Accenture's digital transformation

For Accenture, digitization is not just about applying digital technologies to existing business capabilities, but instead about transforming the way Accenture operates, improving the employee experience and helping clients become more capable digital businesses.

To support a changing, more digital Accenture, the internal IT organization is focusing technology initiatives across the following areas:

• Digital capabilities — Developing digital capabilities centers on reimagining, automating and enabling self-service for all types of processing work that was previously manual. One major initiative is the global rollout of an intelligent automation platform, Accenture myWizard, that enables smarter, more innovative and more efficient application services consisting of systems integration and application development and management. Another initiative is an Accenture-wide program of transforming current reporting with a new information and data architecture and common platform. The new framework will enable management portals, interactive dashboards, self-service tools, and more, transforming the way information will be delivered and consumed across Accenture.

• Digital employee experience — Accenture’s IT is advancing beyond one-size-fits-all, PC-centric hardware standards, and moving into a digital future marked by flexible freedom. The organization is accelerating the expansion of BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device program, and bringing apps to Accenture to give its employees different experiences.

• Client teams — A focus on client team capabilities led to the reinvention of the end-to-end client relationship management process and the deployment of a new digital client CRM solution, Manage mySales. This solution digitally enables end-to-end sales visibility, processes and methods onto a single platform. Following the development of this new digital capability is another—New Business Management, a transformed way of thinking on how Accenture approves work. Other initiatives are in process.

• Social — Accenture’s IT has capitalized on capabilities inspired by the consumerization of technology to enable employees to effectively collaborate. To do so, IT has developed an array of Accenture-only social enterprise capabilities that support purposeful collaboration that is needed to work in a globally connected world, matching the way people live. Social vehicles are woven into the work Accenture people do every day by integrating with processes and business applications.

• Collaboration — Accenture’s entire workforce is enabled with Skype for Business, allowing secure, real-time connections with instant messaging, voice and video conferencing—even on their mobile devices, on the go. Teams can easily connect across the globe with SharePoint sites and “Circles,” while online Communities of Practice and the Knowledge Exchange, a document repository, quickly bring expertise into the hands of Accenture people. Internal publishing capabilities like blogs and Accenture’s internal Media Exchange allow all employees to easily share and collaborate in new, more digital ways.

• Video and broadcast — As a global company, Accenture requires a wide range of videoconferencing capabilities. Current capabilities blend existing videoconferencing rooms with conference room “pop-in” TV studios and a premier facility in Chicago, all leveraging the same infrastructure creating a global network of studios. Cloud technologies allow Accenture to put on and control these capabilities from anywhere. In addition to the Chicago facility, two other Accenture Broadcast Control Centers located in Delhi and Prague tie the studio network together.

• Talent — IT is initiating a “digital HR,” beginning with making investments in the areas of common demand, a careers marketplace, learning boards, connected classrooms and a new Performance Achievement process. An enhanced Accenture Portal—employees’ starting point to Accenture—was launched, providing information, experts and tools and a modern performance workspace. A future HR agenda envisions enabling digital learning and an integrated supply chain of matching demand, supply and forecast for Human Resources.

• Infrastructure — Accenture is transforming its network with new investments that have led to a new carrier-grade network globally. IT is also changing the bandwidth available in the network to improve experience and is accelerating Wi-Fi deployment all on demand. Accenture is also in the midst of an enterprise-scale program enabling agile, scalable cloud usage and services across Accenture to move toward to a place of digital provisioning and operation. The program is establishing a new, robust, cloud IT infrastructure, driving transformative enterprise change across multiple dimensions to enable Accenture to implement digital services and capabilities.

• Company — IT is evolving to offering flexible solutions for Accenture’s portfolio of businesses. Accenture is also evolving its ERP, the next stage of which is to develop a digital ERP using SAP Business Suite on HANA and Business Warehouse on HANA. This evolution will help Accenture to continue building digital capabilities and improve ERP operations and support for a more differentiated set of businesses. The digital ERP will be further enhanced by S/4HANA Finance (formerly called Simple Finance).