‘Accenture’s large deals at historic high due to cloud, data offerings’

Synopsis Karthik Narain, designate group chief executive of technology at Accenture, said cloud and data analytics are some of the offerings that are getting “bundled” into the bookings as companies are trying new operating models and pricing models. ETtech Karthik Narain, designate group chief executive of technology at Accenture Global IT bellwether and consulting giant Accenture is witnessing a “historic high” in terms of deal bookings as the clients are seeking cloud-offerings, data and analytics and also experimenting new operating models, according to a top executive. “We are seeing a historic high in our deal bookings.

. . so far, in financial year 2023 (three quarters), globally, Accenture had 85 clients with bookings greater than $100 million, which is 11 more than at same time last year,” said Karthik Narain, designate group chief executive of technology at Accenture.

Narain, who will assume the new role with effect from September 1, said cloud and data analytics are some of the offerings that are getting “bundled” into the bookings as companies are trying new operating models and pricing models. “We are not seeing a lot of customers trying to do cost-saving based on the traditional mechanics, which used to be labour arbitrage. .

. clients want a cloud-based environment. My application developers can just push it to my data centre or private cloud in the same manner, so that I can do things faster and I don’t need to worry about ageing infrastructure,” he told ET in an exclusive interaction.

Accenture also said some large clients are “worried” about the competition from new digital startups because they are fast, modern and agile. “They (startups) have been in the business for a few months and I’ve (larger clients) been in the business for years. What I have that they don’t have is years of my client data and my (own) organisational operating information but I’m unable to use it.

So unlock the data from all these trapped functional silos, apply intelligence and insights using artificial intelligence (AI),” Narain said. This comes as over the past few weeks, most Indian IT majors are also winning mega deals from clients and taking over the captive centres in India or abroad as clients want to cut costs or focus on core-business areas. Earlier this month, India’s second-largest IT company Infosys announced a five-year mega deal win with Europe-based telecom and communications group Liberty Global that has been valued at €1.

5 billion (or ~$1. 64 billion) for the initial engagement period. It results in total contract value climbing to €2.

3 billion (or ~$2. 5 billion) if the contract is extended to eight years, making it the largest deal win for the company in three years. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories Also, Verizon Business made HCLTech its primary managed network services collaborator in all networking deployments for global enterprise customers.

The deal value has an estimated new TCV of $2. 1 billion for six years. This is the largest ever deal for the company after the $1.

3 billion Xerox renewal deal in 2019. “Gen AI is different” Accenture said generative AI is much different from the other technology buzzes seen in the previous few years like metaverse, blockchain or crypto as the former doesn’t need net new changes in infrastructure or hardware. Narain said generative AI is a “step change” in terms of technology because large language models (LLMs) have mastered languages and they can learn once and apply that to perform a lot of activities.

“Generative AI created mastery in language as it is extremely complex because of the vastness of vocabulary and grammar and also understanding the meaning, context, sentiment and emotion of it. Also, the way large language models work is you can learn once to perform a lot of activities. Since these two things, it (generative AI) can be applied in today’s business and you don’t need brand new infrastructure,” he said.

Accenture Plc has bagged $100 million worth of deals in generative AI themes over the past four months, the company said during its third quarter analyst call in June. He also said the company is building generative AI training frameworks that will be applied to Accenture’s India-based GenAI Academy. This academy will train employees globally for existing and emerging roles on how to use generative AI to augment work and how to use it responsibly.

Accenture’s Advanced Technology Centers in India (ATCI), which comes under the purview of his new role, acts as skill hubs and are “vital” to the delivery of Accenture’s generative AI work globally. Don’t miss out on ET Prime stories! Get your daily dose of business updates on WhatsApp. click here! Print Edition Monday, 28 Aug, 2023 Experience Your Economic Times Newspaper, The Digital Way! Read Complete Print Edition » Front Page Pure Politics Companies & Economy Disruption Learn more about our print edition More Ecomm, FMCG Demand for EVs in Superfast Lane Demand for electric vehicles (EVs) by ecommerce companies and consumer goods makers of daily essentials has doubled from last year as they look to save costs by over half and meet carbon emission reduction targets, executives said.

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In an interview to Surabhi Agarwal & Bodhisatva Ganguli, Smith, the second-ranking executive (after chairman and CEO Satya Nadella), called artificial intelligence the greatest advancement for human thinking since the invention of the printing press. Read More News on Accenture cloud offerings data analytics liberty global verizon business infosys Stay on top of technology and startup news that matters. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for the latest and must-read tech news, delivered straight to your inbox.

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