Video Rapid Retract: Accenture’s Karthik Narain on the Cloud Continuum
Julie Devoll, HBR
Welcome to the HBR Video Rapid Retract. I’m Julie Devoll, Editor of Particular Tasks and Webinars at HBR. I are attempting to thank everyone for joining us this present day. In this present day’s Rapid Retract, we’re joined by Karthik Narain, Lead Accenture Cloud First, to communicate about a couple of of the issues that came out of Accenture’s new compare about unleashing competitiveness in the Cloud Continuum. Karthik, thanks so great for joining us this present day.
Karthik Narain, Accenture
Thank you so great, Julie, for having me here.
Julie Devoll, HBR
So let’s starting up with the compare. The picture discusses a Cloud Continuum. How is this outlined?
Karthik Narain, Accenture
Julie, the Cloud Continuum is a dynamic array of capabilities, the organizations can leverage from the public cloud to the threshold to all the things in-between, all seamlessly linked via cloud first networks love utility-outlined networks or 5G.
And Cloud Continuum goes to allow organizations operate more intelligently by leveraging the vitality of cloud across this Continuum, so that they’d also speak the trade outcomes and speak to their customers, partners, and their ecosystems in the closest and the most intimate potential that you just could perchance mediate of.
And there are obvious organizations which shall be doing this extremely effectively. And we’re calling these organizations as the Continuum Competitors. And these organizations are leveraging this vitality of cloud across the Continuum to speak to higher operations’ financial outcomes.
They’re in a jam to drive higher trip to their stakeholders. And they are in a jam to seamlessly purchase their staff and procure the vitality of innovation within their group, so that they’d also invent a competitive differentiation now now not real within their competitive space nevertheless across their entire trade that they’re working in.
Julie Devoll, HBR
So how is the compare performed?
Karthik Narain, Accenture
So we performed this compare with a mammoth space of contributors. And we did this from unhurried 2020 to early 2021. And we had about 4,000 C-suite executives participating, both IT executives and trade executives across 25 various industries and across 16 various countries.
And this became as soon as performed in the invent of interviews, some case look for compare, and also economic modeling. And we requested them about how cloud is being outmoded by their group. What’s the financial profit or affect that they’re getting?
Julie Devoll, HBR
So let’s discuss about the Continuum Competitors. How hang they been in a jam to attain to past their pals? And became as soon as there one potential that stood out as the absolute very top?
Karthik Narain, Accenture
Yeah, initially, migrating their existing trade and their IT landscape to cloud is a predominant first step. And everyone is doing that. And everyone could also silent attain that. But the disagreement in the potential that the Continuum Competitors took became as soon as, they real outmoded the migration as their first step in a long breeze that they planned effectively in attain.
And the motive of that became as soon as that they understood the vitality of cloud to be a lot better than real a fee-saving lever, even supposing fee savings is a predominant profit of cloud. But they regarded at it from broader goals. And then they started mapping the latest capabilities across the Continuum to speak to those strategic goals.
Julie Devoll, HBR
For organizations that hang adopted cloud, nevertheless aren’t seeing the return as of but, what does the compare indicate that they attain?
Karthik Narain, Accenture
Initially, it’s extremely vital that cloud goes to be on hand across this continuum. And organizations could also silent take into story cloud as the working mannequin for the long creep venture. But when organizations purchase that more or less potential, there are four things that these Continuum Competitors are doing that appeared as a classic pattern across that entire space.
The very first thing is that they’ve a clear working out of the procure they wish the Continuum to purchase them, which design that they sort one design and imaginative and prescient of the procure their group desires to head over the long-duration of time. And they design that formulation and imaginative and prescient with the many capabilities on hand across the Continuum to purchase them there. So it’s a holistic neutral.
The 2nd thing is the established Continuum practices to make stronger and augment all of the expertise functionality that is on hand in the Continuum. What attain I mean by that? They have to reimagine how they operate in the cloud. Attributable to cloud is a functionality that is on hand on-inquire of. And it’s on hand at every vacation space or blueprint that you just could perchance mediate of, which design the main premise on which the group desires to high-tail is agility.
So organizations have to continuously invent this experimentation mindset so that they’re in a jam to constantly assemble and exhaust. And if one thing doesn’t work, they ought so as to pull lend a hand and experiment the following thought that they’ve. They also space right targets so that these targets are now now not static.
And the third thing that we came across classic became as soon as the total Continuum Competitors centered on one thing over all the things else and that is delivering outstanding trip. It’s all about trip. And cloud now helps you to give the real trip to your real stakeholders at the real jam and time.
And the final classic ingredient became as soon as this, right right senior leadership dedication. Cloud transformation is now now not real a expertise transformation. It’s some distance indeed a astronomical expertise transformation. But it’s a expertise transformation enabling a holistic trade transformation.
So the CEO and the C-suite desires to be engaged. And they must be supporting this transformation breeze on story of it’s multi-365 days, multifaceted. It’s some distance interdepartmental. So these are the four handiest practices that we leer.
Julie Devoll, HBR
How attain you introduce the Cloud Continuum thought to a consumer that is correct starting on their breeze?
Karthik Narain, Accenture
We would take a look at with them that, initially, we hope that they’re all in favour of migrating their existing landscape, existing IT systems to cloud to bring operational flexibility, elasticity, and slightly of agility of their trade. That’s the first step.
As soon as they commence doing that, we would take a look at with them about the advantages, both from a bottom line savings a lot like fee, and establish low cost, and increased creep to market that they can procure. But we are also attempting to communicate to them about the discontinuance-line boost in sales via immoral-sell, upsell, higher customer insights, more intuitive merchandise that they can procure. So that’s the 2nd step.
And the third step that we’d take a look at with them about is riding trade targets and trade outcomes via the vitality of cloud. So constantly establishing ideas and imaginative and prescient, and mapping them with the vitality of cloud so that they’d also utilize the real capabilities to drive real outcomes. But survey at every space of your trade and leer the procure you want have to rework. And survey at the total capabilities that the Cloud Continuum offers to enhance and rework. That, at final, would be one thing that we’d attain.
Julie Devoll, HBR
How does files play into the Continuum thought?
Karthik Narain, Accenture
I mediate files economy is blossoming in cloud. And it’s going to enhance extra in the Cloud Continuum. Organizations are learning that there’s so great files that could also presumably be collected. And there is so great that they’d also attain of their trade utilizing that files. Namely, they’d also obtain higher customer insights, and expand customer engagement and pride.
Quantity two, they can optimize diversified trade processes and the many steps in those trade processes by simplifying them and reducing the fee of operations apart from the trade complexity. Or they’d also utilize files to construct more wise and intuitive merchandise, so that the customers procure bent to their merchandise and the consumer loyalty will improve from these merchandise.
But to invent these items, you could perchance like a resounding foundational files backbone. And that files backbone can now now not be wherever other than the cloud and in the Continuum. And why attain I mutter in the Continuum is attributable to 1 other vital pattern that we’re seeing. And that’s, over the following 5 years, 75% of the records goes to be generated in the threshold. And it’s also going to be processed in the threshold.
Whenever you survey at some industries love health care, your entire health transformation goes to happen via sharing of files across the total trade, from pure science that is occurring in compare establishments and universities, to in drug discovery that happens to scientific trial job, to FDA approvals, to manufacturing present chain, and the guidelines options loop on how that drug is ceaselessly working in the sphere.
And sharing this knowledge, nevertheless sharing this knowledge in a truly right potential, in a managed formulation, goes to enhance the total health care and procure all of our lives great, critically higher. And for that, the Cloud Continuum goes to allow the seamless management and governance, and the sharing of this knowledge across the industries.
Julie Devoll, HBR
What findings in the compare surprised you the most?
Karthik Narain, Accenture
One in every of the though-provoking aspects that we came across from the compare, Julie, became as soon as even supposing the Continuum Competitors weren’t primarily pushed by fee savings, they ended up in fact achieving higher fee savings, fee reductions than the ones that were centered on fee savings.
Public cloud permits the innovation of folks out of doorways of the four partitions of your enterprise to innovate for your behalf. And when organizations leverage that vitality, they’re in a jam to procure obvious trade targets sooner, and also they’re in a jam to procure obvious initiatives at a lower fee, at a sooner time to market. So that became as soon as one though-provoking success.
But it became as soon as also an spell binding revelation, became as soon as you don’t have to be a cloud native, digitally-born group to purchase profit of the vitality of cloud. A vogue of the winners or the Continuum Competitors that we observed in this high 13% were pale organizations, nevertheless were well utilizing the vitality of the Continuum across all the things that they attain of their venture. So those were two though-provoking findings.
Julie Devoll, HBR
Is Accenture a Continuum competitor? And the procure is it on the Continuum?
Karthik Narain, Accenture
We’re effectively down the digital transformation direction. And we’ve been doing it, Julie, for the final 5 years. And we’ve made astronomical strides and astronomical bets on cloud and wise automation, the procure rather a range of our capabilities were augmented to analytics and AI. So our staff procure more knowledge capabilities as a change of route initiatives.
We also changed our systems of working with the more recent culture so that we’re in a jam to transfer up and take into story doing fee added initiatives, and now now not attain the routine, mundane initiatives that we outmoded to attain prior to now. And final nevertheless now now not the least is we’ve invested heavily in skill and skill pattern across the group. We’re in the trade of abilities and skill. But we’re seeing the S-curves of expertise and talents are occurring a lot sooner.
So we’ve spent rather a range of vitality and coronary heart in enabling that as effectively. So at scale, we’re now in a jam to operate sooner and heaps more effective. And we’re in a jam to manage our dangers and in a jam to scale with the similar quantity of infrastructure. We’re in a jam to attain a lot better than what we outmoded to attain prior to now.
Correct to double click on cloud, Accenture’s IT infrastructure is over 95% in the public cloud. There is intensely few capabilities that happens in– on-prem for us. And it’s costing about 1/2 of what it outmoded to fee us 5 years prior to now. But in these final 5 years, as a firm, we hang now got nearly doubled in our size, scale, headcount, and all aspects.
Julie Devoll, HBR
Wisely, Karthik, this has been a mountainous discussion. I are attempting to thanks so great for joining us this present day.
Karthik Narain, Accenture
Thank you so great for having me.
Julie Devoll, HBR
Karthik, this has been a mountainous discussion. I are attempting to thanks so great for joining us this present day.
Karthik Narain, Accenture
Thank you so great, Julie. I enjoyed the dialog as effectively.
To study more about the compare, inch to accenture.com/cloudcontinuum.
