Our global IT organization embraced the need for change at speed while working closely with our business partners. Our goal was to respond quickly and cost-effectively to enable the business to move to the new structure without impacting running the business. We made background technology changes invisible. Further, we set an objective to use this opportunity to increase our IT flexibility by designing the technology changes so that future operating model changes could be made with even more speed and agility.
Prioritizing at a fast pace
In order to fully function on Day 1 of the new operating model, it was most important to know who the new business leads were, how the business aligned and where people fit. Leadership wanted to operate in this new model the day it was announced. To support this need, the most urgent components to have in place were the new organization structure, leadership in the new structure, people’s alignments and accountabilities for the sales pipeline and delivery.
These fast moves allowed Accenture to focus our leaders and teams on the new growth priorities. The growth priorities defined where Accenture will focus next, and how Accenture will report progress on achieving planned growth. As a result, Accenture changed how the company encodes sales and books revenue. To support leadership decision making, we providedstatic focused management briefings to provide meaningful insights to the business.
We followed with a series of rapid, agile releases to implement the remaining changes across our IT landscape. We changed how sold client work is staffed, how we track revenue in the new model, and the management reporting we use to measure new Accenture growth priorities. Throughout the journey, we paired our cross-functional change management team with our business leaders to manage the change without impacting running the business.
Strategic change management was a critical element. We started with the key leaders and took a white glove approach. We identified the 20 new leaders that had been given major new responsibilities in the operating model and were critical to a successful implementation. The team met with each leader individually, discussed and identified their needs, defined their security access and key applications, and provided tailored training. This approach prepared our leaders to immediately manage in the new model and t support and encourage their people to move to the new ways.
