Infrastructure: Services Overview

We believe that organisations will be more responsive to the marketplace and have a more open environment for innovation and transformation when they have an agile infrastructure that is enabled by cloud computing and new outsourcing models.

The ultimate objectives are to enable a business or government to quickly take control of its IT costs, enhance its system security, improve its ability to support its business and operating strategy, and self-fund longer-term, IT-enabled improvements that drive additional value and high performance. Consideration of sourcing strategies—whether co-sourcing or outsourcing—should also form part of the overall plan.

Accenture takes a three-phased approach to creating an agile infrastructure that is manageable, cost effective and minimally disruptive to business operations.

• Phase one: Start with a comprehensive consolidation and standardisation programme to reduce complexity, expense and operations and management challenges.

• Phase two: Extend the benefits of phase one activities by super-imposing a virtual layer on the newly standardised IT environment.

• Phase three: Allow the organisation to fully exploit utility-style computing capabilities as they are realised. Organisations can tap into IT capacity from third-party vendors and pay only for the capacity or type of service or resources they use.

Accenture’s end-to-end infrastructure services include a series of solutions integrated across all infrastructure areas.

Accenture is committed to increasing service levels while reducing IT expenditure. We develop a business case focusing on rationalisation and consolidation of the existing environment. Quick wins and cost savings are identified to fund aspects of the design, build and deployment of the end-state environment. All initiatives are planned around a detailed technical architecture blueprint that identifies the technologies required to meet an organisation's goals. These activities set the stage for the detailed transformation, which involves consolidating the entire infrastructure and applying a virtualisation layer to enable utility-centric computing capabilities. Critical tasks throughout the transformation include a comprehensive review of the business processes and application portfolio and the monitoring of the service, combined with deep programme management skills to measure tangible results.

Accenture has a strong history of focusing on business outcomes, such as cost reduction, increased productivity, workforce flexibility and a green IT agenda. Our holistic approach helps clients make infrastructure decisions now, to increase agility and position them for future growth. Finally, we understand and incorporate new infrastructure technology trends and models such as virtualisation, software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud computing into our client’s business.

Accenture provides a comprehensive road map that enables organisations to create an agile infrastructure via multiple streams of parallel work. We also provide outsourcing services to help you manage your infrastructure.

Data Centre
We help clients map out and implement a data centre solution that employs market-leading technologies and processes, including managing processes and applications as a business service, virtualising all layers of the technology stack and logically pooling data centre resources, developing service-oriented infrastructures with automated processes that trigger provisioning based on capacity and service-level objectives, and creating an integrated operations framework that is proactive and predictive.

Network Technology
Accenture Network Technology Services enable clients to use their networks in a secure and operationally efficient way to improve performance of their critical applications, reduce risks and support critical business needs by helping them create and implement an end-to-end network strategy. Our professionals use their deep skills in network and network-related technologies to help organisations reduce network complexity, implement wireless solutions, manage telecom expenses and ultimately, reduce cost and improve network efficiency.

Workplace Enablement
We team closely with our clients to help them strategically optimise and transform their workplace by implementing solutions that employ communication & collaboration and workplace technologies to create business value. We provide more efficient end-to-end management of distributed computing environments, enabling a secure, stable and effective work environment and more productive employees.

IT Service Excellence
IT Service Excellence helps clients with the on-going process of managing, monitoring and reporting on technology and services and the business services they impact. This solution enables clients to manage and observe the health of IT services, as well as ensure that business service levels, underpinned by IT service levels, are always in a state of compliance and made visible to stakeholders along with IT spend levels.

Infrastructure Outsourcing
Accenture Infrastructure Outsourcing Services provide ongoing management of a client’s IT infrastructure capabilities or functions. We provide either discrete skills (Capacity Services) or fully-managed services (Managed Services) in which we take complete responsibility to manage the end-to-end function of one or more of our infrastructure outsourcing services. Clients benefit from a measurably more cost-effective, secure and responsive infrastructure that scales and adapts to their business needs.

Infrastructure Transformation
Infrastructure Transformation helps clients manage the transformation of their infrastructure, and enable the business to benefit from investment in new and more efficient operating models.  Accenture’s clients recognise that they spend a high proportion of their annual budgets on infrastructure and are finding it increasingly difficult to justify the expense and promote the value to the business. Many enterprises cannot meet this challenge because their IT Infrastructure is inflexible and has become overly complex through organic growth rather than following a holistic forward- looking strategy. Infrastructure Transformation provides the relevant strategy, blueprints, assessment, roadmaps and operating models to plan these transformations, as well as comprehensive and industrialized services to manage the transformation.

Microsoft
The Accenture and Avanade partnership offers expertise on Microsoft’s leading platforms in both the data centre and desktop environments. In recognition of our commitment to client results, Microsoft recognised Accenture and Avanade as their 2010 Enterprise Partner of the Year for the third successive year.

Accenture & Cisco Business Group
Accenture & Cisco Business Group offers distinctive, network-enabled solutions to drive sustainable business agility. IT can be a strategic asset: a winning direction to save money today and thrive tomorrow. Shrinking budgets and profit pressures can lead to a tactical trap—one that stalls innovation and leaves you with old-hat, mainstream technologies. And the winners? They’re using IT strategically, right now: cost-effectively making the most of their technology investments and readying the entire business for next-generation, productivity-enhancing tools. That’s exactly what we can help you do.