Agility in the computer world is more than just quickly rolling out new software. It is a highly valued state of mind that Accenture, the world’s largest consulting firm, wants its customers to know it is well ahead of the curve.
Accenture is changing – faster than anyone who thinks they know the company. It’s imperative is to try new things, to experiment, to fail fast, and try again. It has made some impressive changes to its business model, its staff resources, and its attitudes to deliver real outcomes. That is what it is offering its new breed of clients.
iTWire interviewed Jane Livesey, Managing Director, Accenture Technology Australia and New Zealand. She leads the technology group and manages over 2700 professionals delivering technology services for many of ANZ’s leading organisations. Before this role, she led Accenture's Oracle practice for Asia Pacific.
Since 2005 she has been responsible for the management of a portfolio of Accenture clients including the National Broadband Network, NSW Department for Human Services, NSW Commerce, Leighton Contractors, and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission. To say she is an impressive person (and more so as a mother of four) would be an understatement.
{loadposition ray}
We chatted about a huge range of issues but particularly about the technology challenges facing the mobile first, cloud first world and the workforce of the future.
About the pace of change
Livesey thinks the most disruptive force is the “pace of change” and the speed that new technology is being made available. We [Accenture] are constantly learning, evolving and trying to keep pace, which makes our consulting role more dynamic, exciting and opportunistic than ever before.
She lamented that much of government and enterprise is still dwelling in the past. Chief Information Officers are still trying to get the most out of legacy hardware and software investments but the demands to digitalise the business, to undergo a digital transformation, and to implement customer experience (CX) is often at odds with the legacy approach.
Many tinker at the edges thinking that moving something to the cloud is enough. Many grapple with how to improve key aspects of their end-to-end delivery processes via technology. Technology is not the panacea alone.
The concept of sticking with what a customer has is not feasible in such a dynamic environment.
Is CX the main driver?
If not, it should be. Ask me about Australian take up of CX, digitalisation, and transformation and even a year ago I would have said we are behind. But something changed, and we seem to have leap-frogged to leading the way in many sectors. We are now seeing government and enterprise-scale programs that are delivering true benefit to Australian citizens and consumers.
Each day “good” clients challenge both themselves and ourselves to leverage the latest technologies to drive efficiency and free up the resources to focus on CX strategies and solutions to support and create market differentiation. That may include automation, robotics, AI, people as well as IT.
Doing things differently – AI, IoT, and Robotics
If you do things differently, do different things, you create new jobs, products, and services. Technology is there to enable people to do more and embrace the digital transformation.
Livesey was adamant that IT alone was not the panacea. Don’t come to me [anymore] for a straight ERP implementation. Come to me about the issues you are having, the problems to solve and the outcomes you want.
We know more than most about process automation, AI, robotics, IoT, people and CX and how that ties into achieving an outcome – it is not all about software, cloud, and services. Every step of the way it involves people.
The key is to remember the bigger picture and align your strategy to achieving it. Technology, people, and resources are merely the powerful enablers of this strategic vision.
About people – her passion
One of our biggest challenges is to adapt from the “old” to the “new.” That means different staff skills, working regimens, lots of lateral thinking, embracing new work environments and work practices. Gone are the days someone would turn up from Accenture in a suit – it is more likely to be a multi-disciplinary team approach with an eclectic mix of talents [and dress codes] that is going to solve the issues.
The modern customer expects you to either keep up with the times or be counted out. The days of a customer handing a binder of requirements to the system integrator to build a system on are gone. Today, we work with clients using design-led thinking and new delivery methods to assess new requirements and demands – it is more about outcomes than specifications.
We needed a new set of agile and responsive skills to re-architect in this environment. We have had to re-train out teams and bring new methods and tools to support new ways of delivery. It is a continuous education process. And the best people are chameleons – highly adaptable.
Staff wise we need a greater cross-section of skills to rethink, create, and deliver flexible and adaptable solutions. Digital fluency and a desire to embrace technology and compliment it with the natural skill sets and abilities of the human workforce are also integral to success.
Leading organisations understand that while they can throw more tech at a problem, they won't necessarily get a better business result as an outcome. The real solution is how you bring people and technology together.
It is people who are going to make a difference to the ability of all of us to embrace the pace of technology and to navigate our way through what are rapidly changing new offerings and capability.
The Australian workforce is becoming "more liquid." She says that in a few years, it will be the norm to have a flexible workforce. The types of skills and capabilities that business needs is evolving and, at the same time, the expectations of the workforce regarding flexibility and the way that they want to work, is also evolving. The workforce is moving to more of a freelance-type model.
I joke that that must be an HR nightmare – she part laughs and part grimaces. It will be the norm that fewer and fewer are in full-time employment and Accenture needs to prepare for, and cope with that, so we can offer a flexible solution to clients and staff.
Not ten minutes before, Livesey had shown me the dichotomy between the old and the new at Accenture’s Darling Harbour offices where “casual and creative” trumps “conservative and conscientious.” She said that the transformation of offices in Melbourne and Brisbane were done and Sydney had a way to go.
Still the new reminded me more of a kindergarten playroom than an office but hey, call me old school!
Her parting messages
Accenture is changing – faster than anyone who thinks they know us. The imperative is to try new things, to experiment, to fail fast, and try again. That is what we are offering our new breed of clients.
Our new breed of clients appreciates that we are taking risks to solve their issues. Better we try and deliver a tested solution than for them to try and waste time and money. In enterprise and government, good clients have realised that old IT implementations won’t deliver the disruption they need to stay ahead.
We become the repository of knowledge that clients can “rent” as needed. We build that repository through staff diversity and success on other projects. In many ways clients now expect us to drive the process as an extension of them and their line of business needs – no more “all care but no responsibility” consultant/client relationship.
The key to success for our clients and us is to avoid “me too” solutions. Differentiation instead of commoditisation of product, service, and CX is what it is all about. Reinvent – don’t copy.
There has been a lot of talk about the fourth industrial revolution – automation, big data, IoT, drones, robots, cloud – but you will still need people to drive it. Think of these as tools – a smorgasbord of tech - in a kitbag that need people to implement and use.
Comment
At risk of political correctness this person is a real Energiser Bunny – indefatigable, passionate, willing to take risks, and driven. She is precisely the reason Accenture is doing very nicely thank you.
I finished by asking her what the ideal client was. “A company that aspires well beyond its present station, that wants to make a difference, that is willing to trust us as a true partner to share the risks, and wants to provide the best CX on the planet.”