Analytics-as-a-Service is delivered in a centralized off-prem mode: Accenture

Analytics is driving the digital adoption as it empowers enterprises to get fruitful insights into their business and the industry. However, many businesses are not able to invest upfront in analytics. They can use Analytics-as-a-Service (AaaS), outlines Kaushal Mody, Global Director for Delivery Excellence & Innovation at Accenture Operations. Excerpts of the interview:

How does Analytics-as-a-Service play a vital role in changing business outcomes? Is it more beneficial for mid or large enterprises?

Kaushal Mody

Accenture believes that every business is a digital business. Digital is fundamentally changing the way organizations operate—from how they interact with customers, citizens and suppliers; to how they manage their employees; to how they differentiate themselves in the market; and to how they grow their business, become more profitable and expand their footprint. Analytics is the fuel in the digital world.

Accenture helps clients identify analytics to drive outcomes that matter; employ the right analytical tools and models to support outcomes and embed them into its clients’ operating models; develop advanced analytics capabilities; and build the right analytic talent, skills and acumen. We are building on our history of innovation in information management and transformative outsourcing, with a global network of analytical talent and innovation centers.

Accenture includes business-outcome-led analytics apps in every outsourcing offering and are rapidly enhancing predictive and prescriptive capabilities. We are embedding big data capabilities into all of our offerings, helping clients garner valuable insight and intelligence from data to achieve better business outcomes.

Analytics-as-a-Service is being considered as an important element for various industries. Does it completely eliminate the need for on-premise analytics?

Large enterprises use analytics to drive insights across functional areas - marketing, supply chain, procurement, HR, customer care and so on.

As compared to traditional analytics delivery methods, Analytics-as-a-Service is typically delivered in a centralized off-premise mode with customers benefiting through:

Analytics based on deep industry and domain knowledge

Access to best-in-class technology

Converting their Capex into Opex,

Rapid provisioning

Global 24x7 support

Clients tend to prioritize areas where they need Analytics-as-a-Service services – both in terms of breath and depth of services – based on multiple considerations such as client priorities, availability of data, regulatory issues such as data privacy laws, commercial considerations, and so on.

That said, if so required by customers, Analytics-as-a-Service can be provided in on-premise mode.

What are Accenture’s offerings to its customers in Analytics as-a-Service?

The Accenture Analytics Offering Framework highlights the company’s core capabilities of Information & Analytics Strategy, Advanced Analytics and Information Management. All offerings encompass these capabilities, essential to delivering a successful end-to-end solution to our clients. Offerings include differentiated assets and solutions that can be delivered as-a-service via the Accenture Insights Platform. We embed big data capabilities into all our offerings, helping clients garner real insight and intelligence from data to achieve better business outcomes. Offerings are tailored by industry, and Accenture’s professionals are aligned by industry and function as this depth is required to deliver solutions and services that are contextually relevant.

In line with the above Accenture Analytics Offering Framework, Accenture’s Analytics as-a-Service provides the following enterprise wide functional offerings:

Corporate Functions Analytics—Finance and Accounting: Helps clients optimize working capital, improve cash collection and discount capture and reduces invoice disputes. It empowers decision makers through a blend of analytics, industry expertise, technology and process capabilities in multiple areas.

Corporate Functions Analytics—Human Capital Analytics: Helps clients improve talent sourcing, increase engagement and reduce employee attrition.

Corporate Functions Analytics—Customer Care Analytics: Helps improve customer experience and retention, drive digital adoption, reduce cost and streamline customer care operations. We embed our offerings with Customer Care function specific assets.

Infrastructure Analytics: Helps clients diagnose issues, predict failures and optimize delivery, lowering costs and increasing customer satisfaction.

Customer and Marketing Analytics: Helps clients acquire and retain customers, improve return on campaigns, increase content effectiveness and optimize cross-channel sales and pricing.

Operations Analytics—Supply Chain and Procurement: Helps clients identify, mitigate and manage supply chain risks, enhance service levels, improve category management and save costs by leveraging analytics to make better decisions across planning, procurement, logistics, distribution and service. We embed our offerings with Supply Chain function specific assets.

Accelerated Research and Development Analytics: Helps reduce cost and duration of trials and improves regulatory compliance during drug development by Life Sciences clients. We embed our offerings with Accelerated R&D-specific assets.

Advanced analytics

Accenture continues to strengthen its advanced analytics offerings by developing new predictive and prescriptive analytics solutions. Our focus is on building powerful behavioral models that look at entities from multiple contexts—account, customer, vendor and intellectual property—to accurately estimate and predict anomalous or risky behavior in procurement, finance and accounting, infrastructure and security. Results are delivered in real time or near-real-time, allowing corrective actions to be taken before it’s too late, thus increasing value. Advanced analytics is embedded into analytics solutions for business functions as well as for industries. Also, advanced analytics is core to most of the apps on the Accenture Insights Platform.

Information management

Accenture’s Information Management offerings focus on design, build and run solutions to help clients with data collection, management, integration and information consumption, which is the foundation on which Accenture’s analytics business is built. Accenture delivers value on an extensive range of information management services, from complex development and delivery programs to large-scale technical upgrades, where analytics underpins business change and improvement.

 Could you share a successful case study where Accenture has successfully deployed their Analytics-as-a- Service offerings?

A North American retailer was experiencing softness in sales and loss of market share over several years. The retailer engaged with Accenture to set up a loyalty platform and focus on customer centric marketing strategy. The challenge was to develop an integrated analytics platform utilizing customer-loyalty data to identify and communicate with top and potential shoppers, to drive retention and growth through personalization, and increase promotional efficiency. Accenture set up loyalty platform and used analytics to provide tailor-made offers to shoppers and executed a customer centric campaign strategy. The pilot resulted in total store sales growth by 2% and retention by 9% through proactive identification of shoppers at risk, and a 30% lift on sales of products on promotion using personalized offers.

Can you name some of your customers who are using Analytics As-a-Service?

Accenture builds trust-based and enduring relationships at the C-suite level with many of the world’s leading companies—the Global 2000—and major governments. Accenture Analytics for example serves 70 of the Fortune Global 100 companies; our clients span all industries around the world. Our industry experience is best in class – we have expertise in more than 40 industries across 13 industry groups.

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