In an increasingly hybrid environment, customization for cloud computing is becoming a primary differentiator for information technology support providers. Accenture LLP is addressing enterprise collaboration needs through a new, flagship innovation hub in San Francisco, where businesses can work alongside experts to develop products, from ideation to scale.

John Del Santo (pictured), senior managing director of the U.S. West region at Accenture, spoke with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Accenture Technology Vision event in San Francisco. They discussed the details of the new lab and how Accenture plans to add 500 technology jobs to the Bay Area by 2020.

[Editor’s note: The following answers have been condensed for clarity.]

What does the innovation hub mean for your presence in the Bay Area, as well as the global innovation effort?

Del Santo: This is bringing together the best of Accenture that we already had in the Bay Area [and] putting it under one roof. Co-creation is what is really differentiating us from our competitors. It’s allowing our clients to work with us, our technology experts, and the ecosystem partners in real time to brainstorm a problem, prototype it, [and] solve it over a very short period of time.

You are in the unique position to see the innovation, disruption and the digitization across a number of industries [and]  roles.

Del Santo: That’s one of the really cool things about this particular location; literally steps from our door here on Mission Street in San Francisco we’ve got clients from 10, 15 different industries that we serve, and we can bring talent from 10 or 15-plus different industries, plus the technology skills to make sure they’re looking at the problem from all angles.

Companies are being asked to be more responsible and active participants in their local community. What is it to be an active member of the community?

Del Santo: It’s always been part of our vision to help our clients succeed, but also to change the way the world works and lives. Therefore, we have to be really active in our communities. We need to be able to improve where we’re working and living, because our people are active and it’s important that we help serve them. We have a very strong public service business. We serve the State of California; we serve the city and county of San Francisco, as well as other entities in California. It’s critical for us to help improve California as we improve the businesses. It’s part of our mission.

You are taking a much more active vocal role in the local academic institutions as well.

Del Santo: We’re always trying to get the best talent out of the universities locally, [but] we want to be more engaged with those universities on projects together as well. We want more of a 360-degree relationship.

We’ve done research with some of the universities here locally where we’ve co-innovated with some of them, and we want to do more of that. It’s not just about us helping them find the best students to work here, but making sure that we’re actually involving them from a research perspective.

Share some fun facts about the unique features Accenture has.

Del Santo: Accenture has thousands of patents. More than 10 percent of them have been actually invented here. Our inventors are a secret that we’ve had in Northern California for a long time, and they’re all based here now. We’ve got some really cool spaces, an augmented reality room, which is basically a 360-degree room where rather than having to wear virtual-reality goggles, you can actually go inside of a computer, go inside of a lab, go inside of a hospital, and get an experience that’s a lot more immersive.

We’ve got a maker lab. We’ve got a design business here where we’ve helped physically make not only software, but products that have embedded software in them. There’s that fabrication capability we actually have in this building as well, which is pretty unique for a high rise.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Accenture Technology Vision 2019.

Photo: SiliconANGLE