COMPANY CASE (1) Accenture and the Finnish patient information system The double role of the consultant company Accenture in the future patient information system was discussed in Helsingin Sanomat (HS) 8th of July in 2012. The evaluated cost of the new patient information system was estimated up to 1.8 billion euro. The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra started a project called Sirius to help in the decision making process which patient information system should be chosen. The most vital part of the project Sirius, was the evaluation ordered from Accenture, which tried to shed light on which system would be the most appropriate for the Finnish healthcare system. Accenture ended up recommending two different systems. Both were from United States. Other one was called Cern and the other one was a system called Epic with the highest reviews. After the publication of the review, it was found out that Accenture had connections to Epic. Accenture had been seen for example marketing Epic in various healthcare industry events. According to Sitras director Antti Kivel, Sitra had no information of the connections between Accenture and Epic at the time the evaluation was done. Accentures executives refused to answer any questions concerning if Accenture had recommended almost 2 billion deal which included a system that gave the company itself a market leader position in Finland. HS tried to reach Accentures executives, but all questions were passed to the communications department where Hetta H. told HS that Accenture does not have exclusivity in Finland providing Epics information systems. Other questions Hetta Huittinen could not answer. After trying to reach the headquarters of Accenture in United States for a few days, the company sent an open letter saying that part of Accentures and Epics cooperation does include Accenture working in Finland as an designer and executer for Epic systems. Project Sirius ended in January 2011 and according to Accenture and Epic, their cooperation started in February 2012. This might not have been the case, as their cooperation seems to have started earlier in November 2011. In the marketing event held by Epic in November 2011, Sanna Hauslahti the board room member of hospital district of Helsinki and Uusimaa, was present, presented on request by HS the invite, showing that one of the inviters to the event was indeed Accenture. HS requested a new statement from Accenture, who then replied saying that they have been marketing Epic and Cern since spring 2011. The Actual partnership with Epic they started to pursue in after May 2011. The importance of the project Sirius to the decision making process and tendering of the patient information system is unknown. Several experts still consider the Sirius project to be influential, when counties do their own decisions related to acquisition of new patient information systems. Fortunately, the report does not directly result in 1.8billion acquisitions from Epic Systems and Accenture. The problem with consulting companies having double roles, is that their objectivity, especially the objectivity of their advice, comes automatically under suspicion. Once clients and other people realize this conflict of interests, the consulting companys respect in the market decreases which might lead to losses in sales. On the other hand, as many consulting companies have extensive networks of contacts due to the nature of their industry, sometimes it can be very hard to spot as a client, where conflict of interest may rise. Situations like the one described earlier do not always see the daylight, as a consultants double role may be unofficial. By this I mean that the consultant might have a friend or a relative working in a company, thus the consultant is more eager to recommend his/her friends company to other companies. These kinds of relationships are not official, but still often affect individual consultants in their work. Depending on your standpoint this can be either good or a bad thing. What comes to official relationships, even the different departments in multinational consulting organizations might not know that their company is somehow connected to another company, as the company reaches far beyond national boarders. Questions for Discussion 1. Discuss the major issues in the above case 2. What should have been done to deal with the main issues? 3. Comment on the outcome of Project Sirius and its future performance