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Posted on May 14th, 2013 at 12:21 pm by Barend van Doorn
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Theme: Business Transformation, Column, business process outsourcing | Tags: BPO, business process outsourcing, High Performance BPO, Outsourcing
Welcome to the first in a series of blog posts in which my colleague Bianca den Elsen and I will be looking at the current state of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and how organizations achieve high performance in BPO.
As Accenture’s Executive Director Business Process Outsourcing in the Netherlands, I am leading a team of outsourcing professionals in a mission of growth and entrepreneurship. Bianca is a senior executive at Accenture’s Business Process Outsourcing practice. She has led multiple global mobilization programs, transitioning clients’ business processes to Accenture’s near- and off-shore delivery centers. She is currently the Business Process Outsourcing Lead for the Communications, Media & Technology practice in the Benelux and France.
Over the years Business Process Outsourcing has proven itself as a valuable strategy for organizations seeking new ways to achieve high performance while controlling costs, reducing risk, fostering collaboration and increasing transparency. Now beginning its third decade of existence, business process outsourcing has become an accepted management practice across most companies and industries. At the same time, it is becoming a more complex endeavor, going deeper into the value chains of companies. That means that the bar is being raised in terms of what companies are expecting from their BPO providers.
We are on the verge of an era in which BPO is moving to a “cost-plus” value proposition and will increasingly be part of the global operating model of large companies. But what is the business impact and value of this new proposition? In an effort to define this greater value and understand how it can be achieved, we will kick-off this series of blog posts with discussing the key insights of Accenture’s research on the status of BPO in the Netherlands. Questions debated are “How mature and well established is BPO in business?” and “What are the main reasons to practice BPO?”. And (perhaps) even more importantly: “What BPO can do for client organizations now and tomorrow.”
After discussing the status of Business Process Outsourcing in The Netherlands we will talk about how BPO evolved to date, from cost saving through to driving real business value using analytics, on-demand services and communities based on social-media platforms. Like every business BPO has also seen an evolution over last 15-20 years and today we believe that outsourcing can add even more value to our businesses, particularly in the form of innovation. So how can BPO be a catalyst for Innovation? By understanding how BPO has evolved to date and where it’s headed in the future, businesses in every industry, across every sector, can position themselves to maximize value.
Bianca and I hope to inspire you, evoke discussion and debate, and hear your opinions, experiences and ideas. We look forward to taking you on a journey into the continuously developing world of BPO.
If you don’t want to miss the upcoming posts in this series, make sure to subscribe by clicking on this hyperlink. Please feel free to contact us for more information about BPO via below email addresses.
Barend van Doorn
Lead Business Process Outsourcing
Accenture Netherlands
barend.van.doorn@accenture.com
Bianca den Elsen
Managing Director – Business Process Outsourcing
Accenture Netherlands
bianca.den.elsen@accenture.com
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Posted on March 14th, 2013 at 11:45 am by Frank Rennings
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Theme: Business Transformation, Cloud, Column | Tags: cloud, Data velocity, Digital relationships, High Performance IT, Innovation that works, Technology innovation, Technology trends, Technology vision 2013
Many around the world just celebrated the Lunar New Year, marking a time of renewal and for many a time to reset on what’s important. For Accenture, it’s a time when we renew our annual Technology Vision, which outlines some predictions on which technologies will have a significant impact on organizations – for both their IT departments and their businesses overall – in the next few years.
We do this annual report on the future of IT because technology has become pervasive, and is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in every industry, every market and every business. In fact, we believe that Every Business is a Digital Business – technology innovations now represent trends in both business and technology.
Our premise for the Accenture Technology Vision is pretty simple: if you don’t know what’s going on, you can’t prepare for it, and you certainly can’t take advantage of it. Within Accenture, we use the Vision as an input to guide our technology R&D investments; externally, we use the Vision to help our clients not just identify and understand key emerging technologies, but also use them to make their business performance even better – and stand out from the competition.
This year’s Accenture Technology Vision lays out the following major technology trends affecting organizations in the public and private sectors:
- Digital Relationships at Scale: Moving beyond transactions to digital relationships
- Design for Analytics: Formulate the questions, and design for the answers
- Data Velocity: Matching the speed of insight to the speed of action
- Seamless Collaboration: Right channel, right worker, right job
- Software-Defined-Networking: Virtualization’s last mile
- Active Defense: Adapting cyber defenses to the threat
- Beyond the Cloud: Where the Value Lies
Accenture observes that increasing numbers of farsighted organizations are recognizing IT as a strategic asset with which they can renew vital aspects of their operations—optimizing at least and innovating at best. As such, they are investing in the digital tools, the capabilities, and the skills to more easily identify useful data, evaluate it, excerpt it, analyze it, derive insights from it, share it, manage it, comment on it, report on it, and, most importantly, act on it.
But the Technology Vision is just a starting point. Yes, it provides a lens for us to focus in on the technology landscape and shows us where to turn next, but it is only useful if we can translate the Vision into real solutions, addressing real problems in real industries. That’s why this year’s Vision presents 100- and 365-day plans for each technology trend so that organizations can take the insights and act upon them.
Stay tuned to Blogpodium because in the coming weeks I will discuss each of the seven Accenture Technology Vision Trends in more detail and how these trends present opportunities for companies ready to take advantage of them.
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Posted on December 27th, 2012 at 12:58 pm by AccentureNL
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Theme: Analytics, Business Transformation, Column, High Performance Business, Innovation that works | Tags: Data Governance, Data Management, Digital, Digital Transformation, Financial Services, Investment banking, Social Media, successful innovation
As we approach the end of 2012, it’s a good time to look back and review all of the great content that’s been published the past 12 months. It’s been a busy time in the world of Innovation, Analytics and Digital, considering everything from different ideas about the key ingredients for successful innovation to shifts in the way consumers engage with social networks and mobile devices.
Below are a few of the best articles we’ve seen published this year.
Top 10 Challenges for Investment Banks 2012
Investment banks are increasingly operating in a volatile, resource constrained and highly regulated environment. Rigorous focus on strategic and operational priorities provides the key to high performance. Complying with new and impending regulations presents major challenges for investment banks.
To help investment banks plan and execute with success as macro trends reshape the industry, Accenture has developed a list of the top 10 challenges to address in 2012.
Different key ingredients for successful Innovation
The responses to a poll Accenture ran on LinkedIn revealed that people have very different ideas about the key ingredients for successful innovation. A full half of the respondents believe that understanding customer challenges is the key, while another third believe it is essential to embed innovation in an organisation.
The truth is that all of these play a role in successful innovation. But is there one element that is so crucial that without it successful innovation would be impossible?
The importance of Data Governance
Does your company consider its data to be a strategic asset? More important, do you not only consider it to be an asset, but are you also treating it as any other asset?
In my 20 years of experience in Data and Information Management, I worked for companies, who claimed to understand the importance and potential value of their data, but struggled to live up to this understanding. And, up to today, many companies I visit are still not taking full benefit of the wealth of information that is stored in their systems.
Are you moving fast enough in Digital?
As the world is changing rapidly, organizations need to stay in the game by investing in digital capabilities. But many organizations find it difficult to predict the expected ROI, resulting in little investments and lack of innovation.
Digital is radically changing the traditional ways organizations interact with customers. Customers are willing to interact with organizations via social media, and expecting them to be out there too! Therefore the question is no longer how fast things are moving, but: are you moving fast enough?
High Performing Business in changing economic times
In this volatile, uncertain and increasingly complex world, many businesses and governments have an urgent need to reassess current strategies and vital capabilities to achieve high performance.
Companies that want to stay in business need to make concrete plans for the future, with little room for errors. After all, companies will need to keep launching successful business concepts or products to outperform their rivals in these challenging times.
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Posted on December 4th, 2012 at 2:02 pm by Jeroen Hendrix
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Theme: Column, Innovation that works | Tags: Innovation that works, spin-offs, successful innovation, Utrecht University
Most companies now recognize just how important innovation is to continued profitable growth. The challenge is how to innovate successfully, not just once but again and again. Because real innovation demands constant and continuous renewal, which is hard to realize within an established enterprise.
Many companies see the spin-off as the holy grail of successful innovation. In a recent study on spin-offs in the biotech industry, Accenture and Utrecht University looked at hundreds of examples of how major corporations have launched ‘innovative’ spin-offs only to see them flounder and fail. And discovered some very important lessons about how companies can avoid the pitfalls that doom so many spin-offs to failure.
It’s an all too familiar scenario. After years of success, a major company sees its margins decline and its growth slow. It desperately needs a new engine for growth and because the company is so big it has to be a very big engine. So the management decides to launch a spin-off company to focus on unchartered markets, because these are the only markets with the potential for real, sustained growth. So far so good. The spin-off can operate away from the constraints of its parent company and its often cumbersome organizational structure.
Keep ‘em hungry
However, the first mistake many companies make, we found, is to throw resources at the new spin-off in the form of cash and intellectual property. There’s a lot of pressure for quick results, so apparently the new company needs lots of cash. For one, to hire a high-profile CEO with a proven ability to attract even more investment. But all too often the expected success fails to materialize and the spin-off is a massive – and costly – failure.
So why is it so difficult to launch a successful spin-off and why do so many companies fail? What emerged out of our joint study was that having a generous parent company can be as much a hindrance as a help. The study revealed some of the success factors behind profitable spin-offs. For instance – and this shouldn’t be a surprise – successful spin-offs listen to their markets and have short times to market. Successful spin-offs are patient in terms of growth, but tend to be very impatient for profit.
Of course, this still leaves the question of how can companies create the right conditions for a successful spin-off? The first recommendation sounds counter-intuitive, but may come as a pleasant surprise to many companies. Keep your spin-offs hungry in terms of capital funding! But do make sure they have the right people equipped with the right skills to deal with new technology, new products and new markets. And be patient. You cannot tap truly new markets overnight; spin-offs should be given the time to explore their markets and discover their customers’ real needs.
We’ll be exploring these success factors and the recommendations to companies looking to launch a spin-off in more detail in my next two blog posts.
Masters thesis
For his Masters thesis, Tim Agterberg studied the development of various types of start-up companies in the Dutch biotechnology sector. Tim conducted the study during an internship with Accenture, under the guidance of Accenture’s Jeroen Hendrix and Dr. Jan Faber, associate Professor of Innovation Studies at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University. The study analyzed 540 cases spread across four years, in the period 2002-2005.
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Posted on November 5th, 2012 at 5:13 pm by Jeroen Hendrix
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Theme: Column, Innovation that works | Tags: Accenture Innovation Awards, AIA, AIA12, Entrepreneurship, HR, Human resourcse, innovation barriers, Innovation that works, Jeroen Hendrix, Marketing, Paul van Renselaar, Rene van der Eijk, start ups, strategy, university of groningen
When Accenture launched the Accenture Innovation Awards (AIA) six years ago, one of our goals was to encourage and promote innovation. The AIA did indeed create a platform for numerous truly innovative concepts from both major corporates and young start-ups. And many winners have gone on to become extremely successful. And yet it is still remarkably difficult for businesses to innovate successfully. This is why Accenture teamed up last year with the University of Groningen to define the so-called ‘Barriers to Innovation’ and identify the differences between AIA winners and non-winners. And to find out whether winning an Accenture Innovation Award offer entrepreneurs tangible benefits?
The study carried out by the University of Groningen in cooperation with Accenture identified six potential barriers to innovation: the cost, financing, HR, marketing, competition and external information barriers. More importantly, the research revealed some striking differences between award winners and non-winners, not just in how they overcome barriers to innovation, but also in their perception of these barriers.
As you can see from the figure above, the study revealed that non-winners recognized more of these barriers than the winners of the awards, especially the cost, financing, information and personnel barriers. They perceived these barriers, or combinations of these barriers, much more as obstacles to future growth than winners. The winners, on the other hand, recognized barriers much more unique to their business, rather than being confronted with a range of barriers simultaneously, so are able to take a much more focused approach to overcoming such barriers.
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Posted on September 5th, 2012 at 3:16 pm by Harald Timmer
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Theme: Business Transformation, Column | Tags: App stores, Bring your own device, BYOD, cloud, Cloud infrastructure, Digital Transformation, mobile devices, Mobile ecosystem, Mobile operators, Mobility, Morgan Stanley, OEM, Return on investment, ROI, Smartphones, Tablets, Technology developments
As one of the key channel to interact with customers, employees and suppliers, Mobility is transforming the way enterprises over the world do business. Today tablets are fast becoming an unstoppable trend within mobility, but developments in technology are so frequent and rapid that keeping up to speed can be challenging.
According to Morgan Stanley, tablets will be the fastest growing category of mobile device in history as the shift toward ‘always on the go, and always connected’ becomes more of a reality. By the end of 2020, the bank predicts that 10 billion mobile internet devices will be in use, up from two billion today.
Another trend presenting new challenges and impacting enterprises is ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD). Many of the mobile devices we see coming into the enterprise today were initially aimed at consumers. As the workforce has become more familiar with smartphones, and now increasingly tablets, employees expect to be able to use their (personal) mobile devices in the same way at work as they do at home.
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Posted on July 25th, 2012 at 1:02 pm by Barend van Doorn
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Theme: Business Transformation, Column | Tags: Analytics, Business Transformation, Core Systems Transformation, Cost reduction, CRM, customer loyalty, customer relationship management, Financial Services, High Performance IT, New technologies, Revenue growth, Sustainable Growth, Sustainable Profitability
In the boardroom of any bank, today’s executives are all discussing the same question: “How can we reduce costs and maintain profit as much as possible in a volatile and increasingly regulated market?”. Credit where credit is due, the income of banks has improved in the recent period. However not due to new credit growth. Improved profitability is still mainly being realized by lowering provisions on bad loans. It also seems unlikely that the returns on equity, as prior to the financial crisis, will return for most banks in the near future.
In reaction to the volatile environment, many banks respond in the traditional manner to the downward pressure on revenues. This includes the elimination of debit rewards, free checking, further reduction of transaction costs and other programs to help compensate for new initiatives and regulations. However, recent research by Accenture shows that many cost initiatives have a negative effect on the long term performance of banks.
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Posted on June 22nd, 2012 at 2:15 pm by Kees Jan de Korver
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Theme: Business Transformation, Column, High Performance Business, Latest Post | Tags: Andrew Meade, CFO, CFO day, CFO Special Achievement Awards, data analytics, Dutch finance, economic volatility, Financial Risk Management, Financial Services, High Performance Finance, Jan Kees de Jager, Masters of finance, New technology, Risk management, Sebastien Marotte, sustainability, Talent Management
With over 400 CFOs attending and top speakers including Dutch Minister of Finance, Jan Kees de Jager and Vice-President Of Google Enterprise EMEA Sébastien Marotte; CFO Day, recently this event for financial leaders in the Netherlands had its 11th anniversary. With this year’s theme titled “On Course in a new World”, this edition of the annual event emphasized the changing volatile world in which enterprises are currently operating in. Changes discussed during the day included New technology (i.e. Mobile, social and Cloud Computing) and Sustainability as a license to operate.
On behalf of Gold partner Accenture, Andrew Meade and I had the opportunity to present and discuss the Dutch background and results of Accenture’s High Performance Finance study, which explored the current state of Finance in the Netherlands and how it is adapting to the significant environmental changes. With Finance on the rise, the finance organization assumed greater responsibility for helping the enterprise deal with the growing risks to the business as the recession unfolded.
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Posted on May 14th, 2012 at 12:18 pm by Rene Meijers
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Theme: Analytics, Column | Tags: Big Data, Data Governance, Data governance model, Data Management, Data quality, High Performance IT, Master Data, Master Data Management, MDM repository, Ownership, Sponsorship, Stewardship
As mentioned in my previous post, I see more and more organizations that start to understand the potential value of their data as a key business enabler. In order to truly uncover the value of data it needs to be managed and controlled, or in other words, governed. Basically, no matter how small or ‘big’ your data, it all starts with data governance.
In a lot of publications it is already mentioned that implementing successful data management should not be an ‘IT exercise’, but requires a careful alignment between people, processes and technology. Effective governance requires not only defining organizational roles and responsibilities, but also defining policies and standards and the processes needed to enforce and maintain these. It also requires providing the right technology solutions, like workflow processes, data quality dashboards and a MDM repository. Having worked for many years in the data management area, I have learned that the people or organizational component in an organization often is the key which makes data governance a success or not.
The 3 key elements of data governance
Unfortunately there is no single governance solution that fits all, organizations have to build a governance model that closely follows its business practice and fits as closely as possible to its culture. Throughout various implementations, I have seen that there are 3 key data governance elements that should be present in any model, sponsorship, ownership and stewardship. Read more…
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Posted on April 17th, 2012 at 12:05 pm by Paul van der Linden
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Theme: Analytics, Column | Tags: Analytics, Basel II, Customer Analytics, Data Governance, Descriptive Analytics, globalization, Jeanne Harris, Master Data Management, Metadata, Predictive Analytics, S&P500, Solvency II, Tom Davenport
According to Accenture research from 2002-2009, organizations that invest in Analytics perform significantly better than those that take this phenomenon for granted. For instance, organizations in the S&P 500-category that invest heavily in advanced Analytics are on average 64% more successful than their competition. In addition, organizations investing in an analytical mindset and skillset recover more quickly from the economic recession.
With this in mind, it is not surprising that the interest in Analytics is growing rapidly. But what does Analytics mean? Is it relevant to all companies? And what are the pitfalls and misunderstandings?
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