Tag: accenture

Channel customers want digital business transformation

Posted on March 30, 2021 by - News

A survey of 1,150 IT channel partners in 12 countries conducted by Accenture finds the channel is facing demand for more digital business transformation initiatives.

Accenture high tech global industry lead David Sovie said the IT channel overall had reached an inflexion point where many of the assumptions made about what motivates channel partners today are invalid, and innovation is now a much more significant driver.

The Accenture survey finds customers want partners to develop more solutions on top of platforms provided by vendors (48 percent), support digital transformations (46 per cent) and support smaller customers in different geographies (43 percent).

Accenture goes to Infinity and beyond

Posted on February 20, 2021 by - News

Accenture has acquired cloud and digital transformation consultancy Infinity Works.

Leeds-based Infinity Works specialises in helping organisations with their digital transformation, offering a range of value-adding services that include cloud, data, design and research, mobile, as well as full-stack engineering.

Accenture said the addition is a “significant step” in its  Accenture Cloud First strategy and capabilities in the UK.

Founded in 2014, Infinity works has a staff base of around 440 people, including software engineers, data engineers, cloud architects, and cloud certified specialists. Headquartered in Leeds, the company has offices across the UK – including Manchester, Edinburgh and London.

Cyber security providers benefit from EU and local regulations

Posted on November 2, 2020 by - News

Enterprises in the UK are looking to cyber security providers to help them comply with European Union and local regulations, and protect data as employees work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report published today by Information Services Group (ISG).

The 2020 ISG Provider Lens Cyber Security – Solutions & Services Report, for the UK finds enterprises in the country counting on cyber security providers to help them comply with UK privacy and cyber security rules passed as the country separates from the European Union. At the same time, U.K. companies must continue to comply with E.U. data privacy regulations because of the country’s economic connections to continental Europe.

Jan Erik Aase, director and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research said that UK enterprises are prioritising cyber security as most business processes have gone digital.

Accenture cuts 900 jobs

Posted on July 8, 2020 by - News

US-owned IT consultancy Accenture is about to slash 900 UK jobs due to the downturn created by the coronavirus.

The cuts will begin in mid-July and will take place at all levels of the business

Accenture has a UK workforce of around 11,000, based in offices in London, Manchester, Newcastle, and Edinburgh.

Channel brings 10,000 ventilators to the NHS

Posted on March 31, 2020 by - News

A number of firms across the computer channel, led by Microsoft, Dell, Arrow Electronics, Accenture and PTC have banded together to form a consortium to deliver 10,000 ventilators to the NHS.

The consortium is headed by Dick Elsy, CEO of High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC), a group of manufacturing research centres in the UK and is made up of Airbus, BAE Systems, Ford, GKN Aerospace, Inspiration Healthcare, Meggitt, Penlon, Renishaw, Rolls Royce, Siemens, Smiths Group, Thales, Ultra Electronics, Unilever and a number of UK-based F1 teams.

Accenture buys Oracle partner Certus

Posted on May 3, 2018 by - News

Finding-Nemo-Shark-Wallpaper-HDAccenture has announced the acquisition of Oracle Cloud implementation service provider Certus Solutions, helping businesses deliver digital transformation services on Oracle Cloud.

Certus is focused on the public sector, and it brings Accenture expertise in the financial services, logistics and telecommunications industries.

Accenture Technology Services group chief executive Bhaskar Ghosh said that Accenture is focused on delivering cloud, analytics, and intelligent automation and artificial intelligence to help clients become smart enterprises.

“With the addition of Certus Solutions, we’re further expanding our Oracle Cloud services and capabilities that help organisations accelerate their digital transformation and achieve better business outcomes.”

Certus and Accenture have a lot of experience working together, including one of the most massive government Oracle rollouts, so buying Certus was a natural progression for Accenture. The company knew what Certus offered and how it would complement its own Oracle Cloud business.

Certus Solutions founder and CEO Mark Sweeny said that Accenture was at the forefront of positive transformational change. Certus’ industry specialists ensure end users are able to implement Oracle Cloud solutions with as little disruption to their business as possible.

No terms of the deal have yet been revealed, nor has any information regarding how the acquisition will affect current customers.

Apple signs Accenture deal to grab corporate customers

Posted on August 31, 2017 by - News

apple-disney-dreams-snow-white-Favim.com-142405Apple has teamed up with Accenture to increase the adoption of iOS in enterprise customers

The move is part of Jobs’ Mob’s bid to get itself into the enterprise market following similar deals with IBM.

The hope is that Apple can turn around its flagging tablet and iPhone business by getting lucrative corporate deals.

Accenture will be creating a dedicated iOS practice in its digital studio network and Apple staff will be based in those teams. The two firms will be creating tools and services to help enterprise users of iPads and iPhones.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said that starting 10 years ago with iPhone, and then with iPad, Apple has been transforming how work gets done.

“Yet we believe that businesses have only just begun to scratch the surface of what they can do with our products.”

He added that given Accenture’s strong background in helping customers with digital transformation the two businesses could help modernise more user experiences.

From the Accenture point of view the firm’s chairman and CEO Pierre Nanterme said that it had also got experience developing mobile apps and iOS was “the superior mobile platform for businesses.

“By combining Accenture’s vast digital capabilities and industry expertise with Apple’s market leadership in creating products that delight customers, we are in a perfect position to help our clients transform the way they work”, he said.

Venders are too slow to update partners on cloud

Posted on May 31, 2017 by - News

 

Cooked_snailsBeancounters at Accenture claim vendors are not updating their partner programmes quickly enough to factor in the cloud.

The consultancy said that technology vendors are struggling to update their channel rewards and incentives in line with the take-up of cloud and the as-a-service consumption.

Accenture Strategy sales strategy and transformation managing director Jason Angelos said that this means that channel companies are not incentivised to sell on the new models.

Talking at the Zyme channel data management (CDM) summit he said that a barrier for a lot of sales and commercial leaders is around the platform, the data and legacy operating model, what’s behind the scenes.

There are new commercial offers in place, but it’s still the old plumbing, processes, and partner programmes.

Angelos said that if a company had $20 million in incentive funds and can isolate $8 million that’s underperforming, it could reinvest that in smarter or more tailored programmes or getting the fundamental channel data in place or next level analytics partner support.

He said the biggest challenge for channel partners transitioning to a services-led approach is trying to manage two business models at once.

The Cloud was massive and was not a hundred percent of the business.

“There are two motions running parallel. It’s like changing the engines while the plane is flying.”

Oracle investigating buying Accenture

Posted on March 30, 2017 by - Gossip, News

oracleThe dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell on earth yarn which claims that data base maker Oracle wants to write a cheque for the government outsourcer Accenture.

The database giant has hired a team of consultants to conduct due diligence to “explore the synergies that could be created if they [Oracle] bought Accenture”.

Oracle’s money men and women are weighing up the pros and cons including the potential impact on Oracle’s wider channel.

While this sort of thing happens all the time, Oracle is rather serious about it even if it is a little bit daring. Accenture has a market cap of $77.5 billion, and shareholders will expect a premium offer so it is set to cost a bomb.

It would dwarf some of Oracle’s biggest deals so far which have included a $10 billion buy of PeopleSoft, a $7.4 billion deal for Sun Microsystems, and $9.3 billion for Netsuite.

Still it would give Oracle some rather huge government-based customers to hold by their ankles and shake until the money comes out.

Accenture’s outlook below expectations

Posted on March 24, 2017 by - News

accenture-surfing-elephantConsulting and outsourcing services outfit Accenture slightly raised its full-year profit forecast, but the revised outlook was still below market expectations.

Accenture has invested heavily in its digital and cloud services, amid stiff competition from Cognizant and Biggish Blue.

Revenue in its consulting unit, which has a higher profit margin than its outsourcing business, increased 2.6 percent in the second quarter its slowest growth in more than a year.

Chief Financial Officer David Rowland told the press that he plans to write $1.5 billion cheques for acquisitions in the year ending August.

Accenture said it expects adjusted profit of $5.70 to $5.87 per share for its year ending August, slightly higher than its prior forecast of $5.64 to $5.87 per share.

However, the company narrowed its full-year revenue forecast growth range to 6 percent to 8 percent in local currency, from its earlier 5-8 percent range.

The new forecast points to revenue of between $34.86 billion to $35.51 billion.

Analysts on average are expecting a profit of $5.87 per share and revenue of $34.60 billion.

Accenture said second-quarter net revenue rose 4.7 percent to $8.32 billion, as it benefited from strong demand for its digital, cloud and security-related services, which made up more than 45 percent of revenue.

Net income attributable to Accenture fell to $838.8 million in the quarter, from $1.33 billion last year.

Profit in the year-ago quarter received help from a $553.6 million gain on the sale of some businesses.

The company’s profit in the second quarter was hurt in part by a higher tax rate and increased operating costs, up 4.3 percent to $7.62 billion.

Analysts on average had expected revenue of $8.34 billion.

Accenture blamed for NHS mail silliness

Posted on February 1, 2017 by - News

accenture-surfing-elephantLast year’s reply-all cock-up by the NHS where 500 million emails being sent across the health service’s network in just 75 minutes is being blamed on outsourcer Accenture.

On 14 November a senior associate ICT delivery facilitator sent a test message on what was thought to be a local distribution list she had created. However, it instead went to all 850,000 people with an NHSmail email account.

The blank message, sent early in the morning with a subject line that simply read “test”, was sent to a distribution list called “CroydonPractices”. Around 80 promptly replied and demanded that they be removed from the list which was when trouble really began.

An official report into the meltdown said that NHSmail’s Dynamic Distribution List (DDL) allows administrators to create distribution lists using a range of options and rules.

The local admin selected the “only in my organisation” rule, which she thought would restrict the distribution list to her South London clinical commissioning group.

However, a software configuration error meant that the system applied an ‘All England’ rule rather than one including only the administrator’s organisation. The administrator would not have known that this had occurred.”

The NHS report blames Accenture for not having failsafes in place that would have prevented the fiasco. The system’s design requirements was that “strict controls must be in place to limit the volume of any one email sent by an individual user or local administrator.” This was something that Accenture has not come up with.

The ability to create DDLs of similar forms will remain disabled until NHS Digital is satisfied this has been delivered, the reports said.

Surf’s up for Accenture’s Engie contract

Posted on May 5, 2016 by - News

accenture-surfing-elephantAccenture has won a contract with the French gas and power group Engie to develop digital applications to boost its customer service.

Accenture’s design and innovation unit Fjord  will develop new applications for billing, electric vehicles, web-linked domestic applications and clients who produce their own power with solar panels. No one is talking about the money involved in the deal.

Engie Chief Executive Officer Isabel Kochersaid that the company plans to invest 1.5 billion euros in new technologies and digitalisation in the next three years.

Fjord founder Mark Curtis has no concrete projects in mind for Engie, but would look for ways to boost the utility’s relationship with its customers, as Fjord has done for banking and telecommunication companies.

Fjord had developed mobile banking applications, and applications for Swedish telecom companies that show the real-time cost of calling.

“We plan to do the same thing for Engie and turn a transaction – the monthly bill – into a service,” he said.

Engie’s new chief digital officer Yves Le Gelard said Engie and Accenture plan to present the first digital applications in June. The company’s new marketing tools will be rolled out first in its key markets of France, Belgium and Italy.

 

Accenture arrests the Metropolitan Police

Posted on March 9, 2016 by - News

658db2d1a04d1d2a3bf5feb0b88e91f7The Metropolitan Police have signed an £86m deal with Accenture to manage its applications for the next three years.

The London coppers want to save £200m from its IT budget by carving up its Capgemini contract. The deal will last for five years, with the option of a three year extension. It will mean that 113 staff will be transferred to Accenture’s Newcastle base.

Accenture beat HCL, IBM, Lockheed Martin and Unisys to win the deal.

The Met has been busy lately. Last month it awarded £250m in contracts to CSC and Atos. CSC one a contract for user computing and hosting towers and Atos scored contracts to integrate the various IT components as part of its Total Technology Programme Infrastructure strategy.

A separate £216m contract to outsource the Met’s back office IT to Steria’s shared services centre, will see hundreds of back office IT roles made redundant the Met said last year.

As are result the Met will slash the number of its in-house staff from 800 to 100.

What is rather odd is that the move to outsource to lots of different large suppliers is no longer government policy. The Ministry of Justice having reportedly hit major problems doing that sort of thing.

It’s the internet of everything

Posted on February 5, 2015 by - News

Internet of ThingsSome call it the internet of things (IoT), some call it the internet of everything (IoE) and some even call it the internet of fangs (IoF).
These terms are not, as yet, perfectly defined and there is a complete lack of standards defined, just like in the “cloud” space.  But there’s one thing for sure, and that is it’s going to be worth a lot of money so as many vendors as possible are getting on board the gravy train.
Future Market Insights (FMI) prefers the IoE and said that the market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.4 percent between 2014 and 2020.
It will be the Asia Pacific market which will kick off the growth, synched to the arrival of big data. That’s because there will be investment in so called “smart cities” and smart grids, financed by the Indian, Chinese and Japanese governments.
FMI divides the market into business to business (B2B) and IoE vertical markets.
The verticals include manufacturing and public sector, but the health care sector will grow by 20.6 percent CAGR during the period, followed by utilities.
The major players in the market are Cisco, Samsung, IBM, Apple and Accenture – these vendors had over 50 percent market share in 2013.

 

Public sector outsourcing drops

Posted on September 13, 2013 by - News

kcalmAccording to research outfit Information Services Group (ISG), the public sector outsourcing market in the UK has taken a massive hit in the first half of the year. The ISG Outsourcing Index for EMEA found just €2 billion of outsourcing activity in the UK for the first half of the year. Last year the market was worth €4.6 billion.

However, Britain still leads the way when it comes to public sector outsourcing in Europe. The whole EMEA market for the first six months of was just €2.3 billion compared to €3.1 billion last year. In other words, the UK accounted for five sixths of all public sector outsourcing in EMEA this year.

The ISG figures track all outsourcing contracts with an annual value of €4 million or more. They include IT contracts, business process outsourcing, back office processes, but IT dominates with more than two thirds of all contracts. Public sector outsourcing now accounts for 41 percent of all outsourcing activity in EMEA, with Britain in a clear lead.

The top 15 companies winning these lucrative contracts are Accenture, AECOM, Arqiva, Arvato, BT, Capgemini, Capita, CSC, Grupo Ferrovial, HP, Interserve, QinetiQ, Serco, Thales and Tieto.