Day one at Accenture: Go to work. Make a difference.
August 30, 2021
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When you start working here, you make an impact right away.
In fact, a group of new analysts—some of whom had just completed their New Joiner Orientation—found themselves engaged in a project that could save many thousands of lives: running a vaccine management program for a large Midwestern U.S. state.
The project had them coordinating the vaccine program with healthcare providers and government entities across the state—so far, helping some 550,000 residents get COVID-19 vaccinations.
A half-million vaccines later
Our cloud-based solution includes a virtual agent that can answer questions about appointments and vaccines in general. The critical piece of our work was the website—a one-stop destination for people to check their eligibility for a vaccine and search for available appointments.
The site enables healthcare providers to manage their vaccine supplies and update their appointment availability, while tracking patients as they arrive and recording doses as they are administered.
As of June 14, we have helped the state administer more than 550,000 vaccines in support of 15 vaccination clinics. Tamara Clough, who serves as the project’s business delivery lead, notes that there is no one-size-fits-all approach for vaccination clinics, so we’ve had to tailor our solutions.
“We learned the importance of pivoting and adjusting our approach based on changing guidelines and client needs,” she explains. “Each clinic devises their own workflow based on the number of resources it has. The beauty of our solution is that it can accommodate a number of approaches, and our on-site support team really helped vaccine providers adjust once they got up and running.”
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Rachel: Managing client relationships
Analyst Rachel Kneessi was the site lead for a large vaccination clinic.
“I had been at Accenture a little over a year and this was my first time traveling and working at a client site—definitely a crash course in client relationship management,” she says.
Rachel was the main point of contact for all things related to the program. She coordinated activities of our team on-site and essentially served as our county “health champion.”
“It’s been great to get a client-facing leadership opportunity as an analyst, and especially on a project that is so meaningful to me,” she says. “Knowing that I’m even a small part of the vaccination effort that is saving lives and helping us return to normalcy feels incredible!”
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Michael: Stepping up to lead
Analyst Michael Sorger says working on-site at the vaccination clinics has been the most rewarding of the various roles he’s had on the project.
“I got to see firsthand the difference we are making in the lives of individuals across the state,” he says. “I’ll never forget the pure joy I witnessed after someone received their vaccine and regained the freedoms COVID had taken away.”
The project has given Michael the opportunity to step into a leadership role—rare for most analysts on their first project.
“For a couple weeks, I was the site lead at one of the centers, and today I am the functional lead and the testing lead,” he says.
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Carmen: Managing tech support
Soon after Carmen Paquette joined us in February, she became part of the team, providing technical support at vaccination clinics across the state. She, too, wanted to stretch her responsibilities as far as she could and contribute even more.
“I quickly noticed the opportunity to provide support to the vaccination site planning and scheduling aspects of the project, and reached out to leadership,” Carmen says. “Now, I also manage on-site and phone support for the state’s vaccination clinics.”
This hybrid position has allowed Carmen to develop an appreciation for how many moving pieces are involved in the success of the vaccine management program.
“It is incredibly rewarding to actively contribute to this historical effort and to have met so many fantastic people in our company from a diverse array of places, positions and backgrounds,” she says. “I couldn’t have asked for more from a first project with Accenture.”
Making an impact at all levels
Tamara marvels at the passion and performance of the young analysts—and everyone on the team, for that matter.
“It has been very meaningful to work on a project that feels much bigger than myself, and to know that I work for a company that is solving real world problems and making an impact—even saving—people’s lives,” she says. “I’ve been so impressed with our talent. They have been real troopers, and some of them really stepped up to assume leadership roles.”
More than 200 of our people are contributing to the ongoing effort, many of whom are analysts experiencing their first project, first time interacting with colleagues and clients face to face and their first company travel experience.
At every level, our people are harnessing the power of change to do incredible things.
