9 floors of innovation, intelligence and industry

Nine floors filled with experts, emerging technologies, partners and clients, all centered on a simple formula: innovation, intelligence and industry, plus rotation to the new while developing new skills.

Counting down to today; investing in tomorrow

A bit of history: Five years ago, Accenture dedicated its Bangalore assets to delivery, focusing on quality, productivity and lowering clients’ (and Accenture’s) costs. Four years ago, the company announced a “rotation to the new,” partially in response to a confusing world of emerging technologies. Three years ago, Accenture’s expectations for the future included everything becoming liquid, intelligent and connected. Last summer, the Bangalore Innovation Hub became an advanced technology center, focused on innovation, intelligence and industry. According to Accenture Technology Group Chief Executive Bhaskar Ghosh, expectations have become reality as Accenture, under one roof, combines those three elements with emerging technologies and a newly skilled workforce. The company invested more than $3 billion in fiscal year 2017 — in training, acquisitions and assets/IP — and will continue to invest this year to build further, cementing its market leader position.

One notable exception to nearly every innovation/experience/collaboration center TBR has visited over the last two years: Accenture has devoted two floors in Bangalore to technology partners, with dedicated professionals and space marked specifically for SAP, Oracle and Microsoft, three partners TBR highlighted in its October 2017 coverage of Accenture: “As Accenture strives to generate a vast majority of its sales from in ‘the new,’ a profitable relationship with the Big Three will be critical to success.” While unmistakably an Accenture facility — no client could be confused about where they are, even when seeing SAP- or Oracle-centric solutions — the investment in resources and physical space to technology partners may be unique across Accenture’s peers. One floor houses just Avanade, the company’s joint venture with Microsoft. TBR has argued for years that consultancies maintaining technology vendor agnosticism should still recognize their clients’ core IT systems will still be there even after the client spends a day being amazed by emerging technologies and all that digital transformation can do. Highlighting, or at least including, these technology partners should be part of any client workshop or design-thinking day. Combined with the “Business Groups” created with SAP, Oracle and, recently Pivotal, Accenture has taken a giant leap forward and literally built separate floors dedicated to these partners.

On Jan. 24, 2018, TBR attended Accenture Technology’s Analyst Day at the recently opened Innovation Hub in Bangalore, India. The event included technology demonstrations around specific industries and partners, as well as extensive discussions with Accenture executives.