Why Business Management Consultants Are In Such Great Demand

Business management consultants have a very varied and interesting career, and are in great demand. Whereas managers in a traditional business situation are tied to one place of work, consultants get to work in a variety of situations. Many are freelance, which will also appeal to people who want to gain more control over their working life, and who want to create a small business of their own. Some kind of background in commercial management will be highly desirable, but even that is not necessary if you can demonstrate the right skills.

When you are in business on your own account, and looking to serve corporate clients who are averse to taking risks with the company's money, it is essential that you can demonstrate competence in your chosen field. The best way to do this is by having a respected qualification after your name. If you are worried about the possibility of studying, be assured that it is much easier than it once was. There is no longer any need to physically attend a college campus.

The world of online learning has totally revolutionized the education industry. For so many years, people were frustrated about their lack of opportunity. While they were desperate to train for a new career, they were also in need of the income from their existing job. Many also had young families which meant that studying anywhere away from home was completely impossible. Now, this huge sector of the market is being served, both by the established institutions we know so well, and by new players who have come into the market purely to serve the need for online learning.

Personal business management courses are among the most in-demand, but online learning means there is plenty of opportunity. There is also plenty of opportunity for skilled managers in the job market. Although there will be many qualified people as a result of the increased opportunities for learning, the business sector will be increasing at an even faster rate. The largest growth will be coming in the small and medium sized business area, and there will be many opportunities for qualified people to be earning good salaries.

There is no doubt that the small business sector is going to play a major role in helping the country to emerge from the economic downturn, and there is no doubt that management in business is going to vitally important in helping this to happen. Good management means efficiency, and efficiency means getting the most out of every resource available. Whether that resource is the employees of a company, or whether it is working hours or equipment, a good manager can get the most from them. Most managers in business would benefit from the guidance of an expert consultant, so there is going to be a lot of opportunity in the coming decade for business management consultants.

Resource http://www.businessmanagementinfo.com/articles/business-management-consultants.php

How To Prepare For A Consulting Interview

Where to look for consulting jobs

The most surefire way to score a consulting interview is through a network connection in the business or a contact at a firm.

"The thing about consulting is that most of the big management firms don't do postings on job sites. You're going to need to get introduced internally, or know a recruiter," Gao tells us.

Make sure you're working those LinkedIn relationships, as well as your school's alumni network and career services.

If you don't have any connections, you're not completely out of luck -- you just have to be more resourceful. Actively search for new contacts in the business, and be persistent in reaching out personally to recruiters at firms of your choice.

And check out Vault's 2009 ranking of the top 50 management consulting firms to make sure you're targeting the best companies.

The resume and cover letter

Image: iStockphoto

All consulting positions will require you to submit a resume with a formal cover letter.

"For the resume... keep it short, keep it results-oriented, keep it looking very, very nice," Gao advises.

"For the cover letter... keep it short, keep it focused on 1-2 important topics/stories only, and personalize it to the extent that you can (e.g., mention people you know at the firm, a tidbit or two about the company that you read in WSJ or NYT, etc)."

One thing Gao says to keep in mind, "For big companies, it's all about the resume. For small companies, the cover letter matters more."

How to dress

Image: karsten.planz via Flickr

The dress for a consulting interview is standard professional business attire: a nice, plain suit (for both men and women). As usual, make sure you're clean-cut (for men, clean-shaven), neat, and not wrinkled.

Gao's one warning: "don't be too fashionable." That means no flashy ties or trendy accessories.

Be neutral; keep it simple.

Be on top of current events in the industry

Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dead_sea_newspaper.jpg

You won't make it through your interview if you can't show that you pay attention to current events. Knowing what's going on in finance and politics (both domestic and international) is a crucial part of consulting.

Gao advises candidates to scan the general news the morning of the interview. It's even better if you also know what's been going on with the firm that you're interviewing with and you drop some of those tidbits into your interview.

The Case Study

Image: David Masters via Flickr

During the case study portion of the interview, you'll be given information about a business situation (real or hypothetical). You'll then be expected to analyze it and propose a solution.

The point of this exercise is to see how well you understand business, and how strong your analytical, problem-solving, and logic skills are.

The key to preparing for the case study is simply to practice, practice, practice -- you have to do as many practice cases as you can.

"Get grilled by friends and current consultants willing to help you," Gao suggests.

You can find plenty of sample cases on the web, or you can purchase a case prep book -- one of the most highly-recommended is Case in Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation, by Marc Cosentino

Sample case question #1 : Logic Question

You have a 3 liter bucket and a 5 liter bucket. How will you measure out exactly 4 liters of water? Assume you have an endless supply of water and no markings on the buckets.

Possible answer

Fill the 3L bucket and pour all of its contents into the 5L bucket. You now have 3L of water and 2L of empty space in the 5L bucket .

Fill the 3L bucket back up and pour as much as you can into the 5L bucket (i.e. 2L). This leaves 1L in the 3L bucket. Empty the 5L bucket and pour in the 1L of water you have sitting in the 3L bucket.

Now fill the 3L bucket to the top and pour it into the 5L bucket -- and you're done. 1L + 3L = 4L measured exactly in the 5L bucket.

(from Ace the Case)

Sample case question #2: Market-sizing/Estimation

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dawnzy/311586890/

Estimate the size of the U.S. disposable diaper market.

Possible answer

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dawnzy/311586890/

First, I’m going to assume that there are 250 million Americans. I’m going to further assume that the average life expectancy of an American is 75 years. I’m also going to assume that there are even numbers of people in each age group. And that there are exactly same numbers of 8 year-olds as 68 year-olds.

You divide 250 million by 75 and you get about 3.3 million people per age group. Children wear diapers from ago zero to 3 so that’s 9.9 million kids wearing diapers. So we’ll round it off to 10 million kids. You said disposable diapers. So I’ll estimate that 80 percent of children wear disposable diapers. So now we’re talking 8 million children wearing 5 diapers a day. That’s 40 million diapers a day times 365 equals approximately 14.6 billion diapers a year.

(from CaseQuestions.com)

Sample case question #3: Market-sizing/Estimation

How many ATM machines are there in the United States?

Possible answer

I live in Needham, Massachusetts. The population of my town is approximately 30,000. There are fifteen ATM machines in town so I’ll assume that each ATM services 2,000 people. I’m going to assume that the population of the US is around 260 million people.

Next I’ll divide 2,000 into 260 million and come up with 130,000 ATMs.

(from CaseQuestions.com)

The "Fit" Questions

Image: jared via Flickr

During the "fit" portion of the interview, the interviewer will ask questions about your personality and approach to work. They'll generally prompt you to offer examples of how you've handled certain situations in the past.

It's important to remember that how you answer the questions is just as important as what you're saying. Your interviewer is really trying to get a sense of who you are and how well you communicate -- essentially, whether you'd be a good fit as a consultant.

The best strategy: take every opportunity to promote yourself, and always follow-up any generalizations about your personality or experiences with specific examples.

"There are really only 20-30 questions that you'll get asked 80% of the time. Have your 2-3 bullet points for each answer NAILED, and improve off of them," advises Gao. Also "[practice] spontaneous improvisation... make sure you have the skills to come up with something decent right on the spot."

Gao lists some common fit interview questions on his site; a few examples:

• Have you dealt with a difficult boss? If so, explain how you managed the situation. If not, explain how you’d deal with a hypothetically difficult boss.

• Describe a scenario where you lead a team in the face of a major obstacle.

• What company do you think is having a tough time right now, and what would you recommend they do to improve their current situation?

Remember: personality and attitude are as important as your answers

Image: derekGavey via Flickr

Your answers to these questions are important. But Gao assures us a critical part of getting that consulting job is whether or not your interviewer thinks you're a good match personality-wise.

"The consulting interview is all about the energy and the vibe that you give off," he says.

Some important traits that interviewers look for:

• Excellent people skills: Communication is an enormous part of consulting.
• Natural curiosity: You'll constantly be learning about new industries.
• Attention to detail, "or the ability to fake it well," says Gao.

Ultimately, the interviewer is thinking, "Do I want this person communicating and interacting with our big clients?"

Also: "Would I be happy to spend 10 hours in a room with this person?"

So don't try too hard during your interview -- be on point, but be yourself.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-prepare-for-a-consulting-interview-2010-4#remember-personality-and-attitude-are-as-important-as-your-answers-13#ixzz0lbcerL3Q

The follow-up questions

Image: AP

Shrugging your shoulders when your interviewer asks if you have any questions is not an option.

If you can't come up with any good follow-up questions, Gao lists some great sample questions on his blog. A selection:

• What’s been the most difficult client issue that you’ve faced?
• If I got this job, what advice could you give me to help me get off to a fast start?
• What would you say are the most common mistakes that new hires make?
• Which project has been the most (challenging/exciting/engaging) for you?

What matters most?

Image: mrkumm via Flickr

The most important things to focus on: "Case, ability to synthesize and communicate succinctly, and ability to connect with the interviewer," Gao sums up.

The keys to preparing are practicing as much as possible, and getting comfortable enough to be yourself.

"Each firm has a different 'formula', but it comes down to basically 2 things: are you able to think quickly and thoroughly about business-like problems, and are you able to communicate them convincingly and succinctly?"

Remember, don't over-stress about answering every question perfectly. Overall, your personality, analytical abilities, and communication skills are going to be the major deciding factors.

Good luck!

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/

Wipro's solution wins Global Product Excellence 2010 Award

19 Apr 2010, 1951 hrs IST,PTI BANGALORE: WiproTechnologies, global IT services business of Wipro Limited, on Monday announced that its Identity Access Management (IDAM) Solution, IDAM-in-a-Rack has won the Global Product Excellence Award 2010 in 'Identity Management Solution' Category recently in San Francisco. The award, instituted by Info Security Products Guide, the world's leading publication on security-related products and technologies, recognises security and IT vendors with advanced, ground-breaking products and solutions that help set the bar higher in all areas of technologies, a company statement said. 'IDAM-in-a-Rack' has been built by Wipro Enterprise Security Solutions (ESS) team gleaned from Wipro's experience in successful IDAM implementations for various global customers over the years. The solution's architecture, market leadership, profitability and revenue growth were strong positives for the award. "As cyber security threats continue to affect businesses worldwide, the protection of networks remains a critical requirement for any organization," says Sana Madan, Executive Editor of Info Security Products Guide. Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Accenture Wins Electrolux Deal

After entering into a technical collaboration with Korean conglomerate Hanwha S&C, technology and management consulting company Accenture Plc (ACN: 42.83 -0.32 -0.74%) recently entered into a global multi-year outsourcing agreement with Electrolux IT Solutions AB.

The tech giant will be shouldering the responsibility of developing and managing a designated portion of Electrolux’s enterprise applications, which consist of JD Edwards, Congos and Lotus Notes. The whole service will be delivered through a global delivery model, and the company expects this to catalyze the information technology restructuring process, resulting in a reduction of cost and enhancing efficiency.

This is the continuation of a series of contract wins that the company has witnessed in recent times. A few days back, Accenture won a five-year application outsourcing contract from Nordea, a leading banking and financial services group. The company did not disclose the monetary value of the contract, which is expected to generate recurring revenue for the company for the next several years.

This apart, in March, Accenture was awarded a $200 million contract byStarwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (HOT: 47.79 -0.50 -1.04%). Under the contract, which will span over a number of years, Accenture will provide a range of IT services, including application outsourcing and infrastructure outsourcing. We expect the revival in business activity to help the company improve numbers in the upcoming quarters.

This idea is reinforced by the optimistic IT spending forecast made by Gartner Inc. (IT: 23.11 -0.09 -0.39%). The technology research firm recently revealed it’s IT spending forecast for 2010. Gartner is bullish on the revival in sentiment across the globe and expects spending on technology products and services to reach $3.4 trillion, registering a growth rate of 5.3% compared to the year-ago quarter.

After the year-long recession, most of the tech companies are witnessing a revival in business volumes and investor sentiment, and Accenture is no exception. So 2010 is expected to be a sunrise year for this sector, but it will definitely take some time for performance to reach 2008 levels.

Source: Daily Markets

Accenture Named Top Outsourcing Provider by International Association of Outsourcing Professionals

IAOP’s Global Outsourcing 100® List ranks Accenture No. 1 for third consecutive year

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has been ranked No. 1 on the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals’ (IAOP®) Global Outsourcing 100list, marking the third consecutive year that Accenture has topped this ranking of the world’s best outsourcing providers.

“Identifying and recognizing the industry's best is what IAOP's Global Outsourcing 100 is all about and for Accenture to lead this list for three years running is an exceptional accomplishment.”

The Global Outsourcing 100 is designed to help companies compare and select service providers using an objective methodology. Providers are ranked on quality following a rigorously judged application process that examines 18 criteria. The final rankings are based on a weighted average of the judges’ scores on demonstrated competencies, size, growth, management capabilities and customer references.

"As the adoption of outsourcing accelerates around the globe, expanding the capabilities and commitment to excellence of outsourcing service providers is key," says Michael Corbett, Chairman, IAOP. "Identifying and recognizing the industry's best is what IAOP's Global Outsourcing 100 is all about and for Accenture to lead this list for three years running is an exceptional accomplishment."

Mike Salvino, Accenture’s group chief executive–Business Process Outsourcing, said, “For the third consecutive year, Accenture is honored to be recognized by the IAOP as the best outsourcing provider in the world. This ranking is a testament to the expertise and professionalism of the thousands of Accenture people around the world who are dedicated to delivering a broad range of outsourcing services to our clients – and to our clients who are realizing business improvement and true business value through outsourcing.”

Accenture provides application, infrastructure and business processing outsourcing services to more than 650 private- and public-sector clients across more than 30 industries.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 181,000 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$21.58 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2009. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About IAOP

The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) is the global, standard-setting organization and advocate for the outsourcing profession. With more than 100,000 customer, advisor and provider members worldwide, IAOP helps companies increase their outsourcing success rate, improve their outsourcing ROI, and expand the opportunities for outsourcing across their businesses. To learn more, visit http://www.iaop.org.

Giant Slalom

Firm teams with Microsoft, USOC for virtual press room at Olympic Games

Did you catch any of the press coverage of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games from Vancouver? Of course you did. You probably didn’t know Slalom Consulting helped bring it to you, but they had a little help.

The Seattle-based business and IT consulting firm teamed with Microsoft and the U.S. Olympic Committee to launch a Virtual Press Room Built Entirely on Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Silverlight technology.

Microsoft SharePoint is the business collaboration platform for the Enterprise and the Web. Silverlight is a web browser plug-in that works with Windows and Mac operating systems, as well as all major web browsers.

The USOC’s Virtual Press Room improved USOC communication capabilities by providing journalists with a wealth of athlete information—from news sections to article lists. In addition, live Twitter feeds from the USOC and Team USA athletes helped give real-time views—often updated every few minutes—into ongoing Olympic events and stories.

“The Virtual Press Room is a terrific example of how Microsoft platforms can integrate social with traditional content for a new kind of media experience,” said Jerry Kaczmarowski, general manager for Slalom Consulting. “It’s rewarding to couple [our proficiency with Microsoft technologies] with our social media and web site development knowledge to produce an easy-to-use resource for the National Governing Bodies uploading content to the site, and for media covering the Olympics.”

The new generation of Pressbox is one element of the USOC’s digital media strategy designed to motivate Olympic fans to engage in the Olympic movement online,” says Trevor Miller, USOC managing director of information technology. The site helped capture “the power of new media technologies and audiences to enable journalists to bring the best stories of Team USA to Americans.”

Meanwhile, in other Slalom news, recently announced that it had leveraged the cloud to deploy its SharePoint 2010 practice to nearly a thousand consultants across nine U.S. offices. To launch its SharePoint 2010 practice, Slalom Consulting built a ‘private cloud’ from Skytap that could rapidly scale, enable self-service provisioning of data center resources, and provide team communication between offices.

Within a week, Slalom rolled out Skytap accounts to its entire SharePoint 2010 practice team members, and the company has achieved a 60 percent total cost of ownership reduction compared to running the practice on its internal infrastructure, and the collaboration between its nine U.S. consulting offices has been significantly improved, according to Slalom officials.

Source: Consulting Magazine.

India losing ground to Latin America in voice-based BPO

By Chandan Das on April 9th, 2010

Believe it or not, India, which has remained the most favored destination for foreign firms to establish BPO centers, is fast losing ground. According to industry experts, dearth of superior personnel in the voice-based BPO sector has actually forced many Indian IT/ BPO service providers like TCS, Infosys and Wipro to set up facilities abroad.

Today, most Indian IT/ BPO service providers are opting for the Latin American nations, such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Peru, which offer a ready workforce of quality voice ability. In fact, firms like TCS, IBM, Accenture and Unisys have established call centers in these countries by now making the Latin American region a favored destination for IT and BPO services.

A financial news website reports that while Infosys and TCS have already established new facilities in the Latin American countries, particularly Brazil, Wipro was the latest Indian IT and BPO service provider to set up its new international delivery hub at Curitiba in Brazil to offer services to its domestic as well as international clients. In fact, the new center at Curitiba will not only enhance Wipro’s IT portfolio, but also enable it to serve as many as 20 clients across the globe.

According to the chairman and managing director of Quatrro BPO Solutions, by and large considered to be the father of the BPO industry in India, Raman Roy, people in India have failed to perfect their skills. He says that though the enthusiasm to join the BPO sector in India is enormous, the second and third tier colleges in the country are merely turning out an increasing number of educated youths who cannot be employed. Hence, the standard of the BPO industry in India is far below compared to what it used to be a decade ago.

Echoing Roy’s views, the CEO and president of Omega Healthcare Management Services, Gopi Natarajan, points out that as far as the English Language skills are concerned, today’s Indian youth are far behind their counterparts in Latin American countries. Substantiating his view, Natarajan says that while the BPO firms in India provide 12 to 15 weeks’ training to the candidates, people in Colombo are all set to start work only after three to four week’s training. And the youths in Latin America are all the more proficient as a result of which the region is making rapid progress in the voice-based BPO sector. Besides, compared to the Indians, people in the Latin American nations are able to relate better with the US financial, healthcare and other systems.

In addition to the skill set of the employees, other factors, such as improved technological support, faster response time and the benefits of near-shoring, are encouraging more and more Indian IT and BPO firms to opt for the Latin American nations for setting up their new facilities. Many of the Latin American countries also have provisions for technology transfers that make these locations more advantageous for the business of the Indian IT and BPO firms. Another issue that had driven the Indian firms to overseas locations like the Latin American nations, Australia and Europe is the high rate of attrition in the BPO sector in India, which is as high as 11 per cent!

Source: SourcingLine

Global companies see M&A deals key to growth strategies

NEW YORK: More than half of the global companies surveyed by Deloitte and The Deal for a study expect mergers and acquisitions to play a significant role in their growth strategies, amid a revival in the economic situation. According to the study by global consultancy Deloitte and media and information firm The Deal, companies believe M&A deals would help in boosting their revenue growth over the next few years. "As companies of every size and industry plan their growth strategies as the economy rebounds, more than half (52 per cent), expect mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to add 5 per cent or more to revenue growth on a compound annual basis over the next two to five years," the survey stated. This estimate is significant when compared to the average annual revenue growth of the companies, included in the global benchmark index Standard & Poors 500, of around four per cent over the past 10 years. The survey also found that as the pace of competitive change accelerates, most companies are acknowledging corporate development has become critical to their overall success and expect it to play a leading role in this next phase of growth. Corporate development is loosely defined as a broad range of activities that support and enable M&A-related growth. The results of the survey show a portrait of how this critical function is managed in a wide range of companies and what factors contribute most to achieving effective corporate development strategies. "Seventy per cent of survey respondents said compared to today, corporate development will be more important in achieving their company's strategic goals over the next few years," Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP principal Chris Ruggeri said. "Additionally, stature of corporate development executives in firms appears to be gaining prominence with most serving as important advisors to chief executive officers and chief financial officers in shaping, validating and executing strategy," Ruggeri added. Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Nordea Awards Accenture Five-Year Application Outsourcing Contract

COPENHAGEN; April 7, 2010 - Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has signed a five-year application outsourcing contract with Nordea, a leading financial services group in the Nordic and Baltic Sea region, to develop and maintain applications that will support the bank’s customer websites. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

The agreement is designed to help Nordea improve customer service and increase cost efficiencies. With 30 websites and more than 7 million monthly visitors, Nordea’s online channel is one of the most important access points for its customers and an increasingly vital channel for sales and service.

Under the terms of the agreement, Accenture will assume responsibility for maintaining and developing Nordea’s Web content management platform for its customer websites. The platform is based on Microsoft .NET technology. Accenture will provide the services through local facilities in Denmark and through its Global Delivery Network using centers in Bangalore, India.

“This agreement gives us access to skilled resources and the benefits of international expertise in Web application development and maintenance,” said Henrik Korch, Business Chief Information Officer for Marketing at Nordea. “It will also ensure that we have the flexibility to ramp up and down according to our demand and changing business needs.”

“In selecting a reliable business partner to help us, we focused on track records of innovation, creativity and new ideas,” said Juha Toivari, Vice-president and head of digital marketing at Nordea. “Accenture’s knowledge of our business and proven ability to provide enhancement and management services for Microsoft applications make it an ideal business partner.”

“As consumers become increasingly Internet-centric, providing them with a unique online experience is critical to organic growth,” said Bent Dalager, executive director of Accenture’s Financial Service group in Denmark. “Through this agreement, Accenture will support Nordea in pursuing new levels of customer interaction and business efficiency enabled by offshore capacity and deep technology insight.”

Accenture will deliver the services in collaboration with Avanade, a business technology services provider that connects insight, innovation and expertise in Microsoft technologies to help customers realize results. Avanade is majority owned by Accenture.

Source: Accenture

Accenture: ERP, systems integration deals coming back

Accenture said that big technology projects—such as enterprise resource planning implementations and systems integration efforts—are starting to come back.

Accenture executives outlined their outlook in an analyst powwow on Thursday. A bevy of analysts reported Friday that Accenture seemed more upbeat than it was just a few weeks earlier when it reported fiscal second quarter earnings.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst George Price recapped said that consulting, systems integration and application outsourcing were held out as Accenture’s growth pillars. The company expects to deliver growth of 7 percent to 10 percent in fiscal 2011. Price noted:

“Growth” and “transformation” initiatives are “back on the table”, and while large, multi-year deals are not yet back in general, discretionary demand is certainly better. Accenture is also starting to see ERP work come back – clients slowed or stopped ERP work in the downturn, but now want accelerated deployments.

Cowen analyst Peter Goldmacher said in a research note that Accenture’s comments about pent up ERP demand is likely to translate into solid license growth for Oracle and SAP. Specifically, a 10 percent growth rate at Accenture translates into 8 percent to 12 percent license growth at Oracle in SAP. Goldmacher added:

It’s also important to keep in mind that not all Accenture ERP related projects come from new license sales. Large companies often do large enterprise license agreements where they buy everything up front in exchange for a bigger discount, and deploy the software over time. So, for many reasons, the correlation isn t perfect. But the math is interesting and the Oracle and SAP models don t appear to be wildly out of sync.

Accenture’s conference call transcript had a bevy of notable points. CEO Bill Green riffed on the following:

Indian rivals—Tata, Wipro etc.—are landing bigger deals, but not necessarily moving up the food chain to higher value projects. Green said:

Moving up the food chain is incredibly hard to do because people are betting their business. There’s tons of business moving meat. I mean just straight up — putting resources in places, putting bodies in places — there’s lots of businesses there.

When you’re about delivering outcomes, it’s a different sort of thing. It’s a different collection of skills you need and a different outcome focus you need. And the skin-in-the-game focus — one of the things in consulting that — since the last time we did this, we looked at how many of our deals are value-based, skin-in-the-game — it’s gone up dramatically.

On analytics, Green noted:

I think when you stand back from it — the analytics thing is interesting because a lot of companies are focused on that. The software guys will talk a lot about it — and SAP’s business-objects thing, and, then, how all that’s going to work — obviously, IBM will talk a great deal about it.

There’s garden-variety analytics, and then there’s the stuff that matters. And what we have chosen to do is to put our focus on the predictive analytics, because we think that’s where the value is. And the de facto, standard, best guys on the planet have been, are today, and always will be SAS. And that’s why our alliance with them is so distinctive and important.

The jury is still out on the Feds stimulus and a direct impact on infrastructure spending. Green said:

I think, by and large, anyone who says stimulus is going to save their day is nuts, because in the system, the stuff is held up. And a lot of the stimulus money, quite frankly, has been used just to top up budgets that used to be there, that disappeared because of low revenues and things like that.

But there are things that matter — certainly, the Smart Grid thing. The stimulus thing actually slowed down Smart Grid initiatives as people waited to see if they could get stimulus money to spend that, instead of their own money. And so there’s just some interesting phenomenas. The health thing really hasn’t hit yet. How the money transfers into education hasn’t hit yet — and in other public services.

And then I think the people’s great disappointment in North America was how it transferred into the infrastructure build-out, whereas China, on Friday — they said they were going to stimulate. And, on Monday, they started building bridges. And so if you look at it around the world, it’s impacted in a very different way.

I think what the thing is — maybe what’s more important is — isn’t the stimulus per say. It’s the focus on what we need to be investing in. And one of the things we’ve done is — we believe there is a wave of infrastructure spending across the globe.