Accenture will invest more than $250 million over the next three years to expand its technology consulting capabilities to help clients better align information technology and business strategy.

The investment will enable Accenture to enhance its strategy planning, marketing, offering and asset development, alliance development and management, and recruiting and training for its technology capabilities.

Specifically, the investment will focus on helping clients: develop IT strategies, standardise, virtualise and secure their IT infrastructures and applications; improve worker productivity; and implement new consumer-like, Web-based applications.

"Aligning IT with business strategy has, once again, become a top issue for companies worldwide," said William D Green, Accenture's chairman and CEO. "To address this, we are enhancing the end-to-end services we offer through Accenture Technology Consulting. We will complement our rich portfolio of assets and processes with new services that provide greater insight into IT's impact on business performance.”