EMC and Accenture to Offer Consulting Services

EMC has expanded its storage consulting services to offer open, platform-independent consulting services to companies. The services are part of a 5-year business agreement with consulting firm Accenture. A newly formed Information Solutions Consulting Group will offer these services.

EMC's Information Solutions Consulting Group will provide storage-strategic consulting services to customers by looking at all their heterogeneous storage resources. EMC's Global Services organization will direct the group, and Accenture will provide consulting delivery and management expertise. EMC will offer the group's services separately from the existing services that the company's Global Services organization provides, which focus on EMC-specific technology.

The move is the latest in a series of changes by EMC to diversify its product offers from large, expensive proprietary solutions for big businesses to solutions for business of all sizes. Recently, EMC has experienced a decline in sales of its storage solutions. According to EMC, analyst firm IDC estimates that the storage consulting-services market will grow from $2.8 billion in 2001 to more than $4 billion in 2005.

http://www.emc.com

http://www.accenture.com