Key capabilities CIOs must have to be ahead in the digital world

Recently,the Accenture Technology Vision 2016 was conducted a global survey of more than 3,100 business and IT executives across 11 countries with India contributing to about 8 % of the sample size to understand their perspectives on the impact of technology on their organizations, and to identify their priority technology investments over the next few years. The report investigates five trends behind a ‘people-first’ approach: Intelligent automation, liquid workforces, the platform economy, predictable disruption and digital trust.

To discuss this further, EC’s Rashi Varshney, asked Bhaskar Ghosh, Group Chief Executive—Accenture Technology Servicesto shed better light on this subject. Read on…

Edited Excerpts

The five trends from Technology Vision 2016 represent an extension of Accenture’s core stance: “every business is a digital business”, first introduced in your 2013 report. How have these trends evolved from the previous years and how do you see it grow?

The Accenture Technology Vision 2016 builds on last year’s report which uncovered that leading enterprises were driving a dramatic shift from a “Me” economy to “We” economy, with “Digital Ecosystems” shaping markets to change the way we work and live. We predicted that these businesses would see great potential to make a difference by stretching pre-conceived boundaries to operate as ecosystems, not just as individual corporate entities.

This year’s report represent the newest expression of Accenture’s point of view that ‘Every Business is a Digital Business’ by expanding on companies’ need to stretch themselves through growth, flexibility and change in order to effectively compete in today’s rapidly accelerating digital landscape. To do this, enterprises must develop a people first approach to empower employees, partners and consumers to learn new skills to be able to do more with technology. In doing so, companies can continually stretch themselves to redefine what is possible, ultimately generating bigger and better business results.

What is the impact of digital in enterprises globally and in India?

Digital is changing everything for our clients: disruptive new technologies, new operating models, new nimble competitors and more demanding clients. As a result, every company must re-imagine how they serve connected customers and operate as an always-on enterprise to grow the businesses and deliver tangible results. The pressure is on to be faster, smarter, more agile and responsive—to become a high-velocity enterprise.

In this scenario, while the pace of business is accelerating, existing business and IT approaches lag behind. Another key trend here is that IT buyers are increasingly sayingthat growth and improving customer experience is becoming more important than other factors.

From an Accenture point of view, we tell our clients that they need a fundamentally new approach to the business of applications. This transformation is necessary as software itself steps up to a new role – from playing a “manage business” role earlier to that of a “grow business” role now and in the future.

What are the key capabilities that leaders in the future must have to be ahead in the digital world?

Broadly, there are four key areas that leaders need to think about:
1) Leaders should lead the way in thinking digital all through the lifecycle of the organization, and embrace disruption as part of their corporate DNA. They must be at the forefront of reshaping their clients’ and their own industry’s boundaries, playing a lead role in the formation and coordination of existing and future ecosystems.
2) Leaders will embrace automation not just to take advantage of the breakneck pace of digital change but to create a new digital world where they hold competitive advantage. Machines and artificial intelligence will be the newest recruits to the workforce, bringing new skills to help people do new jobs, and reinventing what’s possible.
3) Developing and institutionalizingintelligent digital processeswill become more important for leaders to differentiate their organizations in the industry, and create better revenue opportunity, enhanced customer and employee engagement.
4) At the same time, leaders must listen carefully to people in their ecosystem, such as employees, customers and partners, using technology as the channel to deepen understanding of the emerging needs, requirements and attitudes that drive disruption.

How is Accenture enabling its clients to address the challenges and complexity of digital disruption?

Accenture has defined three application services delivery strategies that will help our clients to adopt “New IT”: Liquid, Intelligent and Connected:
• Liquid delivery, which is about developing applications with a cloud-first, digital-first mind set. It is more platform-based and it uses innovative engineering techniques such as Agile and DevOps to make software faster, flexible and more liquid.
• Intelligent delivery, which uses the latest advances in analytics, cognitive computing, robotics and machine learning to manage growing complexity and speed of change.
• And connected delivery, which supports new software-driven business ecosystems integrating partners, suppliers and customers as well as the Internet of Things.