Joe W. Forehand, managing partner and CEO of Andersen Consulting.

"We want to become the market maker and architect in the new economy," said Joe W. Forehand, managing partner and chief executive of Andersen Consulting, who added that the new firm name puts "an emphasis on the future."

"(The name) expresses how we want to be known in the marketplace," noted Forehand.

The name spawned from a firm-wide contest -- known as BrandStorming -- under which employees from 42 countries submitted nearly 2,700 names for consideration. Kim Petersen, a business consultant working for Andersen Consulting in Norway, said he wanted a name that "focused on accomplishment" and decided to submit the name: Accenture.

The firm will cease operating under the name Andersen Consulting as of midnight on Dec. 31, 2000 and will assume the name Accenture on Jan. 1, 2001.

Accenture -- which is a combination of the words "accent" and future" -- was selected after a three-month research and analysis process involving thousands of candidate names. A short-list group of about 50 names, all of which met the positioning and personality criteria for the firm, was evaluated globally for trademark and URL availability, possible cultural sensitivities and local market pronunciation, the company said.

The initiative was led by Andersen Consulting's global marketing team and supported by the international branding and identity firm Landor Associates, as well as law firms in more than 49 countries who conducted more than 3,000 trademark searches, according to the company.

The name change follows an August ruling in which Colombian arbitrator Guillermo Gamba split Andersen Consulting from its sister accounting firm, Arthur Andersen.

The decision forced Andersen Consulting to give up the Andersen name and required it to pay about $1 billion to the partners at Arthur Andersen. That money, which consists of regularly scheduled payments between the firms, has been held in escrow since the arbitration began in December 1997.

Joe Forehand said it is just a coincidence that the new name has an "AC" in it, and that has no relationship to what will soon be its former name, Andersen Consulting. He also said the company will be working on a logo design over the next few weeks.

While the company will continue to own its site, www.ac.com, after Jan. 1, it will not use that site except to refer clients to the new Accenture site, the company said.

In a move to market the new name, the company will undertake an aggressive multi-million dollar global advertising campaign. The company said it plans to spend about 60 percent on print advertising, about 20 percent on television ads, and the remaining amount on other techniques such as stepping up its Web presence.

The new year not only marks the official launch of the new name. Next spring or early summer the company expects to decide whether a partial initial public offering is in the company's best interest. During its annual partner conference held recently in Miami, the company decided to investigate a partial IPO.

-- By Antoinette Alexander

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