Accenture plc is a multinational management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company. Accenture common equity is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, under the symbol ACN, and was added to the S&P 500 index on July 5, 2011. Accenture began as the business and technology consulting division of accounting firm Arthur Andersen. The division's origins are in a 1953 feasibility study for General Electric. GE asked Arthur Andersen to automate payroll processing and manufacturing at GE's Appliance Park facility near Louisville, Kentucky. Arthur Andersen recommended installation of a UNIVAC I computer and printer, which resulted in the first commercially owned computer installation in the United States in 1954. Joseph Glickauf, an early pioneer of computer consulting, held a position as head of Arthur Andersen's administrative services division for 12 years.
Alcatel-Lucent S.A. is a French global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. The company focuses on fixed, mobile, and converged networking hardware, IP technologies, software and services, with operations in more than 130 countries. It had been named Industry Group Leader for Technology Hardware & Equipment sector in the 2014 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices review Alcatel-Lucent also owns Bell Laboratories, one of the largest research and development facilities in the communications industry, whose employees have been awarded eight Nobel Prizes and the company holds in excess of 29,000 patents.