Global Telco Operator: Cloud Strategy

This multinational telecommunications company owns and operates networks in over 30 countries and has partner networks in 40 additional countries. It has more than 371 million customers worldwide and offer mobile, fixed line, internet services, digital television and broadband services.

The client was experiencing challenges in its efforts in delivering IT services promptly, efficiently and seamlessly to internal customers across their operating companies. Additionally, these customers demanded that IT services be provided with the same speed, agility and pay-per-use model as public Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud providers (such as Amazon.com).

The company’s current IT infrastructure showed significant improvement opportunities for service delivery when focusing on increasing orchestration, automation and standardization—especially when taking advantage of the cloud.

Although there were some very good pockets of cloud thinking throughout the differing operating companies and technology units of the organization, this became a significant opportunity for Accenture to create an overarching cloud strategy and roadmap for the client.

Having worked together previously on the client’s IT infrastructure, this client knew Accenture could provide extensive cloud experience with other multinational companies that would prove valuable in assessing and taking advantage of available cloud opportunities.

The project’s goal was to help the client reach a better, more thorough understanding of the cloud and the benefits it could provide—plus realize how those benefits could be turned to the company’s advantage in the future.

Accenture commenced a nine-week cloud strategy review to identify key cloud opportunities for the client by assessing existing strategies, infrastructure, applications, process and governance structures.

Working closely with the client, Accenture quickly established the main drivers and guiding principles for building the cloud strategy:

• Speed- to-market: Increasing the speed at which IT services are delivered.
• Elasticity: Becoming better able to respond to changes in demand.
• Location: Providing seamless IT services across all operating companies.
• Costs: Allowing for better cost visibility and transparency to drive them down.

As a part of this evaluation, Accenture:

• Reviewed existing IT strategies to assess level of maturity of existing cloud adoption

• Assessed high-level Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) opportunities using application portfolio data and the configuration management database (CMDB).

• Analyzed high level as-is architecture to determine cloud target architecture.

• Determined the cloud impact on the company’s current IT operating model including governance and processes.

The review outlined a three-year roadmap for the client to embark upon a journey to a hybrid environment, encompassing both private and public cloud opportunities within these specific areas:

• Cloud Architecture: The review findings showed that enhancements to the existing technical architecture would be required for it to enable orchestration, automation and standardization of IT infrastructure service (including server provisioning, business unit specific billing and predictive usage monitoring).

• Cloud Operating Model: An array of processes, including change management, asset management, HR and procurement, needed to change before infrastructure and applications could be moved to the cloud. Similarly, changes to the current governance structures were identified to give cloud appropriate control and management while at the same time providing speed-to-market and agility.

• Application Hosting – Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): The Accenture Cloud Opportunity Assessment Tool analyzed the application portfolio, which showed that significant opportunities existed to move applications and their underlying infrastructure to either a public, private or hybrid-based cloud deployment model. Accenture highlighted significant potential for costs savings through consolidation and decommissioning, particularly for the client’s infrastructure that can be scaled up and down with seasonal peaks.

• Cloud Software – Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): The review findings showed that there were considerable public cloud SaaS opportunities in functional areas, such as Customer Relationship Management, Contact Center and Online. A decision tree based on critical cloud criteria allowed the client to quickly determine if potential SaaS vendor offerings were suitable.

As a result of the review, the client asked Accenture to build upon the existing cloud strategy and develop an internal Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE). Designed to be an internal IT business unit dedicated specifically to managing cloud demand and providing visible process and governance, the CCoE will work toward achieving the original client goals as specified in the cloud strategy.