Vault Consulting 50: Deloitte’s Reign Over the Big 4 Has Ended (2021)
For the past five years, Deloitte has cozily sat in fourth place in the Vault Consulting 50, which was tops among the Big 4’s consulting practices and only a few spots behind the usual suspects: Bain, Boston Consulting Group, and McKinsey. But in Vault’s latest ranking of the 50 best consulting firms to work for […]
Big 4 Lawsuits: Ex-PwC Director vs. PwC, Billionaire vs. Deloitte, Floridians vs. Deloitte
On the docket: age and gender discrimination, tax break gone bad, and the latest on the Deloitte drama in Florida. Axed PwC Director Alleges Age, Gender Bias [Law360] Another week, another age and gender discrimination lawsuit filed against a Big 4 firm. And once again PwC is named as the defendant: A former PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP […]
Big 4 Lawsuits: Ex-Deloitte Switzerland Partner vs. Deloitte, NMC Health’s Administrators vs. EY, Floridians vs. Deloitte Consulting
On the docket: former Deloitte Switzerland partner takes the L … again, EY sued over its lack of auditing prowess, and Deloitte Consulting is a lawsuit magnet. Ex-Deloitte Swiss Partner Loses Appeal Of Forced Retirement [Law360] David Joseph took another L in court on Nov. 5 as a London appeals court ruled that the former […]
Florida Gives Deloitte Consulting a Happy Ending
The saga between Florida and Deloitte Consulting—a relationship bizarre enough to be reported by TMZ or covered by Perez Hilton—keeps on keeping on, as the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration is going ahead with Big D on a potential $135 million contract to overhaul Florida’s Medicaid data system, according to the Tampa Bay Times. […]
Big 4 Lawsuits: Karen Ward vs. EY, Choppies vs. PwC, Floridians vs. Deloitte Consulting
EY, Female Ex-Principal End Lawsuit Over Bias Arbitration Costs [Bloomberg Law] Have we mentioned before how much Big 4 firms love it when claims against them by former employees go to arbitration? EY and a female former principal allegedly subjected to sexual harassment, retaliation, and other sex discrimination throughout her time with the firm agreed […]
Deloitte Consulting Is Irresponsible, Lacks Integrity, and Is Unreliable, Says Accenture
“[The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration] ignored information that, by its nature, would be expected to have a strong bearing on whether the intended awardee is ‘responsible,’ that is, whether it has the capability in all respects to fully perform the contract requirements and the integrity and reliability that will assure good faith performance.” […]
Deloitte’s Winning Bid Amount for $135 Million Medicaid Contract Is Being Kept Secret by Florida for Some Reason
How much did Deloitte Consulting lowball Accenture, IBM, and a couple other bidders to win Florida’s $135 million contract to modernize the state’s Medicaid system? No one is saying, even though state law says bids become public information upon the state announcing the winning bidder, the Tampa Bay Times reported on Aug 24. So according […]
Deloitte Consulting Winning Florida’s $135 Million Medicaid Contract Has Left Accenture and IBM Feeling a Bit Pissy
This blurb was buried in today’s Politico Florida Playbook column: A $135 million Medicaid contract Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration awarded to Deloitte earlier this month is officially being protested by two competitors who say the process was flawed, state records show. IBM and Accenture, who also bid on the lucrative contract, filed documents with the Agency for […]
Awarding Deloitte a New State Contract Just Goes to Show That Florida’s Leadership Is Dumb
Remember those Bud Light Real American Heroes/Real Men of Genius TV and radio ads that were popular 20 years ago? You know, the ones that featured Survivor lead singer Dave Bickler and saluted such folks as “Mr. Giant Foam Finger Maker,” “Mr. Footlong Hot Dog Inventor,” and “Mr. Male Football Cheerleader”? My favorite one was […]
Big 4 Lawsuits: SCANA Investors vs. Deloitte, Miller Energy Investors vs. KPMG, Gridsum Investors vs. PwC
Plus, Illinois resident drops lawsuit against Deloitte Consulting, and PwC wants the city of Los Angeles to pay a price. Deloitte Wants Investor’s Nuclear Energy Project Suit Tossed [Law360] Deloitte doesn’t think it should have to face a lawsuit accusing the firm of issuing audit reports that misled investors on the progress SCANA Corp. was […]
Big 4 Lawsuits: Illinois Resident vs. Deloitte, Gridsum Investors vs. PwC, Ryan LLC vs. EY
Illinois Unemployment Data Breach Leads to ID Theft, Class-Action Lawsuit Claims [Illinois Policy] Deloitte—already being sued by two groups of Ohioans who claim their personal information was exposed on state websites the firm built to administer coronavirus unemployment benefits to independent contractors—is now being sued by an Illinois woman who said she was a victim […]
Deloitte Sued By Unemployed Ohioans Who Are Unhappy Their SSNs and Addresses Were Visible For All to See
Welp, that didn’t take long: Deloitte Consulting LLP was hit with two suits by people who claim their personal information was exposed on state websites the firm built to administer supplemental coronavirus unemployment benefits. A group of Ohio residents sued Deloitte late Thursday in Manhattan federal court, after officials in that state, Illinois and Colorado disclosed […]
Deloitte Is Giving Unemployed Gig Workers In Some States Something Extra to Worry About
Imagine being an out-of-work independent contractor living in Ohio during this pandemic, anxious and unsure of when you’re actually going to get some financial assistance from the state because Ohio’s unemployment systems are being blown up with regular unemployment claims. Finally you get word that you can now file for unemployment benefits through the new […]
Florida Governor Is Not Impressed with Deloitte’s Handiwork
“It was designed with all these different things, basically to fail, I think. This thing was a clunker, there’s no doubt about it.” — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said about the state’s unemployment claims website, CONNECT, which was built by Deloitte Consulting in 2013 when Rick Scott was Florida governor. The system has pretty much […]
Rhode Island Is Still Holding a Grudge Against Deloitte
A better title might be, “Rhode Island Tells Feds to Send All Fines Related to State’s Shitty Benefits Computer System to Deloitte.” From the Associated Press: The federal government is fining Rhode Island about $2 million for problems with the state’s benefits system. WPRI-TV reports the problems stem from the botched rollout of a computer system for […]
Deloitte Gets Big 4 Bragging Rights In 2020 Vault Consulting 50
For the fifth consecutive year, Deloitte Consulting has been ranked the fourth-best consulting firm in the United States (although the governor of Rhode Island might beg to differ), according to the latest Vault Consulting 50. So once again, Green Dotters of the consulting variety have bragging rights over P. Dubsteppers, Uncle Ernie’s nieces and nephews, […]
Let’s Congratulate Deloitte’s New Audit and Consulting Bosses
Before I sit down to watch the NCAA men’s basketball championship game tonight, I’d be remiss not to tell you guys about some big news coming out of D-town this afternoon: Deloitte US has appointed Lara Abrash as chair and CEO of Deloitte & Touche LLP, leading Deloitte’s U.S. Audit & Assurance practice; Dan Helfrich as chairman and CEO […]
Rhode Island Believes In Second Chances, Even for Deloitte
Back in January 2017, Caleb made mention that Rhode Island was pissed at Deloitte because, when the state rolled out a new computer system in September 2016 that the firm designed, it had more bugs in it than a Florida swamp. The computer system—known as the Unified Health Infrastructure Project (UHIP)—was supposed to streamline benefits, […]
Now Your Kids Will Get to See How Cartoony Deloitte Really Is
Through the years on this here website we’ve reported on things that were said or done at Deloitte that might be considered cartoonish. Like when Deloitte Global CEO Punit Renjen claimed Deloitte is harder to get into than Harvard. Or Penn. Then there was that time when Deloitte offered prizes to alumni and retired partners […]
Big 4 (Except KPMG) Cracks Top 10 in Vault’s Ranking of Best Consulting Firms
Vault today released its 2019 ranking of the top 50 consulting firms to work for in North America, and the top 10 spots are dotted with the Big 4. Well, most of the Big 4. For the fourth year in a row, Deloitte Consulting LLP was ranked No. 4 on Vault’s list. According to employee […]
The Best Part About This Guide to Getting Hired by Deloitte Consulting Is The Guy Who Says Don’t
So, Bloomberg Businessweek has this nice fancy guide to getting hired by Deloitte Consulting. I'd share it here but it's proprietary and obviously the person who put it together spent a lot of time and effort centering the tables and choosing a sassy neon green highlight. We will share just a small piece of it […]
Deloitte Consulting CEO Says There Are Too Many Consultants
I'm just going to leave this here.
Deloitte Claims to Fire Clients Who Reject Gay Consultants
Last year, we had a pretty candid conversation about gay. We talked and talked and talked until we were blue in the face (there's a joke there I'm missing, I'm sure). At the end, I don't think we got any closer toward getting a feel of how comfortable public accounting is with gay, and in […]
Deloitte Is In Your State Office, Poaching Your CIO
Colorado Chief Information Officer Kristin Russell is leaving Gov. John Hickenlooper’s administration for a leadership role in a new government cloud computing practice of Deloitte Consulting LLP. Russell will be stepping down May 9 after just over three years as CIO and secretary of technology for the state government. The state has already begun the […]
Deloitte Is the Biggest Accounting Firm in the World Again (No Thanks to Its Audit Business)
If you recall, Chez Salzberg put up a good number, $32.4 billion in global revenues to be precise. PwC, as we mentioned this morning, came in at $32.1 billion so yes, that puts Deloitte on top of the Big 4 heap again after it's one-year wonder back in FY10. In such a tight race, every […]
Ernst & Young Announces a Competitive Poaching Frenzy; Deloitte, KPMG Among the Losers
Yesterday Ernst & Young announced the addition of six new M&A and PE professionals to its Transaction Advisory Services practice. It appears that all these professionals were special enough to warrant a press release, however, not specialy enough that it warranted their own individual press releases. Undoubtedly this will become a point of ridicule amongst their […]
Vault Ranking: Big 4 Firms Keep Things Respectable-ish Among Consulting Employers
No, they aren't Bain, Boston, Booz, or McKinsey but the Big 4, especially Deloitte and PwC, manage to hold their own as an employer of consulting professionals. That's according to the latest pecking order out of Vault, anyway. Here's the top ten for your disputing pleasure: 1. Bain & Co.2. McKinsey3. Boston Consulting4. Booz & […]
All of the Big 4 Land on This Year’s Vault Consulting 50 List (2012)
Back with more lists that include your favorite accounting firm. Today’s edition is the Vault Consulting 50. Mostly this list consists of firms that you wish you could work for but you can’t because you either have no pedigree or are dumber than a sack of hammers. That said, all the Big 4 are represented with Deloitte Consulting breaking into the top 5 (2011 ranking in parenthesis):
1 (1) Bain & Co.
2 (3) McKinsey
3 (2) Boston Consulting Group
4 (6) Deloitte Consulting
5 (25) Monitor Group
6 (8) A.T. Kearney
7 (7) Oliver Wyman
8 (5) The Cambridge Group
9 (4) Analysis Group, Inc.
10 (16) Booz & Company
This is a pretty fun list mostly because there was a lot of jumping around by the firms (*ahem* Monitor Group, where did you come from?). Other notables that you’re probably curious about include:
11 (32) Accenture
12 (13) PwC
21 (19) PRTM (who PwC just purchased)
36 (44) Navigant Consulting
42 (45) Capgemini
45 (42) FTI Consulting
47 (NR) Ernst & Young
50 (NR) KPMG
Jump over to the full list if you’re interested to see the rest of the Top 50 and here’s Vault’s methodology for those curious about that sort of thing.
Vault Consulting 50 [Vault]
Last year’s coverage:
Big 4 Have Big Presence on Vault’s Prestige List, Less So in Top 50
Tara Reid’s New Husband Is a Deloitte Consultant
The lucky new Mr. Tara Reid is none other than Zack (aka Zach, aka Zachary) Kehayov and he works out of Deloitte Consulting’s Washington, D.C. office, according to this LinkedIn profile. Frankly, the profile could use some work but now that he’s got access to American Pie residuals, it probably doesn’t make any difference.
We were tipped off to this information by reader who wrote, “For anyone who thought their aspirations of being in TMZ would be on hold while at Deloitte, think again.” Indeed.
For those not up to speed on their partygirl-suddenly-gets-married news, Reid and Kehayov got married an hour after being engaged on the Greek Isle of Santorini. Reid first announced their engagement on Twitter and then two tweets later she announced “Love in Greece…I am now a wife.”
She then tweeted several pictures including her ring and two portraits of the newlyweds. Her most recent tweet was simply “Bulgaria we love u!” Bulgaria being the home country of the Kehayov.
Anyway, more about Zach – like we said, his LinkedIn profile says he’s in the DC Metro area but on his D Street (that’s Deloitte’s internal Facebook) profile that you can see on the next page, it says he’s in Pittsburgh. His profile also says that he’s a Marymount University graduate, majoring in Financial Economics. He lists Georgetown Private Cliente (now part of DC-based Manna Capital Management) as a previous employer and as co-founder of Semper Sports, LLC (Google search turns up empty).
Gawker called a Kehayov a “a random giant-ring-buying rich guy who works in finance” but a Deloitte consultant hardly qualifies as a “rich guy.” Maybe his father is some captain-of-industry type in Bulgaria who gave his son boatloads of money to study/live/spread seed in the States but even if that’s the case, why would he go to school at Marymount? Perhaps the female to male ratio? But more importantly, why would he work at Deloitte? In Pittsburgh? Anyway, it appears he’s back in DC and is obviously doing all right for himself.
Although judging by this picture from the Daily Mail, Zach looks as though he needed some time away from the Green Dot. The man looks like he was ready for a vacation. We left messages for the numbers we could get for Mr. Kehayov but so far have heard nothing and considering he’s abroad, that’s understandable. Don’t rush back, Zach. You’ve got co-workers that have found peace while on vacation, you can do it too!
Deloitte Consultant Inadvertently Finds Peace on Vacation
Barbara Adachi, a principal in Deloitte Consulting’s human capital practice, started creating a stricter separation between vacation and work when she was in Patagonia on vacation several years ago. Her BlackBerry didn’t get reception there, she said, “and I had no choice but not to check it — it was very freeing.” [NYT]
Deloitte Is Lending Michigan a Helping Hand
Did I say lending? Sorry, that’s not technically accurate. Deloitte Consulting is monitoring Michigan’s welfare computer systems and that involves billable hours. Lots of them. $15 million worth.
The state of Michigan is spending millions of dollars on a contractor to run its welfare computer system partly because it doesn’t offer enough money to attract new hires. A system called Bridges keeps track of welfare cases in the Department of Human Services. In February, Deloitte Consulting was given a one-year contract for about $15 million to maintain it and make regular updates.
Of course it would be cheaper if the Wolverine State did this themselves but there’s a small problem:
[The State’s technology department] lost 15 people to early retirement in December and had several vacancies starting at roughly $42,000 a year. Nobody applied.
Consulting Magazine Throws a Few Bones to the Big 4 with Latest “Best” Rankings
The Big 4 managed to squeeze onto a a couple different recent lists for their consulting efforts including Consulting Magazine’s 2010 Best Firms to Work For and Vault’s 2011 Consulting 50.
We’ll roll out the particulars of Consulting Mag’s lists first and give you Vault’s results later today.
Consulting Mag has several different lists but we’ll stick to the most relevant for the Big 4 . We’ll start off with the overall ranking:
1. Bain & Company
2. The Boston Consulting Group
3. North Highland
4. Point B
5. McKinsey & Company
6. Deloitte Consulting
7. Booz Allen Hamilton
8. PricewaterhouseCoopers
9. Accenture
10. Slalom Consulting
11. Milliman
12. Booz & Company
13. A.T. Kearney
14. Capco
15. PRTM
So the Big 4 really makes two appearances here with Deloitte and PwC. You could throw Accenture in there for old time’s sake. Back when we covered Barry Salzberg’s little merger chat in the Journal, two names that were thrown at him were Booz and A.T. Kearney. While this list is certainly no indication, you’ll see that based on the rankings, Deloitte ranks above both those firms despite commenters suggestion that Booz and A.T. are superior brands.
The list dominated by the Big 4 was the Business Advisory Services:
1. PricewaterhouseCoopers
2. Alvarez & Marsal
3. Ernst & Young
4. KPMG
5. FTI
You don’t see Deloitte and Accenture on this list since they fall on the “Multi-Service” list at #1 and #2 respectively and Capgemini (purchased E&Y Consulting in 2000) is numero uno on the Information Technology list.
Deloitte Consulting and PwC get dropped on a few more lists that include: Career Development, Work/Life Balance and Culture while KPMG and E&Y are nowhere to be found. A list of “Best Places to Start a Career” listed Deloitte at #3 and KPMG at #6 with PwC and E&Y MIA.
Naturally there is room for bellyaching and there are vaguely familiar frustrations in the feedback portion:
Leadership
You have to manage your career with little help from management. Here’s the rope, climb the mountain or hang yourself…Work/Life Balance
The concept of a work life balance is talked about, but only as an afterthought.Compensation/Benefits Satisfaction
Your work will double, but salary may not.
Those aren’t specific to any one firm but something tells us you could find someone in any of the Big 4 consulting/advisory groups griping about these issues. OH! And as far as scoring for morale goes, the Big 4 are shutout of the top ten.
So a bit of a mixed bag on this particular list but you’ll likely see a rash of press releases in the coming days and weeks along with emails and whatnot from your leadership.
So feel free to debunk the latest seemingly arbitrary rankings. We certainly expect the consulting purists of the bunch to be disgusted with the Big 4 sullying these particular grounds.
The Best Firms to Work For, 2010 [Consulting Magazine]
PricewaterhouseCoopers Named Among the Top 10 Best Firms to Work For by Consulting Magazine [PR Newswire]
Marin County Accuses Deloitte of, Among Other Things, Using ‘Neophytes’ on SAP Project
Deloitte is being sued by Marin County in California, who is alleging fraud by misrepresenting its “skills and experience.” In other words, the County says that D used their ERP project as more or less a training ground for its newbie consultants. And no client likes it when you bring the blades of grass on site. They can’t even turn on their laptops without causing some sort of scene, amiright?
Channel Web has some of the particulars:
The County in April 2005 hired Deloitte to implement its SAP ERP system. However, the County alleged in the court document, “rather than providing the County with SAP and public sector exp d the County’s SAP project as a trial-and-error training ground to teach its consultants — many of them neophytes — about SAP for Public Sector software, all at the county’s expense.”
Plus! The County claims Deloitte promised their very best people. From the complaint: “Deloitte further represented that for the County’s SAP implementation, Deloitte had assembled a team of its ‘best resources’ who had ‘deep SAP and public sector knowledge.’ ”
A Big 4 firm promising their best and brightest on the job in an RFP? There’s a shocker. “Best” being relative, as we all know but Marin County (obviously not familiar with a Big 4 sales pitch) must have been expecting a team to fly in from hyperspace that could slap this thing in lickity.
Thankfully, Michael Krigsman explains over at ZDNet that this isn’t exactly rare:
1. The court filing describes sales practices that are common through the consulting and systems integration industry.
For example, the complaint alleges that Deloitte committed to “dedicate our best resources and bring tailored implementation strategies to meet [Marin’s] long-term needs.” Many IT customers complain their system integrators do not follow through on such commitments and use inexperienced labor in attempts to reduce their own costs and increase profits.
We’d be so bold to say that this true of many Big 4 engagements, whatever the service line. Newbies have to get their teeth cut somewhere – why not on a public service job where money obviously grows on trees?
Deloitte isn’t impressed with this gnat of a lawsuit, claiming that they did exactly what they were supposed to do (not to mention to put up with the amateurs at MC that have zilch ERP experience) and the system was working just fine when they left:
As stated previously, we fulfilled each and every one of our obligations under the contract, as evidenced three years ago when all of our work was approved by the County officials responsible for the project. To be clear, the SAP (NYSE:SAP) software was working properly when we completed our work in November 2007. Not only is the complaint without merit, but we are filing our own claim against the County for breach of agreement and unpaid invoices. Although we are confident that we will prevail in court, it remains our belief that this dispute can and should be resolved in a more logical fashion that benefits the County and its taxpayers.
So Deloitte gets a little huffy basically saying, “Suck it, Marin County. MBAs love Deloitte. OH, and btw, you owe us some money,” but ultimately wants to keep things civilized for the sake of the taxpayers. Let’s hope it stays childish just for the sake of entertainment purposes. Taxpayers in California are f—ed anyway.
Marin County complaint against Deloitte Consulting on failed SAP project
California County Sues Deloitte For Fraud In SAP ERP Project [Channel Web]
Marin County sues Deloitte: Alleges fraud on SAP project [IT Project Failures/ZDNet]
