BearingPoint
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| BearingPoint Inc. | |
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| Type | Public (NYSE: BE) |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters |  McLean, Virginia, United Statesoffices in 60 countries |
| Key people | Ed Harbach, CEO |
| Industry | Management consulting, technology services |
| Revenue | US$ 3.4 billion (2006) |
| Employees | more than 17,000 |
| Website | www.bearingpoint.com |
BearingPoint Inc. (NYSE: BE) is one of the world’s largest providers of management and technology consulting services to Global 2000 companies and government organizations in 60 countries. Based in McLean, Virginia, the firm has more than 17,000 employees and major practice areas focusing on the public, financial and commercial services.
The company provides management and technology strategy, systems design and architecture, applications implementation, network infrastructure, systems integration and managed services, all in the effort to help clients make money, reduce costs and find information quickly. The company is among Fortune magazine’s “Most Admired” companies in its Information Technology Services sector.[1].
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[edit] History
The company has a nearly 110-year history. It emerged as KPMG’s consulting services, created as a distinct business unit in 1997. On January 31, 2000, KPMG formally spun off the consulting unit as KPMG Consulting, LLC. On February 8, 2001, the company went public on the NASDAQ market at $18 a share under the ticker "KCIN."
Over the next year and a half, the company acquired some of KPMG’s country consulting practices, plus country practices and hiring from Arthur Andersen’s business consulting unit. On October 2, 2002, the company was re-named BearingPoint and the next day began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “BE.”
The company had been sponsoring golf professional Phil Mickelson, who had been wearing the BearingPoint/KPMG Consulting name on the front of his cap, since 2000. However, on Feb 1st 2008, the company announced on its website that it was ending its relationship with Mickelson, effective immediately[2]. Mickelson has since entered into a sponsorship relation with BearingPoint's former parent, KPMG.[3]
[edit] Organization
BearingPoint is organized around three industry business units – Public Services, Commercial Services and Financial Services – and two solution units – Management Consulting and Technology Solutions. It has three regional operations – the Americas; Europe, Mid-East and Africa (EMEA); and Asia Pacific.
Each industry group breaks out into segments.
- Financial Services consists of Banking, Insurance, Global Markets, and Hospitality services.
- Public Services consists of Defense; Emerging Markets; Federal / National Government; Health Services; and State and Local Governments / Education / Nonprofits.
- Commercial Services, which addresses the widest swath of the market, consists of Automotive; Energy and Chemicals; Communications and Media; Consumer Packaged Goods; Electronics / Software; Life Sciences; Industrial Markets; Retail / Wholesale; Transportation; and Utilities.
While many of company’s offerings have emerged from the industry teams, it now has dedicated organizations for developing, launching and delivering them. The Management Consulting unit works on business strategy and related issues; customer relationship management; supply chain management; financial management; mergers and integration; human capital management; business process and performance improvement; growth and innovation; and business transformation. The Technology Solutions unit focuses on application services and integration; custom and large-scale systems integration; network infrastructure and managed services opportunities, predominantly applications management.
[edit] BearingPoint Infonova
BearingPoint Infonova is a wholly owned subsidiary of BearingPoint, and was founded in Graz, Austria in 1989. The company has worked with leading telcos around the globe.
BearingPoint Infonova offers products and services in IP Telephony, Operational Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS), Internet Infrastructure Technology, Network Management, eSecurity, Interactive TV & Digital Video Broadcasting as well as technology consulting and training.
Infonova SMP offers customer management, service provisioning, and billing functions for voice, Internet, data, TV, and content services. In addition, it incorporates an “umbrella” OSS which integrates COTS and network equipment provider’s OSS products into a single integrated solution delivering seamless network service management functions such as performance monitoring, fault management, customer problem management and service level reporting.
The solution was created in 1989 to deliver Videotex on a Unix server over an IP network, which soon became one of the first “nationwide IP VPN networks” worldwide. This network has a core IP backbone with dial-up and fixed access lines delivering services for consumers and businesses alike. It is a precursor to today’s vision of fully IP networks over fiber, copper and wireless links, and is managed by the Infonova SMP.
[edit] Alliances
On February 14, 2006, BearingPoint announced the first industry teaming arrangement with Google to offer products to help enterprises find internal data more easily.
The company also works with software vendors Google, Microsoft, Oracle, CA and SAP, and hardware vendors HP and IBM, and several dozen smaller partners.
[edit] Financial position
BearingPoint was late in filing its financial reports, filing fiscal 2006 numbers in June 2007, first quarter 2007 numbers in September 2007, and second quarter numbers in October 2007. The company is now current in filing its financial reports. The Company said its net loss for the first quarter ended March 31, 2007 narrowed as revenue grew and costs declined. The company recorded a net loss of $61.7 million, or 29 cents per share for the first quarter, compared with a loss of $72.7 million, or 34 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.[4] The company recorded a net loss of $64.0 million, or 30 cents per share for the second quarter, compared with a loss of $2.85 million, or 1 cent per share, in the same period a year earlier. BearingPoint's shareholders' deficit was $365 million as of the close of the second quarter 2007 with a total accumulated deficit of $1.9 billion.[5]
Based on its most recent annual filing, for 2006, revenue for the year ended December 31, 2006 was $3.444 billion. This represented a slight increase in revenue of $55 million, from revenue generated during the twelve months ended December 31, 2005 of $3.388 billion.
BearingPoint has had difficulty obtaining long-term commitments from new clients due to concerns about the company's financial condition. A 2006 court ruling found it in technical default of certain debts. [2]
The company has defended itself in several court cases concerning allegations of contracting irregularities and disclosures that its officials overstated its profits in 2003. BearingPoint said it continues to work toward timely filings before the end of the 2007. It also said that its failure to timely file certain periodic reports with the SEC poses risks to its business, which could hurt its financial condition and results of operations.
BearingPoint has had difficulties with several major clients, including an outsourcing arrangement with Hawaiian Telcom. [3] On February 7, 2007, BearingPoint announced that it had reached a settlement with Hawaiian Telcom due to issues with an IT system contract, paying the Hawaii telco $52 million and erasing an additional $30 million in previously submitted invoices. In exchange, Hawaiian Telcom released BearingPoint from any further liability. A day later, Hawaiian Telcom announced that it had signed a contract with Accenture to take over BearingPoint's role in their systems development.[6]
[edit] Economic development projects
To help win emerging-markets work, the firm in 2000 retained the Barents Group in its separation from KPMG. The Barents Group specialized in economic consulting in developing countries, usually through contracts awarded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Barents Group was also the leading Privatization Advisory firm in Emerging Markets of Eastern Europe and CIS, including privatizations of gold mines in Uzbekistan through its offices in Tashkent, in 1995-96, headed by Rama Ayman.
Once incorporated into BearingPoint’s Public Services industry organization, Barents Group evolved into BearingPoint’s Emerging Markets segment and gained a reputation for doing economic project work in post-conflict regions.
BearingPoint arrived in Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban to advise the government in 2003 on economic restructuring. The multi-year $170 million USAID contract provided technical staff to the Afghan Ministries of Finance, Telecommunications, Economy, Commerce, and the Central Bank, Parliament and office of the President. Deliverables included bank licensing and supervision, creation of the capital notes market, monetary policy to limit inflation, privatization of the telecom sector, creation of a telecom independent regulator, modernization of customs and taxes, and the introduction of the commercial framework and laws.[7]
One such project relates to a $240 million USAID contract for assistance in the development of a competitive private sector in Iraq, where according to a federal investigation the job specifications had mostly been written by BearingPoint itself, effectively excluding competitors from the bid. Ultimately, however, BearingPoint won the project in open competition. This contract led BearingPoint to be listed as the number two "war profiteer of 2004"[8] by the Center for Corporate Policy, a think tank founded by Ralph Nader.[9]
On May 29, 2007, an employee of BearingPoint was abducted along with other foreign contractors from the finance ministry in Baghdad, Iraq.[10]
[edit] References
- ^ Fortune: Most Admired Companies: Snapshot
- ^ BearingPoint – Press
- ^ Phil Mickelson
- ^ [1]
- ^ http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/12/121861/2007Q2Form10-Q.pdf
- ^ Hawaiian Telcom hires new help
- ^ USAID/Afghanistan: Economic Governance & Private Sector Strengthening (EGPSS) Program
- ^ The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004
- ^ Sourcewatch article on Center for Corporate Policy
- ^ BBC |Five Britons abducted in Baghdad
