Accelerators have emerged as an increasingly important part of a service provider’s kit as digital transformation and IT modernization customers demand faster turnaround on projects.
A widely used industry term, accelerators are tools for speeding up technology adoption, often within a specific vertical market. Their prominence is a sign of the times. Accelerated digital change took root during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the need to digitalize suddenly became urgent. The pace associated with change, however , hasn’t slowed. As a result, partners look to augment their offerings with intellectual property (IP) that speeds up the particular task of reshaping business processes and deploying cloud services plus emerging technologies.
Recent developments have highlighted the role of various types of accelerators:
- Deloitte this week cited its proprietary industry accelerators as part of its new Oracle MyCloud ERP offering. The particular consulting firm aims to help customers rapidly adopt the Oracle Cloud platform and boost company transformation.
- Accenture said its electronic twin project with confectioner Mars, announced Oct. 4, makes use of the particular consultancy’s “propriety edge accelerators. ” The initiative seeks to modernize Mars’ manufacturing operations with a combination associated with AI, cloud and edge as well as digital twin technology. The initiative builds upon an ongoing collaboration between Microsoft and Accenture .
- Accelerator technology propels Orium , a composable commerce consultancy that rebranded last month following an $11 million investment from Tercera , a firm that will takes minority stakes in cloud professional services companies. Eighty percent of Orium’s customers make use of the Toronto-based company’s Composable. com Gas, which lets organizations create custom e-commerce applications through multiple components.
Keeping pace with modification
The rise of accelerators is all about keeping up with the speed of alteration .
“Digital transformation programs are yet to slow down, ” stated Boz Hristov, professional services principal analyst at Technology Business Research, Inc., a market research company based within Hampton, N. H. “The promise of cloud in order to lower total cost associated with ownership is now being accelerated in terms of the benefits AI and automation provide. ”
Those benefits support buyers’ cost optimization efforts, boost customer experience and advance digital change for better programs, he added.
Chris Barbin, CEO and founder of Tercera, suggested that accelerators aren’t necessarily new but the impetus with regard to building them has recently grown. “Services companies have been building out accelerators and IP for years. But the need for speed plus automation to lower costs and drive scale in today’s economy is pushing greater focus to reusable IP. ”
The need to push the tempo has intensified as enterprises pursue electronic transformation programs in parallel. During a September earnings call, Julie Sweet, CEO at Accenture, mentioned nearly 70% from the CFOs the company surveyed reported having three or more shift programs underway or soon to launch.
“Compressed transformation is absolutely critical, inch said Lan Guan, global lead of Accenture Impair First data and AI. “[Clients] need to execute bold programs in accelerated timeframes and now with multiple transformations occurring simultaneously across different business units. ”
The particular rapid compression of improvement timelines comes amid “a new sense of urgency to optimize cost plus risk on one hand and modernize, digitize and innovate in scale on the other, inches she said.
Technical advancements in information management plus AI make it possible to shrink the timelines, according in order to Guan. Accenture combines pre-built data and AI solutions accelerators along with its business expertise to speed up time to value. For example , the pre-built computer vision accelerator, coupled with manufacturing-sector knowledge, could help customers recognize the potential risk associated with defects in equipment. Such offerings can be reused throughout clients with similar needs.
“We don’t need to reinvent the particular wheel, ” Guan stated.
Types of accelerators — buyer beware
The term “accelerator” can describe different types of equipment from one service provider to another.
“We see IP plus accelerators that will run the gamut between tools used to differentiate in sales cycles to packaged pre-integrations that can save hundreds of hours within delivery in order to full productized solutions that are licensed, supported and maintained, ” Barbin said.
Not all accelerators are created equal, this individual cautioned, noting that support providers’ IP varies in sophistication.
“When everyone will be touting their own IP, it becomes hard to tell what’s real and what’s marketing, ” he or she said. “This puts the particular onus around the firm to prove the IP’s worth and show that it can make a difference. inch
Assessing a tool’s resourcing plus support provides a way to evaluate IP. “If there isn’t a budget or dedicated resources around a solution — and it’s being developed or supported in the particular cracks by billable consultants when they possess some free time — this falls lower on the maturity curve, ” Barbin said. “If a services company is usually spending 3% to 5% of revenue dedicated to IP, that is a material amount regarding a solutions company. inches
Investment within accelerators — at whatever level — looks set to continue among service providers dealing with the particular quickening speed of transform and the drive for both cost efficiency and digital innovation .
“We do not anticipate that these trends will slow down or even be resolved any time soon, especially as many buyers are just starting to invest inside their electronic transformation plans, ” Hristov said.
