January 13, 2015 Accenture Is A Leader Among Global Infrastructure Outsourcing Vendors Excerpted From The Forrester Wave : Global Infrastructure Outsourcing, Q1 2015 by William Martorelli and Wolfgang Benkel with Glenn O Donnell and Andrew Hewitt Accenture Is A Leader Among Global Infrastructure Outsourcing Vendors Accenture possesses great strengths in applications services, infrastructure services, and transformational services. Historically, Accenture has avoided asset-heavy deals and has preferred to embrace its asset-light philosophy, but the company is now seeking to increase its competitiveness in standalone infrastructure outsourcing engagements. Leadership in cloud orchestration and brokering is another focus, which is the rationale for the firm s significant investments in its Accenture Cloud Platform, a vehicle for integration and service orchestration across various cloud Forrester Wave : Global Infrastructure Outsourcing, Q1 15 Risky Bets Contenders Strong Performers Leaders Strong Accenture HP IBM Capgemini TCS HCL CSC Wipro GWA Atos Fujitsu T-Systems Current offering Weak Market presence Weak Strategy Source: Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution prohibited. models, including private cloud solutions available from its partners. Accenture enthusiastically touts its partnership with IPsoft for automated infrastructure support services. It is also seeking to serve as the role of service integrator in infrastructure engagements. Generally an asset-light provider, Accenture thrives on transformational engagements. Accenture s distribution of staff and clients is well-balanced and a source of strength for the supplier. See below for more information on Accenture s current offering, strategy, and market presence. CGI Accenture, with a Forrester score of 4.00, is a Leader in this Forrester Wave. Strong Go to Forrester.com to download the Forrester Wave tool for more detailed product evaluations, feature comparisons, and customizable rankings. Headquarters Forrester Research, Inc., 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA, 02140 USA Tel: +1 617.613.6000 Fax: +1 617.613.5000 www.forrester.com
Accenture Is A Leader Among Global Infrastructure Outsourcing Vendors 2 CURRENT OFFERING Global delivery model Global geographic staffing distribution Global client geographic distribution Standard infrastructure service portfolio Accenture designs, builds, transforms, and runs mission-critical infrastructures and enables digital technologies to drive growth and create new sources of value. Accenture deploys its remote infrastructure management capability through its Global Delivery Network, including 50 delivery centers and 186,000- plus people. Accenture s portfolio of services supports delivery models onshore, nearshore, hybrid environments, premise-based, public-infrastructureas-a-service with a focus on delivering outcomes and measurable improvements in business performance. Accenture Cloud Platform helps clients manage across cloud, legacy, and hybrid environments and integrates services and platforms. Global ITSM and ITOM tool sets support an integrated and consistent delivery experience from any location for cloud and traditional IT services. Accenture constantly evaluates new locations to increase its global presence and manage risk. More than 17,000 people provide infrastructure services to Accenture s clients. More than 65% of this workforce is located in cost-effective locations. Accenture s global workforce is distributed across the following geographic areas: Americas: 22%. EMEA: 33%. APAC: 45%. Accenture currently supports more than 500 outsourcing clients around the world, including more than 270 infrastructure outsourcing clients and another 230 infrastructure clients across its BPO and Navitaire businesses (Navitaire is a wholly owned Accenture subsidiary that has provided industry-leading technology services to more than 70 of the world s airlines for the past 15 years). These clients are distributed approximately across the following regions: Americas: 34%. EMEA: 54%. APAC: 12%. Accenture s service portfolio includes data center, workplace, network, security, and operations. Accenture creates custom solutions and comprehensive infrastructure services such as Navitaire, Accenture Hospitality Services, Accenture Clinical Services, and the Accenture Video Solution. Accenture offers traditional staff augmentation with Capacity Services and delivery remotely with Managed Services. Its cloud and hosting offering augments its remote management services, hosting technologies (on-site or through delivery centers), and IaaS; services include systems and storage management, physical database administration, application technical support, cloud management, and shared platforms offering fully managed hosting. Accenture s structured program of feedback includes independent QAs to ensure clear visibility of client views to improve both engagement delivery and its underlying capabilities. Accenture shares its clients incentive to transform and reduce cost with contractual incentives.
Accenture Is A Leader Among Global Infrastructure Outsourcing Vendors 3 Ecosystem participation Service integration and management (SIAM) capabilities Innovation Accenture has approximately 125 formal alliances and more than 500 commercial relationships with which it provides solutions to its clients. Accenture selectively pursues industry- and capability-focused alliances, including joint investments and preferred relationships while seeking to align with market leaders, emerging players, and industry-relevant technology providers. Most arrangements enable Accenture to resell/source technology products at competitive price points. Accenture also seeks to establish these partnerships at the highest level in the alliance organization, so Accenture can quickly escalate and resolve any client issues with the alliance partner. In addition, Accenture s alliances are intended to provide early insight into new products. Accenture s service integrator/aggregator proficiency provides a balance of vendor/carrier independence with strategic industry partnerships for clients. Accenture seeks to bring structure to managing the hybrid enterprise by offering seamless service transition and end-to-end monitoring of service operations while integrating disparate services and providers into a single infrastructure ecosystem. Accenture Cloud Platform provides on-demand access to public and private clouds through a single view, allowing teams to turn services on or off and monitor usage and costs. Accenture emphasizes advanced tools, automated dispatching, and end-to-end performance management while integrating disparate tools across the service life cycle. Accenture also offers a complete integrated technology platform for end-to-end service management. Accenture also uses its scale in services to collaborate, integrate, and orchestrate services across suppliers while using a real-time dashboard comprising automated and industrialized monitoring tools and standardized processes. Accenture measures its engagements on driving innovation, improvement, and bottom-line results and offers risk/reward contracts and outcome-based pricing that delivers benefits beyond cost reduction tied to clients business strategy. With Accenture Digital, it combines its experience in digital marketing, mobility, and analytics to help clients on their infrastructure strategy and digital journeys. Listed below are examples of current capability focus: Enhancements to both functionality and service catalog on Accenture Cloud Platform enterprise hybrid management. Agile DC collateral and solution templates. Private cloud solutions with Accenture s internal capabilities and ecosystem. Vertical market and Accenture Business Services solutions. Investment in alliances with major technology providers. Client access to state-of-the-art technologies and innovations through Accenture Customer Innovation Network, Cloud Leadership Workshops, industry and technology centers of excellence, and innovation centers and tech labs.
Accenture Is A Leader Among Global Infrastructure Outsourcing Vendors 4 Continuous improvement Client feedback on implementation Client feedback on account and relationship management Client feedback on service quality Client feedback on general satisfaction Accenture delivers continuous improvement by addressing clients operational stability, flexibility, infrastructure agility, and reduced cost to serve. Its pricing models are consumption-based, and Accenture structures its commercial terms to reflect a shared risk and reward structure. Accenture supports multiple integration approaches with a tool set including a service integration bus to facilitate flexible integration and orchestration. It provides ITSM and ITOM instrumentation for 24x7 delivery operations. Tools integrated with the Accenture Cloud Platform provide service automation and monitoring and management for closed loop life-cycle infrastructure management. Dashboards provide multiple views for client and management teams. Accenture s delivery lead is solely accountable for secure, stable, and continuous service improvement, SLA adherence, contract management, and people engagement and governance. Leads track metrics SLAs, operational efficiency, and cost to serve and are rewarded based on client satisfaction. Accenture s client reference scores for implementation averaged between 4 and 4.5. Accenture s client reference scores for account and relationship management averaged between 4.0 and 4.5. Accenture s client reference scores for service quality averaged higher than 4.5. Accenture s client reference scores for general satisfaction averaged between 4.0 and 4.5. STRATEGY Customer value proposition Many Accenture clients are focused on becoming digital businesses and leveraging as-a-service technologies. As such, the procurement and use of IT services are changing and driving an evolution of service integration. Accenture s vision for intelligent infrastructure goes beyond cost reduction to provide the technology needed to help clients create greater customer intimacy, get new products and services to market faster, and achieve operational excellence. Accenture provides a blueprint to transform the infrastructure and provide the security capability needed to proactively manage risk. Additional value drivers include speed of service fulfillment and adjustments, improved service assurance, improved customer experience, and increased intelligence ability to make more informed decisions from complex information. Accenture seeks to translate business services value to the IT services providing that value, model the business case as such, and govern to this model.
Accenture Is A Leader Among Global Infrastructure Outsourcing Vendors 5 Planned enhancements Plans for growth Investment to support strategy Vision for infrastructure services Accenture seeks to evolve its services continually in order to better align to client requirements. Recent examples include its collaborations with IPsoft and ServiceNow for predictive analytics and service management, respectively, as well as its acquisition of Enkitec, an Oracle services provider. Accenture s corporate strategy is based heavily on intellectual property artifacts deployed for a range of activities. For IT infrastructure management, these include hybrid cloud management, applications migration, workplace services, service desk, self-service portals, networking, security, and monitoring. Accenture s investment in R&D, which totaled $715 million in FY 2013, was used to help create, commercialize, and disseminate innovative business strategies and technology solutions. One example includes Accenture s $400 million multiyear investment in cloud technologies, capabilities, and training, which includes the Accenture Cloud Platform, intended to help clients manage across cloud, legacy, and hybrid environments and to integrate services and platforms. Accenture also invests in its Global Delivery Network, including tools, processes, and training to give Accenture the scale to operate in a consistent, competitive, industrialized, and high-quality manner. Accenture s infrastructure services agenda leverages alliances with core technology vendors (Cisco Systems, HP, BMC Software, ServiceNow, Oracle, and SAP), collaboration with IPsoft and others, and selective acquisitions such as Enkitec, an Oracle-focused systems integrator. Forrester estimates 2.5% of the total business revenue is spent on R&D investments. Accenture s services support the evolving ecosystem necessary to help Accenture clients adapt to the digital world. Accenture helps clients migrate and manage in the hybrid world and creates continuously adapting intelligent infrastructures that are linked to the strategic goals of the business. Accenture s infrastructure consulting, outsourcing, and security capabilities are housed in a single infrastructure services team, so clients can adopt innovative technologies, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their legacy environments, as well as simplify the complexity of managing multiple vendors across their enterprise IT and into the cloud. Its Global Delivery Network enables Accenture to mobilize the people with the right skills and capabilities to deliver solutions for its clients in a cost-effective and efficient manner, with Accenture Cloud Platform services delivering a single interface. MARKET PRESENCE Service market presence Financial strength Infrastructure services client base Accenture has a relatively low market presence for infrastructure management services. However, this is offset by strong scores in the strategy and global delivery sections. Despite the small market presence Accenture has in most of the infrastructure services market, it boasts solid financial numbers and is currently growing. Accenture has 510 infrastructure management clients worldwide.
Accenture Is A Leader Among Global Infrastructure Outsourcing Vendors 6 Infrastructure service employees Total employees Vertical alignment (not graded) Accenture has 17,000 employees dedicated to IT infrastructure management services. Accenture has 281,000 full-time employees. Accenture delivers its services and solutions through 19 focus industry groups: Communications. Electronics and high-tech. Media and entertainment. Banking. Capital markets. Insurance. Health. Public service. Air, freight, and travel services. Automotive. Consumer goods and services. Industrial equipment. Infrastructure and transportation services. Life sciences. Retail. Chemicals. Energy. Natural resources. Utilities. Why Read This Report From The The Forrester Wave : Global Infrastructure Outsourcing, Q1 2015 Given companies shift in business focus from cost reduction to growth in revenues and improving the customer experience, infrastructure outsourcing services have become an important part of providing the right level of efficiency, flexibility, quality, and innovation to support business customers needs and expectations. Infrastructure outsourcing service providers have responded by expanding their service portfolios to include consulting, transformation and improvement, and cloud and cloud management offerings. In Forrester s 61-criteria evaluation of global infrastructure outsourcing services vendors, we identified the 13 most significant providers in the segment Accenture, Atos, Capgemini, CGI, Computer Sciences Corp (CSC), Fujitsu, The Getronics Workspace Alliance (GWA), HCL Technologies, HP, IBM, T-Systems, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Wipro in the category and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report details our findings about how well each vendor fulfills our criteria and where they stand in relation to each other to help infrastructure and operations (I&O) professionals select the right partner for their global infrastructure outsourcing needs. Forrester Research (Nasdaq: FORR) is a global research and advisory firm serving professionals in 13 key roles across three distinct client segments. Our clients face progressively complex business and technology decisions every day. To help them understand, strategize, and act upon opportunities brought by change, Forrester provides proprietary research, consumer and business data, custom consulting, events and online communities, and peer-to-peer executive programs. We guide leaders in business technology, marketing and strategy, and the technology industry through independent fact-based insight, ensuring their business success today and tomorrow. 2015 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester, Forrester Wave, RoleView, Technographics, TechRankings, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Reproduction or sharing of this content in any form without prior written permission is strictly prohibited. To purchase reprints of this document, please email clientsupport@forrester.com. For additional reproduction and usage information, see Forrester s Citation Policy located at www.forrester.com. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. 118404_Accenture