforts on becoming more
attractive in local and global markets through continuous
advertising and awareness campaigns.
Accenture Bangladesh:
IT Challenges and Beyond
According to Jon Fredrik Baksaas,5 ‘Accenture has the
competence to offer modern services and we have our own
network and market to provide digital services jointly.
By this, we can also find new investment avenues in the
ICT and telecom sectors’ (The Daily Star, 13 May 2015).
In Bangladesh, different strategies had been availed
for successful development and implementation of IT.
While internet penetration rates were rising with growing
number of users in the last decade (Ahmed et al., 2014),
Bangladesh lagged behind in facing dreadful challenges
in the IT sector. Absence of proper operational practices
and guidelines for data standardization and security made
the overall procedure lengthy and difficult. The major
obstacles in its path of creating digital society were full
utilization of capacity and scope at a time of upgrading
ICT infrastructure. Moreover, ICT facilities were asym-
metrically distributed where the large segment (rural area)
of Bangladesh lacked access to basic technologies (Ahmed
et al., 2014) in comparison to the urban area.
Raihan Shamsi, CEO of Accenture Bangladesh stated
that ‘the target for USD 1 billion set by the IT industry can
be achieved if the following three issues are address such
as human resources, infrastructure development and policy support’ (The Daily Star, 4 November 2014). The three
issues would be considered as challenges for Accenture
Bangladesh and hereby precisely discussed below.
Human Resources
Focusing on developing human resource in the field of
IT is one of the most important issues in management
(Tohidi, 2011).
Infrastructure Development
According to Techopedia (2015), IT infrastructure refers to
the composite hardware, software, network resources and
services required for operating and managing IT environ-
ment of an enterprise. It allows an enterprise to deliver
IT solutions and services to its employees, partners and
customers. Generally, it is internal to an organization and
deployed within owned facilities. It can be used for internal
business operations, developing customer IT needs and
business solutions. Typically, a standard IT infrastructure
consists of the following components:
• Hardware includes servers, computers, data centres,
switches, hubs and routers.
• Software consists of ERP, CRM and productivity
applications.
• Human users such as network administrators, devel-
opers, designers and generic end users with access to
any IT appliance and service. It is also part of an IT
infrastructure, specifically with the advent of user-
centric IT service development.
• Network refers to internet connectivity, network ena-
blement, firewall and security (Techopedia, 2015).
Over the last decade, Bangladesh has promoted the idea
of an ICT. It made significant progress in the telecommuni-
cation sector except ICT.
Policy Support
According to Jon Fredrik Baksaas, ‘a predictable and
consistent regulatory framework is needed for sustain-
able growth’ (The Daily Star, 13 May 2015). In 2009, the
National ICT Policy was broadly reformulated across areas
including education, science and technology, infrastruc-
tural development, employment generation, private sector
development, agriculture, health and nutrition (Nyenrode
Business Universiteit, 2014). The government introduced
an e-governance vision and promotion programme for the
ICT sector. This vision should support the aim of deliver-
ing significant gains in terms of productivity and employ-
ment for both domestic as well as foreign investors. The
Government of Bangladesh (GoB) amended copyright
laws for software and other intellectual properties in 2000.
It introduced ICT Task Force and ICT policy in 2001 and
2002, respectively, and also established an ICT incubator
along with an e-governance programme under the ICT
Task Force in 2003. The IT sector was declared a key prior-
ity by the previous government (2007–2013) since it fits
their ongoing campaign to create a ‘Digital Bangladesh’
by 2021 (Ahmed, 2014). According to Nyenrode Business
Universiteit (2014) report, in order to further develop the
ICT sector and realize the export potential of the sector,
the government recently took several noteworthy initia-
tives such as
• All software and ICT-based companies, including
those under foreign ownership exempt from income
tax until 2015.
• Both a government sponsored long-term equity fund
and short-term working capital financing are offered
to ICT companies.
• A special hi-technology and software technology
park is being built by the GoB to facilitate the devel-
opment of the entire infrastructure needed by compa-
nies that outsource activities to them. Furthermore, the
government has established the Bangladesh Hi-Tech
Park Authority to operate the Hi-Tech Park.
Besides, International Trade Support Institutions (ITSI)
plays an important role in creating business opportu-
nities for Bangladeshi ICT and ITES companies. Over the
years several initiatives have contributed to the growth
of the ICT sector in Bangladesh (Nyenrode Business
Universiteit, 2014).
However, there are some issues which must be addressed
before establishing software companies and new initiatives
like Accenture Bangladesh can flourish in this industry.
Poor infrastructure including frequent power crisis and
slow and unreliable Internet connections are the most
immediate problems for the software industry of Bangladesh
(Ahmed et al., 2016, forthcoming). Similar to their counter-
parts, Accenture Bangladesh also comprehends the neces-
sity of ‘an uninterrupted power supply and a second
connection with high bandwidth’ (The Daily Star, 9 June
2011). Currently, Bangladesh is connected to a submarine
cable network that provides an Internet bandwidth of 24
gigabytes, but more speed and an alternative connection are
required in order to attract more overseas clients (Ahmed
et al., 2016, forthcoming). Furthermore, there were quite a
few barriers for any software company in Bangladesh but
they were no means insuperable. Affordable IT infrastruc-
ture, uninterrupted power system and high speed Internet
connectivity were central to the development of IT sector.
At the same time, IT businesses most often could not secure
their financial access in local financial institutions due to
the intangible nature of ICT products. It was arduous for
the Bank to measure the value of intellectual property
accurately in absence of a framework for the intellectual
property copyright. Moreover, there were few consequen-
tial gap between the existing education system and the
industry practices. Therefore, greater industry collaboration was needed to bridge this gap (Rahman, 2015). A serious
communication gap was evident between government
representatives and the ICT sector as government officials
had deficient knowledge on fundamentals of informa-
tion technology.
The Future of Accenture Bangladesh
The new management of Accenture Bangladesh was com-
posed of former GP and GPIT employees, foreign graduates
and local IT experts. Accenture’s first step towards the
future began with an analysis of current growth barriers.
Those barriers were included global competitors, sales
cycles, investment and risk averseness for long-term
growth, narrow casting international markets, grey prac-
tices in local markets and other IT firms and venture capital
investors. As far as internal factors were involved, the
company set out to investigate its shortcomings in terms
of bureaucracy, lack of efficiency in product design, pre-
sales, pricing and processes and lack of experience in
the BPO industry.
The vision for the future was precise and clear in deter-
mining each and every tier of the company. It engaged in
setting key performance indicators (KPIs) that would focus
on effective stakeholder management (strategic client,
partner and customer) by adopting very specific and effi-
cient operating strategy. The main strategic step was geared
towards positioning Accenture in a way that would identify
its core competitive advantages through specialized prod-
ucts/solutions and service excellence and expertise, not on
price. Integration of departments was attained by asking
department heads to take ownership of all the projects.
It enabled all teams to work coordinately in completing
commercial target. The company was also focusing on
relatively less developed international markets such as
Nepal and Bhutan, and offered its services as an original
equipment manufacturer (OEM) vendor to foreign clients.
The new strategy was appeared to be paying off. As
a result, the company had managed to establish itself at
the forefront of the IT industry in Bangladesh. It served
clients in over 15 countries and had partnership with
the local government towards developing the IT infrastruc-
ture in Bangladesh. Accenture also inaugurated training
and employee exchange programmes with many fortune
500 companies worldwide to facilitate knowledge transfer
and acquisition.
Notes

1. Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services
   (BASIS) is the national trade body for software and ITES
   industry of Bangladesh. It was established in 1997, the
   association has been working with a vision of developing
   vibrant software and IT service industry in Bangladesh. BASIS
   started its journey with only 17 charter members and currently
   its members about 900. Members of BASIS account for the
   lion share of the total software and IT services revenue of
   Bangladesh.


2. Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS) is the national associa-
   tion of the ICT companies in Bangladesh. BCS was established
   in 1987 with 11 members. The ICT industries of Bangladesh
   comprises of distributors, dealers, resellers of computer and
   allied products, locally assembled computer vendors, soft-
   ware developers and exporters, internet service providers,
   ICT-based educational institutions and training houses, ICT-
   embedded services providers etc. The total number of mem-
   bers stand 1,262 at present.


3. Accenture PLC is a multinational management consulting
   services company. It is the world’s largest consulting firm
   as measured by revenues and is a Fortune Global 500 com-
   pany. With its vast portfolio, Accenture PLC ventured on to
   Bangladesh as a world class consulting firm in 2013. During
   this time, the company had acquired 51 per cent of the shares
   of Grameenphone’s IT (GPIT) wing enhancing the market by
   tapping a very robust pool of skills and capabilities in the IT
   sector of Bangladesh. Currently, it is operating as a private
   company under the name ‘Accenture Bangladesh’ which is reg-
   istered in ‘the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms,
   Bangladesh’ as ‘Accenture Communications Infrastructure
   Solutions Ltd.’


4. Grameenphone (GP) the leading telecommunications operator
   of Bangladesh is part of Telenor Group which has presence in
   13 markets across Europe and Asia. GP started its journey with
   the Village Phone program: a pioneering initiative to empower
   rural women of Bangladesh. The name Grameenphone trans-
   lates to ‘Rural phone’. Starting its operations on 26 March
   1997, the Independence Day of Bangladesh, GP was the
   first operator to introduce GSM technology in this country.
   GP pioneered the then breakthrough initiative of mobile-
   to-mobile telephony and became the first operator to cover
   99 per cent of the Bangladeshi people with network.


5. President and chief executive officer (CEO) of Telenor, the
   majority shareholder of Grameenphone.