For some companies, a highlight during the year might be the kickoff of a rebranding campaign. At other firms, a significant annual milestone could be the launch of a multi-billion-dollar investment in client initiatives. Over the course of only 30 days in 2020, Accenture PLC managed to do both.

In September, Accenture announced the formation of Cloud First, a $3 billion, three-year investment to help clients focus on the transition to cloud as part of digital transformation. That was followed a month later by the news that Accenture would launch a sweeping brand campaign based on the tagline “Let there be change.”

The firm’s latest moves come at a time when the cloud industry received a turbo boost in demand as a result of the global pandemic. The majority of business operations are still outside the cloud today, but Accenture can envision a time when that will change.

“Now is the moment,” said Julie Sweet, chief executive officer of Accenture, in a recent Forbes interview. “Business is 20% in the cloud today, but we think we are going rapidly to 80%. Prior to COVID, I thought this would take a decade across industries. We now estimate it will take five years.”

The future of cloud in the enterprise and its implications for digital transformation will be among the topics discussed at the Accenture Executive Summit at AWS re:Invent 2020 on December 1. TheCUBE’s coverage of the event will include interviews with Accenture executives and technology thought leaders with a focus on what it means to operate as a cloud-first business, how companies are being transformed using data-driven insights, client use cases, and the future direction of enterprise computing technology. (* Disclosure below.)

Improving cloud value

Accenture’s cloud services business generated $11 billion in revenue for the firm in 2019. Its Cloud First initiative will be led by 70,000 professionals who will advise Accenture clients on various areas, including migration, artificial intelligence infrastructure and building data models in cloud environments.

Three billion is a sizable investment for any business. What led Accenture to make such a move in an economic climate that is uncertain at best? One motivation might be that in the rush to take advantage of cloud services, many companies are struggling to reap anticipated benefits. A recent report by Accenture found that a mere 37% of businesses were achieving full value from cloud investment. Two years prior, the percentage was 35%.

“The reality is that not every company is unlocking the full potential value of the cloud,” said Accenture Cloud First Global Lead Karthik Narain in a statement accompanying release of the study. “In fact, our newest report shows a surprisingly small two-year improvement in returns on corporate cloud initiatives, suggesting that a more thoughtful and holistic approach is needed.”

A holistic approach requires access to a broad depth of expertise in cloud migration and deployment. In addition to the 70,000 professionals announced as part of its Cloud First initiative, Accenture has also brought a number of new capabilities into the firm through a highly active acquisition strategy in 2020. Accenture has acquired 25 IT companies in 2020, five of them in the month of October alone. Last month’s purchases included Zag, a cloud migration specialist, N3 Inc., a provider of AI and machine learning to help increase sales efficiency, and Enimbos, a company focused on data transformation services and holder of over 130 AWS certifications.

Transformation and reinvention

The sheer number of acquisitions in 2020 point to a new dynamic for the firm; Accenture is undergoing its own transformation. The company’s embrace of change as a cornerstone of its rebranding strategy is both timely and appropriate to the current needs of its own client base.

“We’ve had to upskill 300,000 of our own people,” Sweet noted in a recent interview. “We spend nearly a billion dollars a year on development. Accenture’s purpose is to deliver on the promise of technology and human and human ingenuity. That is how technology will benefit all.”

Accenture’s rebranding strategy is based on a “360-degree value” approach. The goal is to help companies transform and reinvent business, reskill the workforce or achieve sustainable models. An example of this can be seen in the work of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., a Japanese drug developer that launched a five-year transformation initiative in consultation with Accenture and AWS.

Takeda’s end goal is to move 80% of its drug development applications to the cloud, while establishing an in-house digital engine that will retool the way daily work gets done.

“My vision is that, in less than 10 years, every Takeda employee will be empowered by an artificial intelligence assistant to help make better decisions, enabling us to deliver transformative therapies and better experiences to patients, physicians and payers faster than previously possible,” said Christophe Weber, president and CEO of Takeda, in a recent statement about the initiative. 

Food processing giant Del Monte Inc. is another business being transformed by change and cloud initiatives. Working with both Accenture and AWS, Del Monte embarked on a cloud migration journey that involved transferring 200 servers and 50 complex workloads in less than four months.

This was not just another story of “lift and shift.” Del Monte sought value from cloud-enabled use of AI and internet of things technologies to gain much-needed insights for its business.

Accenture’s message around change is anchored to a strategy focused on targeting industries interested in automating processes and evolving fast. This approach has opened new opportunities for the firm, as seen in its recently announced partnership with ServiceNow Inc.

In October, Accenture formed a new business group with ServiceNow to help mutual clients adopt digital workflows and create personalized experiences for customers. In what was billed as a “multi-million-dollar investment for both companies,” 8,500 ServiceNow experts will be based at Accenture.

If the rebranded Accenture is all about “Let there be change,” it is also going to embrace the motto of “Let there be cloud.” With 500,000 employees, the global firm now has a larger workforce than the top three cloud providers combined, and it is equipped to bring significant resources to its announced Cloud First initiative. And Accenture is betting that it will play a major role in moving the enterprise world well beyond the 20% cloud share today.

“Think about what this means – the difference between being 20% in the cloud and 80% in the cloud,” Sweet said. “We are platforming global business.”

Livestream of the Accenture Executive Summit at AWS re:Invent

The Accenture Executive Summit is part of the three-week AWS re:Invent virtual conference with additional interviews to be broadcasted on theCUBE. You can access the live event here.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch the live coverage of the Accenture EXecutive Summit at AWS re:Invent, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE Insights podcast

SiliconANGLE also has podcasts available of archived interview sessions, available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify, which you can enjoy while on the go.

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE during the Accenture Executive Summit at AWS re:Invent virtual conference

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE during the AWS re:Invent 2020 virtual experience include Accenture’s Matthew Pound, associate director for public sector technology delivery; Karthik Narian, senior managing director, Cloud First lead; Douglas Regan, managing director; Sadiq Islam, associate director of technology delivery; Kishore Durg, senior managing director and Cloud First global services lead; Tristan Morel L’Horset, managing director and North America intelligent cloud and infrastructure solutions lead; and Arjun Bedi, senior managing director.

Also appearing on theCUBE are Brian Bohan, director and global head for the Accenture AWS Business Group at AWS; Helen Davis, assistant director for IT and digital for the West Midlands Police; Stuart Driver, director of infrastructure and operations at Lion; and Karl Hick, chief digital and information officer at Takeda Pharmaceutical.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Accenture Executive Summit at AWS re:Invent. Neither Accenture LLP, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Image: AWS