DIGITAL EVOLUTION DRIVEN BY THE BUSINESS CASE
02
SUPPORTING COMMERCIAL STRATEGY WITH DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WRITTEN BY
HARRY MENEAR PRODUCED BY
TOM VENTURO
03
w w w.a c c e nt u re. com
ACCENTURE
Philippe Chauffard, Managing Director of Accenture’s Intelligent Cloud Infrastructure division, advocates for a multithread cloud evolution, driven by the business case
T
he enterprise is entering a new “post-digital” era, where success will be based on how companies can apply new technol-
ogies in people-centric ways, creating personalised experiences for customers, employees and 04
business partners. As technological innovation continues to accelerate – with new, more powerful solutions coming to market on an almost daily basis – few people could be blamed for feeling like dinosaurs, watching all the other animals board an Ark with ‘cloud’ written on the side of it. However, while the vast majority of companies have begun their digital transformation journeys, such as migration to the public cloud, the collective journey is still very much in its early stages. “75-80% of all enterprises are doing cloud in various shapes or forms, but if you look at how much of their estates they’ve actually migrated or leveraged into cloud, it’s still fairly small,” comments Philippe Chauffard, Managing Director of Accenture’s Intelligent Cloud Infrastructure division. “While everybody is doing it, a lot of people are still in the early stages.”
05
w w w.a c c e nt u re. com
ACCENTURE
“ While almost everybody is doing cloud, a lot of people are still in the early stages” — Philippe Chauffard, Managing Director, Accenture Intelligent Cloud Infrastructure 06
Combining a wealth of experience with specialised skills across more than 40 industries, Accenture is a leading provider of professional services at the intersection of business and technology. Employing over 477,000 professionals, the company has empowered businesses of every size to realise their strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations goals since 1989. Today, in 2019, Accenture’s Intelligent Cloud Infrastructure segment exists on the front lines of a global digital transformation powered by Industry 4.0. Helping guide Accenture’s clients and partners on this multi-thread journey, Chauffard is uniquely positioned to provide insight into both the changing state of the digital transformation game and Accenture’s role in delivering a sustainable, cloud-based future. In a world where the average length of time between an employee switching jobs has shrunk to 3.2 years for workers aged 25-34, Chauffard’s 31 years at Accenture stand in stark contrast to the modern economy. “It’s true that mine is becoming a bit of an unusual career track, but in
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘TECH VISION 2019: OVERVIEW’ 07 my time at Accenture I’ve held so many
In the world of technological innova-
different roles across different indus-
tion and digital transformation, change
tries and programmess – Accenture’s
appears constant and blindingly fast.
positioning and strengths have given
Chauffard, however, is in a perfect
me the opportunity to lead programmes
position to observe the slower, more
that would not have been possible with
tectonic transformations occurring
other companies in terms of scale and
beneath the surface. This big picture
complexity,” Chauffard explains. Working
perspective gives him valuable insight
across all five continents, his position
into the key strategic enablers of a suc-
always focused on infrastructure in
cessful cloud migration, and the ways
some form, which he combines with
in which the digital infrastructure indus-
Accenture’s cloud agenda in his current
try is maturing to a point where evolu-
role, taken on in September 2018. “It’s
tion in support of value realization,
been exciting, and as long as it stays ex-
not revolution for technology’s sake,
citing, I’m in the right place,” he enthuses.
is the mantra for progress. w w w.a c c e nt u re. com
Are you ready to embrace a multi-cloud reality? By Gary Robinson, EMEA Director, Global System Integrators, Commvault When the advertising at train stations or on the side of every other taxi is talking about the importance of cloud computing and its business benefits, trying to decide the best combination of cloud solutions to manage the variety of data sets, critical workloads, applications and emerging technologies, such as AI, Internet of Things or blockchain, can be confusing. According to Gartner, enterprise IT spending for cloud-based offerings will grow faster than traditional (non-cloud) IT offerings through 2022. By 2022, cloud shift across key enterprise IT markets will increase to 28%, up from 19% in 2018 and organisations without a cloud-first strategy where the cloud is primary, prioritised and promoted, will likely fall behind competitors. As well as this groundswell towards the cloud, today’s CIOs are increasingly recognising that single provider cloud solutions are less-and-less fit for purpose when it comes to addressing the data challenges of today, and the demanding business requirements of tomorrow. To put this into context, a recent IDC study found that the volume of data on earth is predicted to increase from 33 Zettabytes (ZB), in 2018 to 175ZB by 2025, half of which will be stored in public cloud storage. It can be challenging enough to manage terabytes of data across multiple environments with one cloud provider, just imagine doing this with zettabytes of disparate data sets, across multiple cloud providers all offering variations of private, public, hybrid environments and different SLAs to boot. People aside, data has become the most important asset for organisations operating in today’s digital economy. The shift to cloud has been an underlying enabler for the digital transformation boom of the last decade, but a bi-product of this (increasingly multi-cloud), shift has been unprecedented challenges to manage, use and secure data.
Data responsibility is one of the central challenges that organisations now face today, but most often, traditional tools simply don’t cut it when it comes to handling workloads across different cloud environments or multiple platforms. While there are plenty of niche solutions that work well enough in specific environments, surely this single-use approach actually encourages vendor lock-in and increases complexity rather than solving it? By minimising the risk of cloud provider lock-in; providing service resiliency and migration opportunities; and offering the benefits of agility, scalability and elasticity along the way, hybrid and multi-cloud approaches are no longer a matter of if, rather a matter of when. And, this in turn has fuelled the need for data management solutions that can ensure data is protected and managed across whatever platform or variety of cloud infrastructure it lives in. In a multi-cloud, hybrid environment, where change is the only true constant, an organisation’s ability to protect data, move it around freely, recover it and have a single view of its data assets is critical to its future success. Whether you’ve yet to begin or have already started your cloud migration roadmap, working with the right partners can accelerate your journey to the cloud and, at the same time, empower your business to stay ahead of the competition. At Commvault, we love what we do. And we love working with Accenture. The Accenture Cloud Innovation Center, coupled with our best-in-class features and functionality, we’ve got all your questions and needs covered when it comes to delivering a data management and cloud strategy fit for the hybrid and multi-cloud world of tomorrow.
LEARN MORE w w w.a c c e nt u re. com
ACCENTURE
10
“First of all, a key lesson I’ve learned
for new technological adoption is an
from working on many different initia-
increasingly prevalent approach, both
tives with Accenture’s clients is that
as the industry becomes more mature
technology challenges are not the big-
and considered, and also as the power
gest challenges,” Chauffard explains.
of cloud infrastructure is better under-
“At the end of the day, technology is a
stood. “The conversation has shifted,”
means to an end. If you look at the last
Chauffard explains. “In the past, a cloud
two to five years, industry disruptions
roadmap was drawn up with cost reduc-
have all been powered by technology
tion as the focus, and that’s changed.
evolutions. It’s such an exciting space
Yes, you still need to save some costs,
to be in, but technology adoption only
but what I’m really after are ways to
makes sense if it’s business strategy
start leveraging those cloud capabilities
driven.” Chauffard argues that ensur-
and features to drive increased flexibility,
ing there is a strong business case
agility and innovation in my business.”
Chauffard emphasises that agility
and so on. The pressing question is how
and flexibility are essential if compa-
to use cloud to become a central piece
nies wish to survive and thrive within
of your ecosystem, and then use that
their ecosystems. “The idea of the eco-
ecosystem to deliver the most innova-
system is essential to this new cloud
tive possible services to your custom-
economy,” he explains. “Every com-
ers. This is even more strategic and im-
pany is part of an ecosystem between
portant for Accenture. We are a people,
customers, partners, collaborators
services and transformation company,
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Philippe Chauffard Managing Director, Accenture Intelligent Cloud Infrastructure Philippe Chauffard is the Managing Director responsible for Accenture’s Cloud and Infrastructure Services in Europe. Philippe is responsible for both consulting and outsourcing sales, and transformation delivery across cloud and infrastructure. Prior to this role, Philippe led Infrastructure Services for Financial Services for Europe and Latin America. During his 30-year career at Accenture, Philippe has focused on architecting, delivering and operating large-scale infrastructure solutions for multinational clients. He has extensive cloud and infrastructure experience, ranging from strategy to transformation, migration and operations. Philippe has worked across all industries in Europe, with a primary focus on Communications and Financial Services. He has worked for clients in Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. He holds a Master of Science degree in Physics from Ecole Polytechnic Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland. Philippe is based in Accenture’s Sophia Antipolis office in France.
w w w.a c c e nt u re. com
11
ACCENTURE AWS BUSINESS GROUP
DRIVING INNOVATION AND BUSINESS VALUE WITH SAP® APPLICATIONS ON AMAZON WEB SERVICES
DRIVING INNOVATION AND BUSINESS VALUE WITH SAP ON AWS Today, everything is moving faster: business, technology…life. Disruption is everywhere, challenging existing business models and creating new ones. Companies that can ride the waves of change have huge opportunities ahead of them. They can collaborate, transact, analyze and predict instantly and proactively. They can fast-track innovation. And they can unlock new value through the emerging digital technologies that underpin the intelligent enterprise. SAP has transformed its solutions to power companies’ digital transformations. SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Ariba – and more – offer a new launchpad for companies to reinvent their core operations and move decisively from disrupted to disruptor. But to harness their full potential, those new solutions need partners that are evolving and innovating just as fast. This is where the Accenture AWS Business Group (AABG) can be a real game-changer. AABG brings together the best of AWS and Accenture to help organizations fast-track their SAP migrations – securely, reliably and at scale. Crucially too, the AABG opens the way to next-generation capabilities. Through the comprehensive AWS infrastructure, companies get early access to a wide range of innovative services – engineered for SAP workloads, including HANA – that encourage and enable experimentation.
With AWS tools that can be rapidly integrated into their operations, companies are already driving new business value from core business functions by, for example, automating supply chain quality control with IoT integrated to SAP or connecting employees directly to SAP via Chatbot’s and virtual assistants. Accenture, a leading global professional services company with a more than 40+ year relationship with SAP and a global leader in SAP application services and cloud services, is helping a growing number of companies across industries to make the most of these innovation opportunities. These companies are ahead of the curve. Over the next five years, we’ll see a mass migration to the cloud by organizations running SAP. Hundreds of SAP enterprise customers have already completed their journeys to AWS. If you’re running critical SAP workloads, migrating to AWS could be your next step too. Wherever you are in your digital journey, we can help you move ahead. Innovation. Intelligence. Scale. To learn more, visit the AABG SAP Content Hub for deeper insight and to get started:
LEARN MORE w w w.a c c e nt u re. com
ACCENTURE
and therefore it’s vital for us and for our clients that we are at the centre of our ecosystem. This is why we work hand in hand with our strategic partners – whether it’s some of the hyper scale providers like AWS, Azure and Google, or the key platform players like SAP or ServiceNow, or enterprise technology providers like Commvault. Accenture Cloud Innovation Center (ACIC) in Rome is a prime example of co-innovation across the ecosystem.” Chauffard emphasises that com14
panies need to resist the impulse to buy the “shiniest toys” and carefully consider the business use cases. In addition to the more value realization focused approach to IT transformation
They were failing because the operat-
he is advocating for, he also notes that,
ing model and talent transformation
as businesses seek to achieve deeper
had not happened.”
penetration with their digitalisation
Chauffard explains that transforma-
strategies, the pace of transformation
tion of the operational model alongside
needs to slow to avoid corporate whip-
a company’s IT capabilities, described
lash. “Four or so years ago, Gartner
by Accenture as its ‘Run Different’
found that 80% of companies’ cloud
strategy, centres around four key
transformations were failing, or they
capabilities: Cloud Management and
said they didn’t feel as though they
Operations, Cloud Optimisation, Con-
were seeing the benefits,” says Chauf-
sumption and Security. “They are nec-
fard. “Those transformations weren’t
essary to have an underlying platform
failing because of the technology.
from which to innovate technologically,”
$39.6bn Approximate revenue
1989
Year founded
477,000
Approximate number of employees 15
says Chauffard. First, Cloud Manage-
ing everything from weighing the ca-
ment and Operations focuses on the
pabilities of a company’s architecture
ongoing cloud asset management.
against the services the company
“To support cloud, you need a whole
has, to advanced and ongoing optimi-
operating model and the associated
sation techniques. Third is Consump-
talent transformation, and that’s often
tion Management and Consolidation.
one of the biggest issues for our cli-
“We’ve moved to an ongoing consump-
ents,” he explains. Ensuring communi-
tion world, so buying and sourcing
cation and effectively managing talent
becomes an ongoing process,” says
while avoiding silos is crucial to
Chauffard. A company’s capability
a successful reincarnation of a com-
to manage its consumption of cloud
pany’s cloud management strategy.
resources efficiently not only reduces
Second is Cloud Optimisation: ensur-
cost and administrative work, but also w w w.a c c e nt u re. com
Digitize your workflows, so you can do what you love ServiceNow delivers digital workflows that create great experiences and unlock productivity for employees and the enterprise. We simplify the complexity of work on a single, enterprise cloud platform. The Now PlatformŽ: The intelligent and intuitive cloud platform for work™. Choose from our workflows or build your own apps.
Tr y a De m o Sta r t a Disc ussio n Con ta c t Us
www.servicenow.com
“ Accenture has given me the opportunity to lead programs that would not have been possible with other companies in terms of scale and complexity” — Philippe Chauffard, Managing Director, Accenture Intelligent Cloud Infrastructure
“We’re not going to see many more ‘big bang’ – 12 months and we’re done for the next 10 years – transformations. People are becoming more thoughtful,” says Chauffard. “It’s going to be much more of an ongoing migration, evolution and modernisation of the application landscape.” The slower, measured, business case driven approach doesn’t do away with everything and build a new cloud-based company from scratch. “It’s a multi-threaded evolution across multiple applications,” Chauffard explains. “Starting from your
provides information to support
existing application landscape, there
the management and optimisation
are going to be some applications that
strategies. Lastly, Chauffard explains,
can just be lifted and shifted to the
is Security. “It’s something that is con-
cloud with minimal work and cost.
tinuously evolving, and therefore you
Some will need more of a remediation,
need to be able to enforce a set
and some applications you’re going
of standard security functions and
to have to rewrite from scratch. Some
services.” All four capabilities can
applications will happily stay forever
be applied via a management plat-
in the legacy system and will eventually
form, and choosing and operating
die away several years later, because
the correct piece of software again
there is no business case to rewrite
relies on Chauffard’s advice: trans-
them or move them or do something
formation, evolution and optimisation
with them.” The important step, and
need to happen, not for their own
what gives Chauffard’s plan its natural,
sakes, but in support of the overall
evolutionary pace, is the firm rule that
business case.
any new applications or technologies w w w.a c c e nt u re. com
17
ACCENTURE
18
“ It’s such an exciting space to be in, but technology adoption only makes sense if it’s business strategy driven” — Philippe Chauffard, Managing Director, Accenture Intelligent Cloud Infrastructure
are required to be cloud native. This way the progression from legacy to private and public cloud progresses through a stable hybrid approach. “We’re going to be in a hybrid world for many years to come,” Chauffard says. Technological progress is not constant and measured; like evolution it progresses in fits and starts before claiming new ground. Small, incremental replacements of parts of a company’s IT estate, paired with constant optimisation, Accenture and Chauffard
19
believe, is the best method to success-
now and 2022 will be an extremely
fully reconcile the frenetic pace of
exciting time. We’re going to see
technology with the evolving needs
the pace of innovation accelerate,
of the business. “I think the whole
as companies’ evolutions progress
approach to defining your cloud
and the paradigm shifts. I think I’m
strategy, defining your roadmap for
in absolutely the right spot within
your cloud journey, for the prioritisation
Accenture; I have great expectations
and for what you’re going to leverage
for our business in this space.”
from the very wide range of services that are available in the market again needs to be driven by the strategic agenda and the business agenda,” Chauffard concludes. “I think between w w w.a c c e nt u re. com
Grand Canal Harbour Dublin 2 Ireland www.accenture.com