BIG$IS$BIG:$ACCENTURE’S BRAND$CACHÉ$SWELLSWITH$ …€¦ · 23/05/2015 · Big$is$Big:$Accenture$BrandCache$Swells$With$The$G2000$|$1!! ©2014,HfSResearch,Ltd|||bpo.horsesforsources.com$

Big is Big: Accenture Brand Cache Swells With The G2000 | 1

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Arch i tec t s of G loba l Bus ines s

BIG IS BIG: ACCENTURE’S BRAND CACHÉ SWELLS WITH

THE G2000 Author:

Charles Sutherland, EVP Research Phil Fersht, President and CEO

Ned May, SVP Research Reetika Joshi, Research Director

October 2014

The Details HfS Research’s analyst team was out in force this week for Accenture’s annual industry analyst conference in New York. This was the first analyst gathering since the re-‐shaping of Accenture’s Growth Platforms into Digital, Operations, Strategy and Technology pillars.

This year’s analyst event was an opportunity for each of the Group Chief Executives and key Managing Directors of these Growth Platforms to share their vision on how they are delivering new (and increasingly digital) services to G2000 clients. This theme of “Big is Big” first appeared in Accenture’s Technology Vision 2014, where the idea is that, after years of innovation and disruption coming from start-‐ups and challengers, now is the time where the largest global enterprises are turning the tide of innovation and disruption in their favor -‐ with Accenture as their strategic partner.

What Struck Each Of Us As “Big” Throughout this event, it struck the team that, while not an official theme, this notion of “Big is Big” really is driving Accenture in many ways, hence we have chosen a few examples of areas where this strategy seems to be coming to life and which we want to watch develop further in 2015.

Charles Sutherland

It is interesting to see how two of Accenture’s largest recent investments have evolved in the last year to offer greater capabilities, especially for the 141 Diamond Clients that are at the heart of its strategy. One year on from its acquisition of Procurian (see link), the post merger integration has been completed, not only with the existing procurement team in the Operations Growth Platform, but also with hundreds of sourcing experts previously embedded in the Strategy Growth Platform. What has been created is an Indirect sourcing, market intelligence and




procurement processing engine using technology with deep expertise across 15 leading categories of spend to offer a comprehensive solution for the G2000. Accenture has built a procurement platform that really targets “big” enterprises in a way that was not possible before the acquisition.

Accenture’s Cloud Platform 3.0 also came across as a solution for “big” clients, that can orchestrate the acquisition and deployment of cloud services across a variety of hybrid public/private options for IaaS, PaaS and SaaS solutions. The solution has evolved dramatically since its launch several years ago, both with the breadth and ease of use of pre-‐integrated services. The ambitions for additional brokerage and integration services is also designed to keep in line with the ever-‐increasing complexity of the cloud environments of “big” clients which, in many cases, have had to “back into the cloud” from a vast variety of legacy IT, rather than having the luxury of being built for the cloud from inception that so many current disruptors and start-‐ups have been able to enjoy.

Phil Fersht

Listening to the various “Big” client success stories was a reminder that global enterprises today are only too keen to tell the world that they have hired Accenture – and use Accenture a benchmark for their performance delivered. In fact, these days it is not uncommon to have a new Accenture client contract award landing in ones inbox most mornings.

Barely a few years ago, it was rare that any enterprise client would so openly share the details of a services engagement with the world, but today it has become a badge of corporate success that they can afford the best and can reach a global client audience both on television and in airports around the world through the shared advertising.

How has Accenture achieved this? Simple, it has an incredible brand caché that has continued to grow year on year through crisp marketing, creative business advertising and the smart use of the Strategy Growth Platform to support outsourcing deals. All of this has put Accenture on the top of the pile when it comes to being a prestige services brand for the “Big” and the emerging enterprise. Whereas in the ‘80s and ‘90s “no-‐one every got fired for buying IBM”, in today’s market, many enterprises feel that to “improve they performance they have to hire Accenture”.

In IT services, Accenture has always had a strong brand edge, however, its recent move to twin BPO with IT infrastructure to form Accenture Operations is having an strong impact on clients looking to move beyond aging legacy sourcing frameworks, such as labor-‐arbitrage based BPO. Having IT infrastructure and operational talent together is accelerating a culture of enabling technology-‐driven services, moving processes into an “As-‐a-‐Service” model and creating the skills and acumen that providers need to make the delivery of “As-‐a-‐Service” effective.

The shift to the As-‐a-‐Service Economy has already begun, and there are going to be many painful experiences as cash-‐rich legacy engagements are ejected and several providers disappear into the tier of insignificance, or are broken up and submerged into other entities altogether. The winners are those which can bring together higher-‐value service capability that inspires creative and analytical thinking, and twin them with real cloud delivery – either through their own platforms, or those of their partners. Having a provider which understands and can implement a cloud platform, support the transformation and provide the necessary services that add real value to the front-‐office is the Holy Grail for many buyers.




Ned May

The company's success and cache is by no means limited to Operations. Accenture is firing on all cylinders in the Digital game as well. Having combined its customer facing interactive unit with broader focused analytics and mobile practices at the beginning of 2014, the new Digital Growth Platform led by Mike Sutcliff is generating strong growth across every vertical within every geography. In short, it has become a $5 billion dollar growth engine with a keen focus on those 141 Diamond “Big” clients in particular.

Another recent move by Accenture is starting to yield additional dividends as well. Having brought Prith Banerjee onboard last June to oversee their Technology Labs and support the broader efforts of CTO Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s Labs are focused on utilizing technology breakthroughs to drive business innovation. This means that while many in the services industry are placing big bets on developing or acquiring their own proprietary platforms or technology, Accenture is keeping the bulk of its focus on sourcing best of breed via aggressive partnership efforts and by bringing together its overall leadership team twice a year to drive and determine the short, near, and long-‐term goals of Labs. That intense grounding in business needs has already yielded results today with new capabilities emerging such as pipeline monitoring for “Big” oil & gas clients that is being tested in the field.

Reetika Joshi

Accenture’s Digital Growth Platform is sending the message that technology is no longer a support function in the organization, and instead needs to move into becoming a critical part of the front office, driving business decisions and outcomes. We saw this with a case study from the retail vertical within the Products Operating Group. The case highlighted how closely linked the engagement was to the retail client’s overall growth strategy and customer engagement goals. It also spoke to the wide range of skills and capabilities Accenture brought to the table from across the organization towards digital enablement in a compressed timeframe. The retail client was facing increasing competitive pressures and market share erosion, with low customer loyalty. Accenture initially used its Strategy team to help the client with its overall digital strategy and points of differentiation of relevance to customers. The service provider’s recently acquired assets (Fjord and Acquity) brought in a new capability -‐ experience and service design – towards creating a simplified customer experience. Loyalty management was the key priority for the retailer. With no systemic way of engagement and eroding market share, the client needed results quick, not a solution being implemented over a multi-‐year timeframe. Accenture thus created an overall solution that is all cloud based, bringing multiple partners and different practices towards what the service provider refers to as ‘loyalty program in a box’. Components of the solution include customer data integration (point of sale, ERP, social), mobile web optimization and analytics across channels to improve promotion strategies and next best offer recommendations.




What To Watch The consensus is in after the Accenture Analyst day 2014 that the strategy of focusing on “As-‐a-‐service” technology and operations and shepherding “big” clients through the waves of digital disruption is paying off for Accenture. Over the next year, HfS’ analysts will be watching to see how the aforementioned offerings and capabilities will evolve and deliver value by driving improved operating performance, not only to the 141 Diamond clients of Accenture, but for every client which has made the decision to build its enterprise in conjunction with the brand of Accenture.




About the Authors Charles Sutherland

Charles Sutherland is the Executive Vice President of Research for HfS Research. In this role, he is responsible for the customized project work that HfS Research undertakes for our clients. He also has his own research agenda for HfS, which covers Finance & Accounting BPO, Procurement, Supply Chain and specific vertical process offerings. He is especially interested in the application of the SMAC (Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud) stack technologies and robotic automation to change the BPO market place and believes that a fundamental revolution in the way that BPO is solutioned and delivered is drawing near.

Charles is a twenty-‐year veteran of the high technology services marketplace with a global background having lived and worked across Europe, Asia and North America during that time. Prior to joining HfS Research, Charles was the Chief Strategy Officer for Dallas based BPO Service Provider SourceHOV. Previously he was the Managing Director of Growth & Strategy for Accenture’s multi-‐billion dollar global BPO Growth Platform after getting his first operational experience in BPO delivery with Accenture more than a decade ago.

Charles has an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France and an Honors BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Toronto.

Charles can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on twitter @cwsuther




Phil Fersht Phil Fersht is President and CEO of leading global analyst authority, HfS Research. He is an acclaimed author, analyst and visionary in Global Business Services, the Digital Transformation of enterprise operations and talent development strategies.

Fersht founded HfS Research in early 2010 and has overseen the growth and development of the organization to become the leading analyst authority and knowledge community for global business services. He is also author and creator of the most widely-‐read blog in the global services industry, entitled “Horses for

Sources” and now entering its eighth year with over a million visits per year across the globe. He was named "Analyst of the Year 2011” by the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR), winning the premier analyst award for a second successive year -‐ the most coveted global award for industry analysts in technology and services industry.

Over the past 18 years, Fersht has lived and worked extensively in Europe, North America and Asia, where he has advised on hundreds of operations strategy, outsourcing, and global business services engagements. At HfS, he directs and contributes to the firm’s research, advisory and global knowledge community, which today totals over 150,000 professionals and is served by a global analyst team across North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.

During his career, Phil Fersht has worked at Gartner Inc. (AMR Research), directing the firm’s BPO and IT Services practices and served as market leader for Deloitte Consulting’s BPO Advisory Services, where he led numerous outsourcing and offshoring advisory engagements with Fortune 500 enterprises. He also worked for outsourcing consultancy Everest Group, where established the company’s BPO research practice. Phil began his career at IT analyst IDC where worked in the firm's European, US and Asia/Pacific operations.

Under his leadership at HfS, HfS Research was named first in rising influence among leading analyst firms, according to the 2013 Analyst Value Survey, and second out of the 44 leading industry analyst firms in the 2013 Analyst Value Index. In 2012, the International Institute of Analyst Relations (IIAR), the premier body of analyst-‐facing professionals, awarded HfS research analyst industry's Most Innovative Analyst Firm in 2012.

Fersht contributes regularly to media such as Wall St Journal, Business Week, Economist, The Times of India and CIO Magazine and is a regular keynote speaker at major industry events, such as NASSCOM, Sourcing Interests Group and the HfS Blueprint Sessions.

Fersht received a Bachelor of Science, with Honors, in European Business & Technology from Coventry University, United Kingdom and a Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie in Business & Technology from the University of Grenoble, France. He also has a diploma from the Market Research Society in the United Kingdom.




Ned May Ned is Senior Vice President of Research and a member of the research leadership team at HfS. His remit is to develop and inspire leading edge research focused on the technology enablement of business services. His coverage areas include IT Services, enterprise mobility and digital transformation. As a senior adviser to IT and business executives, Ned recognizes the characteristics of emerging market leaders and sees nothing but great opportunity for HfS in the coming years.

With nearly 20 years of broad strategy experience, Ned combines a love of long-‐term thinking with a strong appreciation for the challenges of ensuring daily excellence in

execution. Over the years, he has not only helped hundreds of clients navigate and capitalize on changing landscapes, but along the way has led diverse research teams and launched and run new products often aimed at directly cannibalizing existing offerings.

Ned comes to HfS from research firm Outsell where as a Practice Leader he grew and served the company's largest strategic accounts across the media and publishing industries. He also oversaw the firm's cross industry research that served the industry's leading technology suppliers. While at Outsell Ned oversaw the development of an interactive online benchmarking tool serving executive management and authored many groundbreaking studies including ones on the impact of emerging technologies, the evolution of business information, and the new opportunities presented by mobile interfaces.

Widely quoted in the global press, Ned has been a regular speaker across a broad range of leading industry events. He has also appeared on PBS's Nightly Business Report and FOX Business.

Prior to joining Outsell, Ned ran the Worldwide IT Services research program at IDC where he covered the largest global players in the midst of the emergence of offshore outsourcing and utility computing. While at IDC Ned was also responsible for the creation of their Worldwide Quarterly Services Tracker-‐ a product that continues to this day.

In his spare time, Ned enjoys a wide range of outdoor activities with his wife and three kids. In the winter, you'll often find him skiing in the White Mountains while in the summer he'll be swimming and sailing in the cool waters off Maine.

Ned can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @nedmay




Reetika Joshi Reetika Joshi is a Research Director at HfS Research. She currently tracks verticalized technology-‐enabled BPO opportunities in insurance and retail. Her research coverage also includes enterprise analytics services and the scope for core marketing operations (including digital, social and analytics opportunities) to tie into the end-‐customer experience for client organizations. She regularly contributes to HfS’ research content in the form of HfS Blueprint reports, PoVs and blog posts. She also supports custom research and strategy projects; analyzing data, supporting client inquiry, conducting regular discussions and briefings with both buyers and service providers, providing consultative, analytical and expert support to HfS clients.

Prior to HfS, Reetika spent three years working with the sourcing research wing of business research and consulting firm ValueNotes. Her last profile as Project Manager encompassed a range of responsibilities including research product design and development, managing custom research engagements, developing thought leadership through targeted content and community interaction, and supporting the business development team. She was also responsible for driving the unit’s web and social media strategy and presence.

Based in Cambridge, MA, Reetika has undertaken several research assignments across the outsourcing spectrum, including market studies in niche areas such as analytics, medical transcription, market research and e-‐learning. She has served clients through multiple bespoke research engagements, including in-‐depth competitive intelligence studies, market and investment opportunity assessments, demand-‐side surveys and marketing communication optimization for outsourcing buyers, providers, consultants and investors. Her work has appeared in many industry-‐relevant publications and websites, including Outsourcing magazine, Global Services Media and the Horses for Sources blog. She has presented her views on the state of the outsourcing at various conferences.

Reetika has completed her Masters in Marketing Management with distinction from Aston University, UK, receiving Beta Gamma Sigma honors. Prior to this, she received her Bachelors in Business Administration with distinction from Symbiosis International University, India.

On a more personal note, she enjoys reading fantasy series, travelling to world heritage sites and kicking back with strategy/simulation gaming.

Reetika can be reached at [email protected].




About HfS Research HfS Research serves the research, governance, and services strategy needs of business operations and IT leaders across finance, supply chain, human resources, marketing, and core industry functions. The firm provides insightful and meaningful analyst coverage of best business practices and innovations that impact successful business outcomes, such as the Digital Transformation of operations, cloud-‐based business platforms, services talent development strategies, process automation and outsourcing, mobility, analytics, and social collaboration. HfS applies its acclaimed Blueprint Methodology to evaluate the performance of service and technology in terms of innovating and executing against those business outcomes.

HfS educates and facilitates discussions among the world's largest knowledge community of enterprise services professionals, currently comprised of 150,000 subscribers and members. HfS Research facilitates the HfS Sourcing Executive Council, an acclaimed elite group of sourcing practitioners from leading organizations that meets bi-‐annually to discuss the future direction of the global services industry and the future enterprise operations framework. HfS provides Sourcing Executive Council members with the HfS Governance Academy and Certification Program to help its clients improve the governance of their global business services and vendor relationships.

In 2010 and 2011, HfS Research's founder and CEO, Phil Fersht, was named “Analyst of the Year” by the International Institute of Analyst Relations (IIAR), the premier body of analyst-‐facing professionals, and achieved the distinction of being voted the research analyst industry's Most Innovative Analyst Firm in 2012.

In 2013, HfS was named first in increasing influence among leading analyst firms according to the 2013 Analyst Value Survey and second out of the 44 leading industry analyst firms in the 2013 Analyst Value Index.

Now in its seventh year of publication, HfS Research’s acclaimed blog “Horses for Sources” is widely recognized as the most widely-‐read and revered destination for unfettered collective insight, research, and open debate about sourcing industry issues and developments. Horses for Sources now receives over a million web visits a year.

To learn more about HfS Research, please email [email protected].

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BIG$IS$BIG:$ACCENTURE’S BRAND$CACHÉ$SWELLSWITH$ …€¦ · 23/05/2015 · Big$is$Big:$Accenture$BrandCache$Swells$With$The$G2000$|$1!! ©2014,HfSResearch,Ltd|||bpo.horsesforsources.com$