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BearingPoint Inc. () is one of the world’s largest providers of management and technology consulting services to Global 2000 companies and government organizations in 60 countries worldwide. Based in McLean, VA, the firm has approximately 17,500 employees and major practice areas focusing on the Public Services, Financial Services and Commercial Services markets.
The company provides management and technology strategy, systems design and architecture, applications implementation, network infrastructure, systems integration and managed services. BearingPoint’s tailored solutions are designed to help clients generate revenue, reduce costs and access the information necessary to operate their business on a timely basis. The company is among Fortune Magazine’s “Most Admired” companies in its Information Technology Services sector.

Contents

History

Organization

BearingPoint Infonova

War profiteering

Alliances

Financial position

Economic development projects

Kidnapping

References

External links

History

The company traces a nearly 110 year history in professional services. 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.
Over the next year and a half, the company expanded by acquiring some of KPMG’s country consulting practices, as well as the addition of 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 may be best recognized by the general public as a sponsor of golf professional Phil Mickelson. He wears the BearingPoint name on the front of his visor (or cap), previously wearing the KPMG Consulting logo

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; Consumer Packaged Goods; Content; Electronics / Software; Life Sciences; Industrial Markets; Retail / Wholesale; Transportation; and Utilities.
While many of company’s solution offerings have historically emerged from the industry teams, it now has dedicated organizations for developing, launching and delivering core offerings. The Management Consulting unit develops offerings around such issues and disciplines as business strategy; 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; development of industry- and process-specific package-driven solutions; custom and large-scale systems integration; network infrastructure and managed services opportunities, predominantly applications management.

BearingPoint Infonova

BearingPoint Infonova is a wholly owned subsidiary of BearingPoint, and was founded in Graz, Austria in 1989. The company has been actively working with leading Telcos around the globe for more than 15 years.
The solutions portfolio of BearingPoint Infonova encompasses products and services in the areas of IP Telephony, Operations 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.
BearingPoint’s Infonova Service Management Platform (SMP) is a Carrier-Grade Next Generation OSS/BSS solution with a proven track record in live environments.
The Infonova SMP solution is a fully integrated system, delivering a full range of 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 initially 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 completely managed by the Infonova SMP.

War profiteering

BearingPoint was listed as the number 2 top war profiteer of 2004^[1] by the Center for Corporate Policy, a think tank founded by Ralph Nader^[2]. The primary criticism is that the company won a $240 million contract in Iraq that it helped write and the company and its employees gave $117,000 in the 2000 and 2004 Bush election campaigns.

Alliances

On February 14, 2006, BearingPoint and Google announced a partnership to create a dedicated Search Solutions practice within BearingPoint. This team, the first in the industry partnering with Google, will help companies take advantage of Google’s enterprise technology, to make the information that’s locked in disparate corporate technology systems easier to access. Ultimately, the goal is to create more productive workplaces.
The company also works closely with software vendors Google, Microsoft, Oracle, CA and SAP, and hardware vendors HP and IBM (BearingPoint works with IBM from both a hardware and software perspective) to create tailored solutions. In addition to these marquee names, the company has several dozen smaller partners that play important roles in solution innovation and development.

Financial position

Based on its most recent filing, for 2004, revenue for the year ended December 31, 2004 was $3.376 billion. This represented an increase in revenue of $245.6 million, or 7.8%, from revenue generated during the twelve months ended December 31, 2003 of $3.130 billion.
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 failed to file its annual reports for fiscal 2004 and 2005 on time; but has recently made progress filing it's 2005 and 2006 10-Ks in recent months. BearingPoint said its
shares could be delisted from trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Company said its loss in 2005 included $113.3 million incurred due to delays and missed milestones on a contract to build an IT infrastructure for Hawaiian Telcom.^[3] BearingPoint said Hawaiian Telcom is seeking additional compensation for the problems. "The occurrence of additional losses or the payment of additional amounts to the client could materially and adversely affect our profitability," said BearingPoint.
On February 7, 2007, BearingPoint announced that it had reached a settlement with Hawaiian Telcom, 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.^[4]

Economic development projects

Some of the company’s highest profile work is done in the field of emerging markets. In 2000, the company 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.

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.
On January 2, 2003, BearingPoint announced that it had installed and was helping to operate a financial management information system for the government of Afghanistan. The work was part of a $3.95 million contract the company won to help the government upgrade its accounting system.
In March 2003, the state of Florida retracted an $80 million IT outsourcing deal awarded to BearingPoint after complaints by the losing bidders. Critics pointed to the company's close ties to Governor Jeb Bush. On March 23, BearingPoint announced it had been awarded a three-year, $39.9 million contract from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to help Afghanistan implement policy and institutional reform measures that will lead to an improved environment for economic development. The agreement includes an option for another two years, for a total award of $64.1 million.

Kidnapping

On May 29th, 2007, the media reported that an employee of BearingPoint had been abducted, among other foreign contractors, from the finance ministry in Baghdad, Iraq. ^[5]

References

1. The Center for Corporate Policy's Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004
2. Sourcewatch article on Center for Corporate Policy
3. Hawaiian Tel consultant says losses are up to 3M
4. Hawaiian Telcom hires new help
5. BBC | Five Britons abducted in Baghdad

External links

★ BearingPoint Infonova

★ Management Team

★ Yahoo! Overview