Andersen Consulting Launches Foundation Software Organization; Creates World's Largest Enterprise Application Development Organization

Business Wire, Oct 13, 1995

NORTHBROOK, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--October 13, 1995--Andersen Consulting announced that it has completed the formulation of its new global Foundation Software Organization (FSO) that is responsible for serving its 1,400 clients with enterprise application development tools, methodologies and services throughout the world.

"Our new operating structure reflects the growing global demand for enterprise client/server based tools, methodologies and support," said Martin R. Brown, FSO managing director. "This demand is driven by the fundamental requirements for businesses to restructure operations to compete more effectively on a global basis, reengineer processes to reduce costs and improve business performance, and deploy new technologies to gain and preserve competitive advantages."

To form this global organization which was effective September 1, 1995, FSO consolidated its country-based resources into a network of regional competency centers that provide clients with consistent, high level support no matter where they do business. FSO consists of all resources related to the development, support and marketing of the firm's software development tools and methodology, including METHOD/1., FOUNDATION. for Cooperative Processing (FCP), DESIGN/1. and INSTALL/1.

"By restructuring into a virtual global organization, FSO now provides clients access to more than 600 professionals from virtually anywhere in the world," said Emerson Dickey, managing partner, Packaged Knowledge.

"This new structure comes into place as FSO is poised to complete its best year ever in 1995," Brown said. "We anticipate revenue for FOUNDATION to grow more than 10 percent by the end of this year to $95 million. Our flagship product, FCP, is our fastest growing component with growth of approximately 23 percent in the past 12 months."

"To support our clients with products that are open, global and high-performance, we recently committed to a three-year development plan for FCP that is part of a $30 million research and development investment," Brown added. "With Andersen Consulting's financial, technological, and knowledge capital supporting FSO, we are well positioned to ensure our customers that we will continue as the global leader in enterprise application development."

FSO recently moved its headquarters into the new Andersen Consulting Technology Park in Northbrook, Ill., which more tightly integrates FSO into the firm's technology operations. Likewise, FSO Europe-based operations recently moved into the new Andersen Consulting Technology Park in Sophia Antipolis, France. FSO Asia/Pacific operations are based in Melbourne, Australia.

"As a global organization, we build global requirements into our products," Brown said. "Most recently, we began to add support into FCP for the double-byte requirements of Asian languages, such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, a process we will complete by mid-1996."

According to Jack Wilson, managing partner for Industry and Packaged Knowledge, "FSO plays a strategic role within Andersen Consulting industry groups, such as utilities, financial services and state and local government, where consultants are building and implementing a variety of solutions based on FOUNDATION products. FOUNDATION-based solutions, such as CUSTOMER/1, lie at the heart of 27 of our largest utility clients, including the Southern Co. and Baltimore Gas & Electric. FOUNDATION-based tax administration systems are in use at more states than any other solution. Much of Andersen Consulting's leadership in the client/server market can be attributed to FSO's world-class product and support capabilities."

"Of our 140 FCP customers, more than 65 are in production with client/server systems that average more than 650 users, making FCP the most widely used environment for developing enterprise client/server systems," Brown said. "To provide our growing customers with greater networking and education opportunities, we have recently formed the FOUNDATION User Group, which will hold its global conference in May."

Ed Schreck, managing partner, Technology Services said, "As we have evolved our architecture tool strategy over the last year, it is clear FOUNDATION plays a key role in the development of mission-critical, enterprise-wide client/server solutions. FOUNDATION plays an important role in our custom systems development practice."

FOUNDATION PRODUCTS

FCP was introduced in April 1991 and quickly became the most powerful tool available for client/server development. Awarded a U.S. patent in 1994, FCP is composed of development tools, a message-oriented application architecture and support services. FCP tools are integrated via a LAN-based repository that allows groups of developers to store and reuse design objects for building client/server applications.

METHOD/1 methodology, which is used by more than 300 organizations, features nine customizable development routes to guide client/server, host, and packaged-systems projects of all sizes.

DESIGN/1 helps track and validate system design information, which is stored in a central repository and used to communicate information to users.