Accenture and Deloitte alternatives: when your MSAs can’t deliver

You've got your go-to consulting relationships. Accenture, Deloitte, and maybe a few smaller firms like Endava. The paperwork is done. The MSAs are signed.

But when it comes time to build - really build - are they the right fit?

If your answer is “not really,” you’re not the only one thinking it. Today's technical roadmaps and legacy modernization projects can’t wait for enterprise onboarding timelines. And more tech leaders are realizing that legacy consulting models aren't built for product speed, AI initiatives, or effective legacy modernization work.

You can choose a faster engineering partner staffed with ex-FAANG talent – one that optimizes for what ships, not billable hours.

You’re not buying hours - you’re buying outcomes

Most enterprise consulting engagements follow a predictable pattern.

• The A-team pitches; the C-team delivers
• Delivery starts 3-6 months after kickoff
• Engineers rotate off when utilization demands it
• Progress is measured in timesheets, not working software

This might work for problems you can throw bodies at. It doesn't work for mission-critical delivery of AI-powered features or modernizing a legacy system before Q4.

The business model itself creates the problem. Large consultancies optimize for utilization across thousands of consultants. They sell the A-team and staff the C-team. They add layers of account management between you and the people doing the work. They're incentivized by billable hours, not by whether your product ships.

Traditional firms like Accenture and Deloitte simply can't deliver speed, technical depth, and low management overhead simultaneously – their business model makes it impossible.

The receipts: recent Accenture and Deloitte project failures

These aren't theoretical concerns. Recent high-profile failures show exactly what happens when large consultancies apply their model to technical work.

$96 million for a broken website

In October 2025, Accenture and Deloitte delivered a website redesign for Australia's Bureau of Meteorology that ballooned from an estimated $31 million to over $96 million. The result? Farmers couldn't access rainfall data, radar information went missing during storms, and the government had to publicly demand fixes. One Australian Senator called it "a nightmare case study in contract failure."

AI-generated hallucinations in government reports

Deloitte has been caught twice this year submitting reports filled with fake citations. A $290,000 Australian welfare report contained references to nonexistent academic papers and a fabricated court quote. Two months later, a $1.6 million Canadian healthcare report had the same problem – made-up research and fictional co-authorships. As one professor noted, these are "the kinds of things that a first-year university student would be in deep trouble for."

This is what happens when firms optimize for billable hours over outcomes. When the people selling the work aren't the people doing the work. When quality control is someone else's problem.

What a modern engineering partner looks like

The biggest shift? It’s not about billable hours. It’s about delivering outcomes. Of course billable hours are part of the conversation, but they’re not the product you’re buying. 

Modern engineering partners structure themselves like elite product teams, not traditional vendors.

The differences show up immediately. Where a traditional consultancy takes 3-6 months to staff and ramp a team, a modern partner deploys in 4–6 weeks. Large firms rotate resources based on firm-wide utilization needs, modern partners assign dedicated teams who stay with your project through delivery. Consultancies layer account managers between you and the engineers, modern partners give you direct access to the people building your software.

A modern engineering partner looks different across every dimension that matters:

• Deploys in 4–6 weeks, not 3-6 months
• Domain expertise in AI/ML, data engineering, legacy modernization – not generalists learning on your dime
• Integrates with your tools and engineering workflows rather than imposing their own processes
• Direct access to delivery leads, not layers of account management slowing decisions
• Progress measured in shipped software, not billable hours

The talent model is different too. In the wake of tech layoffs and shifting priorities around work-life balance, ex-FAANG engineers and senior product talent have migrated to modern software consultancies. These teams combine enterprise experience with startup speed – they understand your complexity but operate without the bureaucracy. They've built similar systems before, often at companies you'd recognize.

You're not looking for a team to babysit. You're looking for one that shows up, plugs in, and ships.

When to look beyond your MSA partners

Engineering leaders don't throw out the big consultancies entirely – they just stop using them when the work needs to ship like it came from their best internal teams.

Consider looking beyond your existing MSAs when: 

• You need to modernize legacy systems and see results this year, not in five years (or never)
• You're facing a tight timeline with high visibility, like a board-level AI initiative that can't slip
• You're shipping a technical project with unclear specs or evolving requirements that need a team comfortable with ambiguity
• You need to augment an overloaded internal team without creating more management overhead
• You're building something new and your hiring plan is still months from delivering the people you need

These are situations where the traditional consulting model actively works against you. The 3-6 month ramp time alone can kill a project that needs to ship in Q3. The rotating resources mean you lose context every time someone gets pulled to another account. The layers of account management slow down decisions that should take hours, not weeks.

Find an engineering partner that ships

There's a reason consultancies like Accenture and Deloitte exist – and reasons they aren't the engineering partners to help ship your Q4 deliverables fast enough.

The alternative is a partner that works like your best internal team: fast to ramp, reliable in delivery, and deeply technical. Senior engineers who've solved similar problems at Amazon, Roblox, Tinder, and other companies operating at scale. Teams that operate in your time zone, integrate with your workflows, and care about outcomes over billable hours.

That’s us. 

You might be 4–6 weeks away from shipping what's been stuck for months.

See if we're the right fit for your roadmap >