Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Mathematically yes (a la "9 women can deliver a baby in 1 month"). But in practice no because there's almost no way you can write fair requirements in a procurement that will apply to all and somehow exclude only Accenture (&co.). This is their actual power, officially they tick all the boxes and look as qualified as one can be, and they can also underbid almost any startup. Because they have far more qualified lawyers than engineers to help the make up for it later. It's only when they start work do you get the real Accenture experience: hundreds of inexperienced, unqualified, overworked, or underpaid people under the careful eye of someone who's paid to delay and overcharge under any possible interpretation of the contract.

They are better at this game than almost any startup because their game is "winning bids". They are ridiculously connected and able to operate almost exclusively in the grey area, with a lot of detours in dark as hell area. And they are always seen as the "safe choice". If Accenture fails a CEO can say "we did our best, picked the experts". When a startup fails the CEO has no plausible deniability. They went with the risky, unproven option and have to pay the price.

You can either go the fair competition route and Accenture can easily tick the boxes on paper and then win on price, or you can go for direct award (in a private company) but you'll be living at the gates of hell until the project is successfully completed.




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: