Andersen Consulting

Because of a past desire to change names, a master list of some 5000 names had already been drawn up. The rest was an ambitious and coordinated effort to trim the list using internal legal resources and 25 external law firms around the world, employing language specialists to check for offensive meanings in 50 countries and 65 languages, and checking across seven or eight different classes of trade. The effort also generated around 3,000 trademark reports. Additionally, they did 'blind testing' of thirty of the names with a number of clients and potential clients, and Accenture was the highest rated out of those. The result of all this narrowed the list down to 50. More trademark checks shortened it down to 10, and then finally a subcommittee reduced it to 4. "Accenture" was picked the winner on the announcement day, October 26. It was quite an effort and accomplishment in 80 days for the organization. www.TechnologyEvaluation.com