Accenture Technology Vision 2012

Accenture
Technology
Vision
2012

Contents
Foreword 2
Introduction 3
Technology Trends
Context-based services 4
Converging data architectures 10
Industrialized data services 16
Social-driven IT 23
PaaS-enabled agility 29
Orchestrated analytical security 36
Implications
The CEO’s agenda 43
IT’s agenda 45
Research methodology 48
End notes 49
Contacts 50

Foreword Accenture Technology Vision 2012

We bring the Accenture Technology Vision 2012 to you at a
time of unprecedented change in the global economy and the
technology landscape. Our clients tell us that technology is
more important than ever to their business success. Some of
them sense that the world is on the verge of a new technology
revolution. We agree.
This next revolution will differ from previous It is time to focus on technology as a driver for
disruptions. This time, technology is present growth and take the bold decisions to move
in every aspect of our lives. The lines between beyond IT’s legacy constraints—constraints
consumer and corporate technology continue to that make it too difficult to change, too
blur. On-premise and off-premise technology are costly to pursue new opportunities.
melding to drive much quicker processing—and
The coming transformation journey—changing Pierre Nanterme Kevin Campbell
faster and better business results. The flexibility
IT from roadblock to driver—won’t be easy. It Chief Executive Officer Group Chief Executive - Technology
of new technologies and architectures is forcing
will call for a comprehensive strategy that leads Accenture Accenture
us all to rethink how we harness IT to make
it easier for our organizations to innovate. to new architectures, new services, and new
platforms. And it will demand prompt, disciplined
The Accenture Technology Vision 2012 is execution to bring those new approaches to life.
designed to help you identify these changes—to
make sense of the disruptions. But this year’s The technology that you use will be radically
report challenges companies to go a step different three years from now. Stand still and
beyond understanding—to start taking action. you risk being left behind. Act now and you will
We urge you to plan thoughtful, appropriate be poised for continued growth in the future.
responses and seize new opportunities.

2

Introduction Accenture Technology Vision 2012

Responding to what’s ahead

Some drivers have an advantage over other CIOs are feeling the pressure of a bevy Increasingly, business leaders find that their Doing so means starting this journey together
motorists: they can see around corners of technology forces—forces like the organizations’ success relies on keeping pace with the business. It demands detailed
at night. With adaptive headlights in their superabundance of computing power with rapidly shifting technology. Companies discussions with the rest of the C-suite. It will
cars—lamps that swivel a few degrees when and capacity and the soaring technology must be prepared to recognize and take call for CIOs to internalize these trends so
they detect that the car is turning—these expectations of consumers, employees, and advantage of new opportunities enabled by they can start framing these discussions—not
drivers can spot the deer in the road a even CEOs. Discussions on the impact of cloud new trends, like context-based services or talking about the technologies themselves
few milliseconds before the rest of us. computing and mobility have become routine. social technologies. But the new moves will but about the impact they will have on the
IT organizations are just beginning to wrap their come at a price. To change with the world business, and the new initiatives they can drive.
To take prompt action, every CIO requires the minds around Big Data. They’re pushing to weave quickly and cost-effectively, there must be a
information equivalent of adaptive headlights— analytics deeper into the organization. And new IT base—new architectures, new services, Some of you are already leading those
the ability to identify relevant trends before some are asking themselves what to make of the new platforms. And with a new IT base come conversations with your business colleagues—
others do. Indeed, they and their business perennial discussion of the Internet of Things. new risks and new precautions, so information and with your IT staff. For those who aren’t,
colleagues need the clearest possible guidance security has to become a top agenda item. are you ready?
about changes in information technologies. Yet even as CIOs begin to react, the list of
With the right guidance, they can effectively change-making technologies continues to IT leaders must take action now. They must be
lead their organizations as they adapt to grow. Recognizing that forces such as the cloud the ones who lead their enterprises through
the rapidly changing world we live in. are just the starting point, Accenture’s annual this turbulent new world. Inside 100 days
Technology Vision provides our perspective of reading this report, they should have
on the future of technology beyond the begun to map out their strategies to leverage
conversations already on the table. This year’s these trends over the long haul. Within 12
report—Technology Vision 2012—outlines the months, they should be starting to execute
new technology trends that forward-thinking these plans to put their enterprises on the
CIOs will use to position their organizations path to new organizations, new processes,
to drive growth, rather than focusing on new systems—even a new frame of mind.
cost-cutting and efficiency improvements.

3

Context-based services
Context—where you are and what you’re doing—
will drive the next wave of digital services

4

Trend 1 - Context-based services Accenture Technology Vision 2012


Forget about the much-discussed Internet of Things. The really
interesting news is that data from a host of new sources,
combined with technologies that rapidly aggregate and analyze
the data, will deliver fresh insights that can give users much more
immersive and valuable experiences online—and in the real world.
Services that alert you to the nearest Starbucks mile radius or what route to walk from this meet the renter at the scene, greatly improving
or gas station just aren’t enough for users these subway stop to that unfamiliar office building. the chances of creating a loyal customer for life).
days. Those services don’t “know” you; they
Today, we have ready access to enough historical CIOs and other IT leaders who get it—who
don’t know what you’re trying to do right now.
and real-time data and we know enough about grasp the importance of context-based
What can still attract users? Services that what is happening in enough places to be able to connections—will be able to establish
combine real-time signals from the physical offer services that are enabling and entertaining. themselves, and their organizations, as strategic
world with location data, online activities, social More data, by itself, isn’t enough—technology players. They will immediately be able to offer
media, and many other types of contextual now enables rapid aggregation of data from new levels of insight that will differentiate
inputs. It might be support for a pharmaceutical multiple sources and delivers new insights their organizations from competitors.
sales rep tailored to the context of the doctors that can give users much more immersive and
she will be meeting and the drugs she’s selling. It valuable experiences. The key—beyond the What context-based services aren’t
could be data made available to a technician at proliferation of data and the ability to analyze
It’s important to deflect any misconceptions
an oil refinery, customized to the equipment he’s it every which way—is to ensure that context
about context-based data services. To begin
servicing and what its downtime history looks enables the services that make sense right
with, they are not about “really cool” mobile
like. Or it might be a shopping app that gives a at the point where an action takes place. In
phone handsets—regardless of how much their
customer fast access to more information about effect, context allows organizations to shift
new apps may impress. Although devices such as
a new jacket whose quick response (QR) code their focus from insight (for example, business
mobiles are indeed essential vehicles for some of
she’s scanned in the store; tells her how far she travelers place a premium on the ease and
those services, that is all they are. Mobility is just
is from stores that carry other sizes of the jacket; speed of interaction when choosing rental car
one of many factors that help to convey context.
alerts her to her available credit balance; and companies) to actionable insight (streamlining
gets instant opinions, via Facebook, from her the car rental process allows frequent renters Nor are context-based services all about the
friends about whether they like the jacket or not. to avoid lines, thus increasing customer loyalty) cloud. It’s true that connected devices—mobile
to insight at the point of action (for instance, and otherwise—will exchange data with cloud-
The new high ground for data services is not in
the rental company automatically detects when based service providers, but the cloud is nothing
location-based apps. It is in a kaleidoscope of
an accident with one of its cars has happened, more than a logical data-aggregation point.
context that adds up to rich user experiences—
proactively initiates emergency services if Similarly, “context-based” is not synonymous
far more alluring than simple indications of
needed, and issues a replacement rental car to with “location-based.” The importance of being
how many friends are inside the same one-

6


able to integrate data from the physical world
beyond location—inputs from QR codes are only
The next few years are likely to see an expansion
in the volumes and types of sensors available
the retailer and the original producer but for
others in the shopper’s social network as well. What it means for
one example—must not be underestimated. And
context is not just another example of social
to add context. The industrial world already
benefits from radio frequency ID (RFID) systems Given richer context—access to the shopper’s
interests, shopping history, or age, perhaps—
the business
media, although social certainly adds context in which RFID-tagged items supply contextual
such as shared interests or opinions. It’s in data about their locations, time, temperature, providers will offer services that better align • New products and services based on
the aggregation of all of these things that we and much more. Now we anticipate a rush with his needs and wants. Indeed, we expect context from inside and outside of the
truly see the power of context-based services. of specialty devices that will excel in niche that products, services, retailers, and enterprises enterprise
They create an experience that adds levels of areas—health monitors that test for blood will be differentiated based on their ability
utility and richness—and yes, complexity—that sugar levels, for instance, or wristbands that to meet users’ requirements in this way. • New contextual data services that
were not possible even just a few years ago. transmit signals about a patient’s activity The power of context will enrich not only online enable companies to more easily add
levels to mobile-linked health care systems interactions but real-world ones as well. Today, capabilities to their existing products
Context-based services that that add context about family health history online shopping experiences have surpassed
transcend mobile apps to enable patients to improve their own health what is usually available in the physical world; • New capabilities to experiment with
care. Apple’s latest iPhone, for instance, it is possible to view different colors, styles, new services and iterate quickly based
Context-based services have existed in contains Bluetooth Smart technology—a on pilots
sizes, and availability of merchandise; to put
rudimentary forms for some time; to an extent, new standard that supports connections to shopping carts on hold; to pay in many different
they are evident in the Internet of Things—for sensors that consume very little power. ways; to redeem coupons easily; and more. The
instance, in the real-time readings on pace
next few years will see a push toward merging
and time that marathon runners receive from The power of context the physical and virtual shopping experiences.
a transmitter tag laced to a shoe. They are
One other source of context is in what is Blippar, for example, offers augmented reality
also apparent in the recommendation engines
shared—which is where blogs, chat rooms, capabilities that allow retailers to experiment
used by sites such as Amazon, Netflix, and
message boards, social media, product with doing just that today. And Shopkick
LinkedIn. Recommendation software not
reviews, and the countless other wells of enriches the in-store shopping experience with
only keeps track of your personalized history
online data come in. We can detect or infer personalized offers, highlights products that
and uses it to infer interests; today, it can
certain information about others based on our others have liked, and rewards customers for
produce suggestions based on what others
interactions with them or, even more simply, walking into selected stores. The reward for
in your social circle or professional group
we can give them the opportunity to share walking in is just the bait; the context piece
are doing. For instance, if other users in your
it themselves. It turns out that users readily comes from location (knowing you’re in the
network are reading a popular business book,
share meaningful personal context; they just store), understanding interests and intent
a site may propose that you purchase it,
need to have a compelling reason to do so. (scanning an item you’re thinking about), and
too—and provide a one-click link to do so.
social connections (knowing what others liked).
And of course many phones—they do not So when a retailer provides QR codes in its
stores, it enables the shopper to access new The emergence of more context-based
even have to fit the definition of Web-
and valuable sources of information about a services will have a compounding— those
ready smartphones that access vast stores
product or service. Because this is something the new services themselves provide additional
of apps—have location-sensing capabilities
consumer wasn’t able to do before—or wasn’t sources of context. The expanding richness
that provide their users with useful
able to do with such ease and reliability—he is of context will be a fast-moving capability
proximity data, route planning, and more.
willing to trade some personal data in exchange. that enterprises will need to watch.
That data in turn becomes valuable not only for
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This time next year “CIOs and other IT leaders who get it—who
Over the next 12 months, the IT grasp the importance of context-based
organization should:
connections—will be able to establish
• Create strong links with business
functions that directly influence the themselves, and their organizations, as
consumer experience.
strategic players. They will immediately
• Compile a firm list of context-based
services that is regularly updated be able to offer new levels of insight that
as circumstances change—and that
forms the basis of discussion with will differentiate their organizations from
the business side in order to drive
the platform for context across the competitors.”
enterprise.
What’s possible they use. The banks benefit because they can
• Form a pilot team that blends user reduce the considerable costs of confirming a
experience specialists with data Several interesting examples show how customer’s location abroad and reimbursing for
scientists to experiment with new context-based services may unfold. The any fraudulent withdrawals from an account.2
contextual data services. service from a company called Reach.ly scans
Twitter accounts in search of mentions of However, it is still early days for context-based
• Establish an environment that enables planned trips; with the information it gleans, services. Current services barely scratch the
experimentation—rapid development, it enables hotels to contact travelers who surface of what’s truly possible. Although
planning, and deployment. have indicated that they are heading to their many of the technology challenges are being
vicinity. In another case, several mobile phone overcome, and although contextual data and
• Begin developing a data platform to services providers are experimenting with the means to synthesize it have reached critical
handle contextual data and analytics, technology that automatically deactivates mass, other hurdles remain. For instance, privacy
including appropriate privacy controls phones while their owners are driving.1 issues are likely to make headlines soon as
on potentially sensitive personal privacy watchdogs jump in to defend against
information. And Misys, a provider of IT solutions for the unauthorized tracking of citizens or consumers.
financial services sector, is working to combat In the United States, consumer advocacy groups
• Develop a data roadmap to depict how bank fraud with GeoGuard, its new consumer are particularly vocal about such issues.
to acquire the critical data necessary location-based offering running on the Force.
for the next generation of context- com platform. GeoGuard collates geographic The skills needed to deliver context
based services. information and enables customers to allow
their banks to request their most recent So what will it take for IT departments to help
location information, regardless of the services their organizations deliver rich context-based

8


experiences to their customers? Context-based
services should be limited only by the creativity
Context-based services require very different
thinking from IT leaders. They call for a Your 100-day plan
of the business, not by IT’s ability to deliver. much broader and more dynamic view of the
possibilities for adding value for the business, Suggested actions to take during the next
It should go without saying that skills in user and they demand different skills and stronger three months:
interface design will be high on the list. At links within the enterprise than has been
the same time, it will be beneficial to have typical to date. But those who grasp the • Identify ways to drive the discussion
expertise in the design of high-quality customer importance of these connections will quickly toward the value of context; launch
experiences, whether you’re a retailer, a utility, or establish themselves as strategic players. discussions of new context-driven
a product manufacturer. One individual should opportunities with the business side.
be charged with the responsibility of overseeing
customer interactions across all channels. • Start thinking in terms of multiple
For example, the Washington Post publishing channels and following the mix of
company recently appointed a chief experience interactions that they enable (Web
officer, as did Cleveland Clinic some years ago. page to Facebook to retail to mobile...).
Also needed: strong management discipline
• Start cataloging the contextual data
to get the best results from a mix of IT
on hand.
traditionalists and creative user-experience
types. Orchestration skills will be essential
• Start identifying new sources of data
for helping to handle the complex array of
and determining how to acquire it
internal systems, not to mention the vendors
(sometimes it must be bought, and
now populating the data services market,
sometimes new mechanisms will be
where some forms of context will originate.
needed to collect it in current systems).
Because new sources of context are constantly
popping up—and because there are always new • Sketch out the user experience skills
use cases, new services, new players, and new needed to pilot context-based services.
customer needs—context-based services will also
call for skills that encourage experimentation. • Plan an environment for
And they’ll require real flexibility and fast- experimentation.
paced ways of working because context that is
constantly in flux will lead to a need for agile • Draft ideas for how to leverage the
services that change as quickly as users do. IT technology that customers bring with
practitioners who are geared to traditional IT them.
cycle times will not be prime candidates for
the new roles needed; they’re unlikely to have
what it takes to get the best from the new
world of context and from an ever-changing
mix of widely distributed contextual data.

9

Converging data architectures
It’s not about the “big” in Big Data—data
architectures must bridge the old and the new

10

Trend 2 - Converging data architectures Accenture Technology Vision 2012


Old approaches to data survive because structured forms of
data make IT leaders feel they’re in control. But new approaches
to managing unstructured data provide a whole new notion
of control—the ability to turn data into new streams of value.
Successfully rebalancing the data architecture portfolio and
blending the structured with the unstructured are key to
unlocking that value.
In 2011, even a casual reading of the technology the status quo facing off against a maverick Three changes that matter
media indicated that big changes were starting camp that is enthusiastically—perhaps over-
to sweep through the IT department—whether enthusiastically—seeing unstructured approaches There are three fundamental data architecture
IT leaders recognized it or not. Big Data—the to data as a panacea for all that ails IT today. technology changes that, individually and
catchall term for the explosion in volumes and collectively, have significant implications for
types of data and the technologies emerging to Neither stance is appropriate. Yes, what’s IT leaders. We foresee a rebalancing of the
support it—was already making big headlines. emerging is a new world of horizontally scaling, database landscape as data architects embrace
Conference speeches and trade press articles had unstructured databases that are better at the fact that relational databases are no longer
begun the conversation about the importance solving some old problems. More importantly, the only tool in the toolkit. We anticipate
of distributed data and the idea of data as a they’re prompting us to think of new problems “bridge technologies” that will mix old and new
service. New technologies such as Apache to solve whose resolution was never attempted database forms. And we fully expect advances
Hadoop—a software framework that supports before, because it just couldn’t be done. (Don’t from the new to re-invigorate the old. In short,
data-intensive distributed applications— misunderstand the “big” in Big Data—for most we expect tomorrow’s conversations about
were already gathering momentum. In our enterprises it’s not about finding ways to handle data architectures to center on rebalancing,
Technology Vision 2011 report, we pointed out massive amounts of Facebook or e-mail data.) coexistence, and cross-pollination.
that companies needed to start conceiving of But that does not imply “rip and replace”; in no
way does it render traditional databases obsolete. IT leaders should be evaluating their data
data platforms in ways that better encompass
The truth is that now that we have technologies portfolios for opportunities to rebalance the
the idea of data as the strategic IT asset.
that can deal with different types of data, there use of relational and nonrelational databases.
Some enterprises are experimenting with data is enormous value in maximizing the value of Today’s data architects now have more choices
platform approaches, but it hasn’t been easy. In the data in existing systems—in hybridizing for solving unstructured data problems than
fact, there has been something of a polarization, it with many forms of unstructured data. simply jury-rigging relational databases to
with many of those steeped in traditional do so. Where today the data landscape is
relational database approaches defending almost entirely relational, we expect that

12


landscape to change significantly. Over the next
decade, the proportion that is nonrelational
pollination is already happening at the vendor
level. Nonrelational databases were the first to
development for several decades. Approaches
to structuring information, gathering data What it means for
will rise. It has been estimated that between
15 percent and 40 percent of all relational
integrate horizontal scaling technologies into
the core; now relational databases are starting
requirements, storing data, and even solving
data problems are driven by a view of the the business
database management systems (RDBMS) to do the same. There is no shortage of start-up world adopted from structured design
implementations would be better suited to activity in the arena, meaning that investment approaches and the trusty relational database. • Potential advantage for small and
nonrelational platforms.3 But that shift does capital is betting on cross-pollination; midsize competitors since they lack
not imply that relational is somehow inferior. newcomers include Xeround, Scalr, Akiban, and This structured view of the world is entrenched the “anchor” of heavy investments in
IT leaders will need to make their choices Schooner. As these technologies reach maturity, in organizations. Many CIOs still think of legacy systems
based not on ideology but on the forms of enterprises should re-evaluate their readiness themselves not as the stewards of data but as
data they are using and for what purposes. to tackle more complex data problems. the data “owners.” And to a worrying extent, • More accurate and more usable
many senior IT managers remain convinced business projections through the
The worlds of structured and unstructured data Established vendors don’t plan to be left out that all forms of data can still be dealt with expanded use of probabilistic data,
are rapidly converging. Leading IT practitioners of the new world. Just a few glimpses: Oracle using conventional relational databases, so enabled by new data platforms
must find ways to constructively manage has marched into the unstructured world by they are unwilling to try other options. In
the convergence and enable all forms of data announcing its Hadoop-framework-based Big many cases, the resistance is passive: stay the • IT moves from blocker to enabler,
management to coexist, sometimes using Data Appliance. IBM has built a new version present course, ignore Big Data, and it will improving the leverage of all available
bridge technologies. That’s the case at one large of InfoSphere BigInsights for its smart cloud go away. In other cases, the pushback is that data, both external and internal to the
high-tech company that is using Hadoop to infrastructure that uses Hadoop to analyze the new technologies are “toy technologies”— organization
process and import data into traditional systems structured and unstructured data. And not considered “enterprise grade.” In effect,
in ways that wouldn’t be possible with just Microsoft recently announced plans to deliver the traditional relational database has been • Faster responses to queries, and more
the RDBMS approach. In essence, the Hadoop enterprise-class Hadoop-based distributions misused for decades because it has been frequent and increasingly customized
framework becomes a preprocessing engine on both Windows Server and Windows Azure. seen as the only tool in the toolbox—and iterations on those queries
for analyzing raw data to extract important The shifts in vendors’ thinking are also seen because IT departments haven’t had the
events before feeding the other systems. It in consolidation moves as established players vision and skills to use it in any other way. See also “What it means for the business” in
is abstracted and integrated with existing acknowledge that they must move into these Industrialized data services.
reporting in such a way that it minimizes new realms. For example, Teradata acquired Aster Yet we’re seeing the rapid rise of another group—
the impact on the rest of the enterprise. Data Systems, a leader in Big Data analytics. The the iconoclasts who are scraping unstructured
acquisition was designed to expand Teradata’s data off Web sites, wikis, and Twitter feeds in
Over the long term, the high-performing portfolio and bring businesses greater depth order to find insights that can help them discover
organizations will be those whose IT groups of analytic insight and faster time to value as new customer segments, identify new product
recognize the need for coexistence and they unlock the full potential of their Big Data. directions, and more. These individuals are very
effectively marry the two worlds to get the most much in touch with the Web-scale companies
from their data. IT leaders must still be realistic What’s complicating change that are already big names in the consumer
about the limits of what can be achieved via realm—companies such as Google, Amazon,
bridge technologies, sometimes waiting instead Unfortunately, old IT habits die hard. Facebook, and Twitter. They are often plugged
for the next generation of data technologies Legacy thinking prevails. Existing views into the open-source movement and to the
where cross-pollination between the structured of data architecture are a product of the academic and other research communities that
and unstructured worlds will fill gaps. This cross- application lens that’s been applied to system surround these Web-scale companies. For them,

13


This time next year the unstructured data milieu is something rich
and new and fun and cool that they want to play
certainly have to evaluate and implement
bridge technologies. For instance, Aster
with—and that can deliver real business results. Data’s SQL-MapReduce helps IT departments
Over the next 12 months, the IT deal with their lack of skills in nontraditional
organization should: At JPMorgan Chase, for example, many lines database management until they have built up
of business now use a Hadoop shared service that capability. Bridge technologies leverage
• Run data platform trials that leverage for jobs ranging from extract, transform, and existing investments; they will not immediately
structured and unstructured data—with load (ETL) processing and fraud investigation to disrupt existing IT operations and are unlikely
data in the platform and in use by one or social media sentiment analysis.4 The service also to unsettle the relational database adherents.
more business processes. provides low-cost storage for varied types of Deeper conversations with the software
data; for instance, it stores traditional financial vendor community can help to accelerate
records and semi-structured Web logs as well as
• Create a list of other business the introduction of bridge technologies.
unstructured text and social comment feeds.
processes that can begin to leverage
We expect that the rebalancing will happen
data in the platform. Oil and gas companies are using SAP’s HANA as a slow evolution as IT departments
in-memory appliance to review massive amounts retire applications and start to replatform
• Create a tangible, funded roadmap, of their raw exploration data. Utilities are using in the cloud, on mobile devices, and using
subsequent to successful trials, to it to analyze large volumes of data from smart bridge approaches. Rebalancing is likely to
expand replatforming to a growing meters and to optimize energy generation achieve strong momentum where there are
amount of data and other business based on predictive patterns of consumption.5 the most gains to be made—in customer-
activities.
To a large extent, the maverick groups that are facing business processes, for example.

• Appoint a top-level executive who is quite comfortable with all things Web scale Forward-thinking CIOs will make strong
responsible for an overarching data- are working in fields such as marketing, new business cases for new investments in select
centric perspective—perhaps even product development, and customer relations, systems to accelerate the retirement of existing
appoint a chief data officer. but as they derive new data and new scraps of software. They will need to identify “burning
insight, they are increasingly recognizing the platforms” that they can use as spurs for
• Create a recruiting pipeline for data need to work with IT to get actionable outputs their new initiatives; a prime example would
specialists in areas such as alternative from what they’re producing. Forward-looking be a business process that can benefit from
database technologies and analytics. CIOs will want to hire those mavericks. being able to concurrently and rapidly access
multiple forms of data from a host of sources,
• Demonstrate a “data stewardship”
How to think about the both external and internal to the organization.
mentality rather than one of three underlying changes Over time, of course, concern about the
ownership. We predict that, increasingly, the effectiveness
balance between relational and nonrelational
will eventually become a tactical detail.
of IT leaders will be gauged by their ability to
See also “This time next year” in Industrialized
data services.
bridge the gap between the structured and Furthermore, as CIOs envision how they can
unstructured worlds. Again, the important thing foster coexistence between structured and
is that this must not be an exercise in “rip and unstructured forms of data, they will need
replace.” CIOs who are serious about enabling to resist popular notions that the Big Data
the coexistence of all forms of data will almost
14


“The rebalancing of data architectures Old approaches to data survive because
structured forms of data make IT leaders feel Your 100-day plan
will happen as a slow evolution as IT they are in control. But it’s time to reframe the
whole notion of control. It’s time to stop viewing Suggested actions to take during the next

departments retire applications and start to data as a means to an end—a platform that is
designed to support an application—and start
three months:

replatform in the cloud, on mobile devices, seeing it as an underutilized asset. CIOs cannot
stop or slow change as the fundamental trends
• Identify the “burning platforms” among
the organization’s business processes that

and using bridge approaches. It is likely to toward rebalancing, coexistence, and cross-
pollination proceed. But there is so much that
can become the vehicles for change.

achieve strong momentum where there are they can do to prepare for those changes. • Map out individuals on the business
side who are current “data owners.”

the most gains to be made—in customer- • Map available IT skills in light of

facing business processes, for example.” the need to rebalance database
approaches.

“revolution” is all about victory over SQL. Many to think in terms of reskilling. If IT groups • Draft new methodologies for data
voices push forward the idea that scale is the have professionals who know only relational design in new projects.
driving reason why relational databases won’t databases, they will perpetuate the “everything
be used in the future. But that’s not universally is a nail” problem. The IT leaders themselves • Assess where current approaches aren’t
true and not always applicable; the arguments will need to play the roles of orchestrators— meeting enterprise needs (for example,
about scale serve as a distraction from the main adept generalists who excel at managing where data integration is fragile or
issue. In practice, a lot of the conversation about disparate sources and forms of data to create where replication is unmanageable)
Big Data is not necessarily about its “bigness.” a symphony of new business possibilities. and sketch out early retirement of
Very few organizations are going to need the applications wherever needs are not
type of scale that often makes the Big Data At the same time, there will need to be
individual experts with skills in areas that being met.
headlines. So, far from rendering the relational
database obsolete, the new advances will be realistically do not exist in the traditional IT
world—for instance, specialists in alternative • Begin listing opportunities to provide
incorporated over time into the traditional
database technologies who understand which new value-added data services.
databases, extending their performance.
to use in which circumstances. IT departments
See also “Your 100-day plan” in Industrialized
New skills, new structure will probably post vacancies for specialists
data services.
with statistical and analytical skills; in general,
for IT departments there will have to be a steady rise in the
With an eye on the long term, CIOs will analytic literacy of the IT group. And as more
have to think in terms of restructuring their of these kinds of specialty skills come on
organizations. As a starting point, most board, and as they reshape the interactions
enterprises need to build better data architecture with the business side, the orchestrators
skills across the board. They will also have will become more and more influential.
15

Industrialized data services
Freedom to share data will make data more
valuable—but only if it’s managed differently

16

Trend 3 - Industrialized data services Accenture Technology Vision 2012


Now that data is being decoupled, enterprises are using it in
many different ways to unlock far more of its potential value.
They’re actively hunting for other useful data—outside their
organizations as well as inside—while keeping their eyes open
for opportunities to share their data. But most early data-
sharing activities are ad hoc. Needed next: fresh approaches to
data management.
You’ve got a problem if, several years from now, The outcome: companies are rapidly creating As things stand, most companies have some way
your IT organization is still organized chiefly patchwork quilts of data integration systems to go before they fully grasp the implications
around applications. whose sheer randomness and variety is of decoupling data and then sharing it across
leading to inefficiency and complexity the enterprise. The tendency is still to treat the
These days, data should be free to roam, and
that is unsustainable. Put simply, increased emerging opportunities as data integration
that is a very good thing. Once unshackled from
sharing of data through data services calls projects—as point solutions, not as ongoing
this or that application, it can be moved, shared
for a radical rethinking of how IT should data services. After working lifetimes spent in
with alliance partners or suppliers, divided up,
handle data management. Data management complete control of how and when their data
analyzed every which way, blended with other
shifts from being an IT capability buried is stored, accessed, archived, and destroyed, it’s
data—whatever it takes to unlock much more
within application support to a collaborative not easy for many IT managers to accept that
of its potential value. And that’s exactly what
effort of IT and business leaders working they must now collaborate with others with
some far-sighted organizations are doing now.
in tandem that enables data to be used far whom they share “ownership” of their data.
But freedom isn’t free. There are hidden costs beyond the applications that created it.
in properly valuing and managing data now Industrializing the approach
In the next few years, we believe, leading
that it can be decoupled. Most organizations’ to sharing data
organizations will master the types of data
efforts to share data broadly are ad hoc. Let’s
management necessary to strike the right Accenture’s Technology Vision 2011 report
say the marketing group is grabbing data from
balance between constraint and freedom for identified decoupling as a wide-scale trend
the customer relationship management (CRM)
their data, based on a clear-eyed view of the worth watching—and doing something about,
system so it can study recent loyalty trends.
real value of the data. They will start to think especially as it relates to data. Many enterprises
The system it sets up to capture, stage, and
in terms of industrializing the sharing of data. are starting to recognize that their data has value
store the data is probably entirely different
beyond its original purpose. More companies
from the system that the finance department
are beginning to engage in richer data sharing
creates when using the same data sets to
as analytics increases their appetite for more
calculate, say, customer retention costs.
data and drives them to better utilize existing
18


data. In the financial services sector, for instance,
enterprises are fusing customer data, finance
anchored by an agile data services architecture.
According to chief executive Jeff Bezos, the
data management. By creating an abstraction
layer between data and applications, IT has the What it means for
data, and risk data to spur development of new
products. In the process, organizations like
advances in data management developed by his
company’s engineers were the starting point
opportunity to standardize and industrialize
data management. In this model, consumption the business
these are creating, formally or informally, new for the architectures that underlie the cloud of the data is what matters, not management
data services to respond to the opportunities. storage and data management services offered of it. The path toward centralization • Broader opportunities to leverage
by Amazon Web Services.6 Amazon’s CTO, becomes easier and more cost-effective. data—both internal and external to
A virtuous cycle comes into play. The emergence
Werner Vogels, has mentioned that Amazon’s the organization—to gain insights that
of the data platform will enable organizations Interestingly, this new world of data sharing is an
loosely coupled services model enables the can enrich new product development,
to expose more data as a service, accelerating about-face for systems administrators who have
company to respond very quickly to new ideas.7 strengthen customer loyalty, and more
the trend. It is starting to break down data silos traditionally been charged with owning the data.
and hide the complexity of underlying storage As the horizontal-scaling technologies of these Under the data-sharing model, the concept of • Increased agility to respond much
and access. As a result, sharing and integration pioneers spread to mainstream business, they data ownership is no longer valid. By its nature, faster to data-driven opportunities
get easier as at least some barriers are removed. have been open-sourced, improved, and made the more data is shared, the more value the
Today, these data services are being built on an ready for the enterprise. Previously, it has been company sees. So, instead of ownership, CIOs • More accurate and more usable
as-needed basis as new use cases are discovered. necessary to “overprovision” a resource; now, must begin to think about data responsibility business projections through the
Decisions about sharing data—and the chances data services enable users to provision for today as well as data accountability. For the most expanded use of probabilistic data,
of a business process owner knowing where and expand when they need more. So, on day part, data accountability is familiar ground: enabled by new data platforms
to find useful data in the organization – are one, the sales organization doesn’t need to CIOs will still be squarely charged with laying
one-offs. How does the production manager anticipate all possible data consumers for the the groundwork for data design, governance, • New discussions of data’s value and
who needs better forecasts find the sales order tracking system and doesn’t have to invest and implementation. IT will be accountable for decisions about how to charge for its
analyst whose market research data fills in in infrastructure for users that don’t yet exist. creating a centralized mechanism for how data is use
gaps in projections? But the continued push managed throughout systems and IT processes.
toward data platforms will soon enable this A new era of data management See also “What it means for the business” in
However, things shift from the traditional Converging data architectures.
to happen at scale—“scale” not in terms of It has always been difficult to provide business when data starts flowing through the system,
accommodating colossal volumes of data but users with the data they need to make effective becoming more and more distributed throughout
in terms of industrialization, where a structured decisions. At every stage, the siloed nature of the company. Business units from all over
platform approach enables such decisions to data tied directly to applications has thwarted the enterprise will be creating, consuming,
be made over and over again consistently. IT’s efforts to manage data consistently across and sharing data with each other, making it
To a large extent, enterprises can do this the organization. Data management efforts important to focus on data responsibility. Who
because there have been dramatic advances must be duplicated for each silo, driving the is responsible for the data at each stage of its
in the technologies and capabilities used to cost up and ROI down—think North American life cycle? The shift has, essentially, resulted in
manage, process, and store data. Many of versus Asia-Pacific sales, perhaps, or different the creation of a data supply chain. It will be up
these have been incubated by Web pioneers product groups for hair care and for skin care. to the CIO to start working with business units
such as Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo, and Netflix, Taking data management from good to great to coordinate data responsibility from creation
rather than traditional technology vendors. often becomes an unappealing exercise after to distribution, more as if they were managing
Essentially, the pioneers developed solutions the third or fourth implementation. A data- the end-to-end manufacture of a bicycle than
for their own data-management challenges. sharing model, by its nature, will accelerate a workflow of electronic ones and zeros.
companies toward the notion of centralized
For instance, Amazon’s service-oriented model is
19


This time next year “Put simply, increased sharing of data
Over the next 12 months, the IT through data services calls for a radical
• “Re-architect” the organizational
rethinking of how IT should handle
structure to gear it toward data
services.
data management. Essentially, data
• Create and fill new roles: Senior role
management shifts from being an IT
in charge of data management, along
with data scientists, data curators, and
capability buried within application
others.
support to a collaborative effort that
• Organize active, ongoing discussions
with business functions about new data enables data to be used far beyond
services needed.
• Develop a basic internal data exchange.
the applications that created it.”
• Run data platform trials that leverage One data-management mechanism that Figuring out the value of data
structured and unstructured data—with will likely become more popular is the data
exchange—a forum where data can be published However, before data can be shared—even
data in the platform and in use by one
and accessed. Some organizations are already informally—it has to be valued. Today, we
or more business processes.
trying out rudimentary data exchanges internally. think about the value of data in terms of
• Develop a reusable framework for We believe that these kinds of exchanges will what is required to store it. In the future,
data valuation that can guide data grow organically within organizations, and the value of data will be determined when
management decisions. best practices will begin to materialize in the it is used, in terms of its potential business
next year or two. A next step would involve impact. (See The dimensions of data
• Create a list of other business processes “open” data exchanges—exposing data to and value.) Organizations need to create a data
that can begin to leverage data in the seeking data from external partners such as management strategy to support the data
platform. suppliers and customers. Of course, publishing services that make sense for them, considering
data to open data exchanges will not suit every the dimensions of data value and tying them
• Create a tangible, funded roadmap,
organization or every piece of data. And there to a broader set of envisaged use cases.
subsequent to successful trials, to
expand replatforming to a growing is nothing yet that is clearly destined to evolve
Traditional approaches to data management
amount of data and other business into a kind of New York Stock Exchange for data.
have viewed it as a cost center to be controlled;
activities. today’s technology, tools, and practices reflect
See also “This time next year” in Converging that goal. A new approach will encourage
data architectures. organizations to think in terms of trying to
squeeze every bit of value from the data.

20


As yet, there is little concrete guidance for how
to value data across the entire organization—
Rethinking the organization
structure and skills needed
the business. Industrializing these data sharing
and data management approaches will be key Your 100-day plan
let alone across the ecosystem of suppliers, to enabling the business to unlock data value.
customers, and other stakeholders who may One central challenge for IT leaders is how to Suggested actions to take during the next
need to use it, at least at some time or another. support the shift to data sharing. Forward- three months:
The more widely a data set is used, the more thinking IT leaders will move quickly to “re-
valuable it becomes. But how do you assign architect” their organizations in support of • Identify the “burning platforms” among
worth to it when it is combined with other data services. Should IT’s data specialists even the organization’s business processes
data? Or split up? Or used multiple times over reside within IT, or should they be integrated that can become the vehicles for
many years? Or when it might be at risk of with line-of-business functions? That’s the change.
being misappropriated? Not all data is valued kind of question that CIOs, together with
positively; viewed in terms of security, some the CEO’s office, must be able to answer. • Assess where current approaches aren’t
personally identifiable customer data, for meeting enterprise needs (for example,
instance, could conceivably have negative value. Central to those moves will be a hard look where data integration is fragile or
at the skills required. The more that data is where replication is unmanageable)
As a rule, we expect data that concerns shared, the more there is a case to be made and sketch out early retirement of
customers to be of high value. But even for a chief data officer position. We’re already applications wherever needs are not
there, few, if any, active conversations are seeing new job titles such as data curator, being met.
under way about how to assign value to, data scientist, and data steward. The curator
for example, CRM data that could be used will be the “product manager” for a set of • Map individuals on the business side
to improve market share, benefit customer data, responsible for its proper valuation but who are current “data owners.”
loyalty ratings, and reduce customer retention also managing the services that share it. The
costs. Or imagine an electrical utility that uses scientist will be the next-generation analytics • Begin promoting the CIO as the
electrical consumption information from its professional, responsible for turning the data facilitator of discussions about data
operations data to propose time-shifting deals into insight. And data stewards will be latter- services.
for certain customers—incentivizing them day database administrators (DBAs). In general,
to use power when the utility has a surplus we expect an evolution and proliferation • Map available IT skills in light of
and conserve it when demand is high. of data roles, with data management skills the need to rebalance database
becoming much more dispersed than they are approaches.
New data valuation approaches will also
today, as has happened with programming.
influence the ways that data is stored, shared,
published, secured, and destroyed. Do we save • Sketch out a preliminary blueprint for a
Businesses are actively hunting for ways to
everything under the assumption that it will data management organization.
extract value from their data. As this drives
soon be useful to somebody somewhere? Or just an increase in data sharing, IT leaders will See also “Your 100-day plan” in Converging
the data that we guess will be most valuable? find that a one-size-fits-all approach to data data architectures.
What rules govern the deletion of data? A plant management will not work. They’ll need to look
supervisor can’t simply archive machine data for ways to centralize the processes and tools
from a production line if it’s now critical for for data management. At the same time, the
other business processes, such as new product notion of data ownership must become more
engineering or analysis of product recalls. distributed, involving data consumers across

21


The dimensions of data value
Data-savvy CIOs understand the impracticality • tility
U • Usageandsharingrestrictions • upport
S
of trying to build frameworks that enable Our notion of data utility is a cornerstone Are there any restrictions, such as In situations where the data is
them to put actual dollar values on data. of data value. The concepts of quality, confidentiality or regulations, on how acquired or purchased from a third
provenance, freshness, and so on all play the data can be used, shared, stored, party, will the data be “supported” by
With that in mind, Accenture has key roles in determining the value of data. and so on? The more restrictions on the that third party? If not, then the data
developed these qualitative guidelines: data, the less valuable it may become—it will have limited long-term value.
• Uniquenessorexclusivity becomes more of a liability than an asset.
Is the data unique or exclusive? Is access For example, the many restrictions and • Consumerdemand
to the data controlled and owned by a regulations on personally identifiable Ultimately, the value of data will be
few (meaning that it’s proprietary data) information severely limit the value of this influenced by consumer demand,
or is it available publicly? For example, type of data for those that possess it. and this demand will be driven by
call logs are exclusively owned by the whether the data impacts business
telcos, but government census data is • Usabilityandintegration functions such as improving operational
available to anyone who wants it. How easy is it to use and integrate efficiency, enabling better forecasting,
the data from a data consumer’s increasing market penetration or
• Easeofproduction perspective? If the data (assuming customer engagement, and so on.
How easy or difficult is it to “produce” it’s external) can be easily used (and
(collect, assemble, etc.) the data? This integrated) with internal data, then it is
dimension is orthogonal to the previous more valuable than data that cannot.
one. For example, sentiment data on
a company’s products is all over the • rustworthiness
T
Web, but producing this data is difficult, Here, we define trustworthiness not in
because sentiment information is terms of the data itself (that dimension
widely dispersed, locked in unstructured is covered by “utility”) but in terms of
text, and hence difficult to extract. the sources and processes used to create
the data. If these sources and processes
are questionable (or even illegal), then
the resulting data becomes a pariah
that very few will touch, even though
the data itself is extremely accurate.

22

Social-driven IT
Social isn’t just a bolt-on marketing channel—it
will transform interactions in the business world

23

Trend 4 - Social-driven IT Accenture Technology Vision 2012


Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other forms of social media are
not just new communication channels to customers. They are
powerful catalysts that are changing the ways your customers,
employees, and partners use technology to interact with the
world around them. Most organizations have yet to catch up to
that reality, and almost none take full advantage of it. They must.
Who doesn’t have a Facebook page? more efficiently, and with better outcomes. directly to him to address it before he calls to
They will also see value in using enterprise social complain. At the same time, enterprises need
The social media trend has swept across the platforms for connections with and among to be on the lookout for opportunities to invent
world with breathtaking speed—and with employees—and even among enterprises. new channels through social, such as social
astonishing impact. In the United States, polling via WayIn or Yahoo’s IntoNow.
Facebook is largely supplanting e-mail and text The opportunity is to capture, measure, analyze,
as the primary tool for communicating with and exploit these social interactions in new ways. The challenge for IT managers, then, will be
friends. Social media has become de rigueur It means that social media must be seen as much to revisit business processes and the systems
for businesses too—although mostly as an more than a new “bolt on” channel; it has to be that implement them. They will need to look
add-on marketing tool. And in more and more viewed as a catalyst for revisiting everything across channels to define interactions. They
instances, online forums and Twitter feeds are that touches a company’s customers and, must look at new forms of data generated by
becoming valued sources of insight for marketers increasingly, other communities of stakeholders. those interactions and evaluate the potential
and product developers eager to learn what It provides pathways to convey to the rest of the insights they can get from them. They will
consumers really think. organization what has been learned by listening be obliged to revisit the organizational
to consumers. The most immediate implication is structures that perpetuate the separation
But that’s not the only way that social platforms that a company’s call center applications, its Web of channels. They will have to think in terms
will be used by businesses in the future. presence, its customer relationship management of industrializing social platforms. And they
The social media phenomenon has not just (CRM) applications, its mobile experience, are likely to have to update the metrics that
created a new channel to communicate; it has and other consumer channels all need to all define success for customer interactions.
fundamentally changed the ways in which be integrated with each other and be “social-
people communicate. Looking at the broader enabled.” So, for example, when a customer No business is going to be able to exclude
impact, we predict that leading organizations will tweets about a bad experience with buying a social. Those that dismiss its rising influence as
soon start applying social platforms and social mattress, it can be linked to his purchase history a fad—or worse, as a preoccupation only for the
design mechanics to manage interactions across and to the reviews that he has posted on the young—will be doing their organizations a gross
all communication channels to consumers, retailer’s website to determine the problem disservice. They will be effectively removing
fostering greater intimacy with their customers, and—since he’s a repeat customer—to reach out themselves from the conversations that their

25


consumers are already having about them and
ignoring the new conversations that consumers
Social platforms are gathering tremendous
momentum: Bebo, popular in Europe, now has
if a homeowner’s security company learns
from social media that a customer is planning a What it means for
are looking for. Complaints are being submitted
to Yelp, instead of to you. Support forums point
close to 120 million members, China’s Renren
has 160 million members, and Facebook’s
vacation, that would present a good opportunity
to offer the homeowner increased monitoring the business
to how-to videos on YouTube that your call membership now tops 800 million. And in and sensitivity of her home security system. This
center employees don’t even know exist. When the last year, social platforms have shown big is an example of an insight that would never have • Better insight into conversations about
a customer tweets to you that they want to improvements in user security—specifically in been available simply because the homeowner the company
increase their insurance coverage, will you be able social authentication (determining you’re really “liked” Hawaii.
to respond? you by using your social graph and photos) • More influence on the conversations
and in trusted friends (reclaiming your account Nouns in social are moving beyond people, too. currently happening about the
If they fail to engage with social, enterprises will by having a reset code sent to a friend you’ve Toyota Friend is a network that connects owners company on social media
essentially be encouraging their organizations’ designated in advance). Behind-the-scenes with their cars, their local dealership, and with
potential customers to be lured away by security has been stepped up too. Some social Toyota itself. For instance, the car can send an • Improved customer loyalty and
competitors that are increasingly interacting with platforms now use behavioral analytics tools alert for required service, just like a tweet.9 more frequent and more consistent
those customers in the ways that the customers that look for anomalous behavior of users, interactions with consumers
want to communicate. More ominously, they For users, the new features make their
sessions, and applications as well as link scanning interactions with others richer and easier.
will be putting existing customer relationships (scanning links themselves and building a • More opportunities for more direct,
at risk—and they won’t be able to measure the For businesses, they further solidify
reputation system for the Web to flag potentially the value of social platforms as ways in personalized two-way interaction with
decline in business until after it has happened. dangerous domains).8 end customers—streamlining faster and
which businesses must interact with their
more meaningful feedback cycles
What began as play and making But social isn’t finished with changing the ways communities of interest, whether those
communities are customers or employees.
friends is now driving business we communicate. One of the most prominent • Faster resolution of customer concerns,
growth examples: Facebook recently launched the newest further improving customer loyalty
version of Open Graph—the framework that
Increasingly mobile...and becoming
Already, social technologies have permanently enables content developers to build apps that easier to monetize • More products and services that are
altered the ways in which consumers share allow users to share whatever they are doing better tuned to customer needs
The social experience is increasingly a mobile
information, collaborate, interact, entertain without overwhelming their friends. As founder
experience. More and more location-based
themselves, inform themselves, and maintain and CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained at the • New services based on new cross-
mobile platforms, like Foursquare and Oink, allow
awareness of events around them. They choose company’s F8 developers’ conference, Facebook channel interactions
smartphone users to rate what’s in or what
to use Spotify to discover, discuss, and share felt constrained by the Like button because it is
happens at a place. At Foursquare, for example,
music. They gather at eats.com and Menuism perceived as an implicit endorsement of content. • Useful metrics on social’s impact,
users share their locations with friends while
to see which of their friends is eating what enabling easier and faster assessments
The F8 event showed just how active the collecting points and virtual badges. Foursquare
where, to discuss what they think of it, and to be of successes and failures, investments,
social media development sector is. Essentially, guides real-world experiences by allowing users
prompted to try dishes their friends like. They use and more
Facebook wants users to share everything they’re to bookmark information about venues that they
TripAdvisor to trade tips on great places to stay
doing, whether it’s watching a show or hiking a want to visit and making relevant suggestions
while traveling. They use a variety of social sites to
trail, and it decided to create a way to “express about nearby venues. Merchants and brands use a
get discounts through group buying. Increasingly,
lightweight activity”. So the company is moving range of tools on the site to acquire, engage, and
they sign up to new sites via their Facebook
on to other verbs in addition to “Like”—such as retain customers and audiences. See Context-
or LinkedIn accounts. And they use Twitter to
“Read,” “Watch,” “Listen,” or “Travel.” For instance, based services earlier in this report.
disseminate and discuss the hottest news.
26


This time next year “If they fail to engage with social,
Over the next 12 months, the IT enterprises will essentially be encouraging
their organizations’ customers to be lured
• Engage in social listening to ingest and
understand the social conversations away by competitors that are increasingly
that affect the enterprise.
interacting with those customers in
• Establish a core IT team to design and
pilot cross-functional social media the ways that the customers want to
platforms.
communicate.”
• Work with individual business units
to help them layer their social It’s also becoming possible to apply useful For instance, Walmart is experimenting today
strategies on top of IT’s enterprise- metrics to social media’s impact—a key factor in with the Shopycat app from @WalmartLabs.10
wide strategy for social, with the goal making social much more relevant to businesses.
of moving beyond the listening phase Metrics are building blocks that will enable Social’s soaring popularity is by no means
to managing social interactions with businesses to monetize their use of social. limited to consumers. More and more
consumers. companies are leveraging social platforms,
As social media interactions replace existing many of them focusing on enabling interactions
• Put in place the technology to support interactions, it becomes easier to see them in with their customers. As enterprises are
the business’s need to monetize its monetary terms. For instance, as social media getting started, a rich ecosystem of social
social interactions rather than simply interactions replace, say, call center interactions, vendors has grown up that support and
communicating via social media. their value increases because the interactions are surround the platforms, providing tools for
happening in a very public way, where pleased capabilities such as campaign management
• Identify the metrics that matter for (or angry) customers express themselves for or analytics and, now, for monetization. In
tracking the success of social and all to see. The monetization of social platforms different ways, companies like Klout, Gigya,
ensure that the technologies used is embryonic, notable for its isolated examples and Wildfire provide pathways to monetize
actually deliver those metrics. such as Starbucks’ sales of gift cards and social interactions. For instance, eBay acquired
account management facility within Facebook. The Gifts Project, a social commerce platform
• Evaluate the impact of social on the But there is every indication that it will escalate that lets friends pitch in on items as gifts.
organization’s roadmap for investment as more and more companies strive to move
in collaboration. beyond achieving the “Like” to closing the sale. Taking the next step toward a social
While there is still much speculation about strategy
• Determine how interactions among the the true size of the commerce possibilities, we
expect an increasing percentage of consumer The maturity and sophistication of today’s social
organization’s employees might change
spending to go through sites such as Facebook. platforms have created real opportunities for
by using social.
enterprises, but many are approaching social
27


in ways that shortchange its true potential. In
essence, their social strategies are disparate and
customers to pay their bills on Facebook—
without pointing them to Geico’s own site.13
Similarly, IT leaders will need to help disrupt
the mindset that says “social” equates with Your 100-day plan
disconnected; enterprises strive to say “they’re Studios such as Miramax and Warner Bros. “marketing,” forging links with other groups that
on Facebook” or “on Twitter.” At the very least, are streaming movies through Facebook, touch customers and reaching out to business Suggested actions to take during the next
there is more that most businesses can do within providing full video rentals from a movie’s units, such as HR, that manage interactions with three months:
the customer-facing realm. Today, customers Facebook page. Titles are still limited, but other communities. For now, social platforms
have come to expect an integrated approach clearly both studios are experimenting with are finding most traction within the business- • Become an active user of several
to their interactions with enterprises. So, for ways to use the new platform effectively. to-consumer realm. But as we noted earlier, different social media sites to properly
example, a bank’s ability to give a customer the nature of interactions is changing, and it’s understand the customer experience.
the same answer to a question whether the From experimentation our belief that developments and successes
customer e-mails, searches the bank’s site, to transformation with customer interactions will soon inspire • Start preparing for the social listening
phones its call center, or walks into a branch enterprises to rethink enterprise collaboration process. Begin to figure out what
should now be extended to its social channels. However, looking beyond the marketing and knowledge management—and later, to conversations consumers are already
department reveals just how far most enterprises apply the same ideas across the extended having about the company and where
There are, however, standouts that are actively still have to go. Today’s standouts have revisited enterprise, among the ecosystem of suppliers, those conversations are taking place.
exploring and experimenting with social and transformed only a single function, customers, partners, and other stakeholders.
strategies and the transformations they require. process, or interaction. Tomorrow’s standouts • Look for best practices in social
Canadian telecommunications company TELUS will need to take those early experiments The social media question for businesses is no in other industries that are “early
is using Twitter as a better and more immediate and replicate them across many processes, longer “What should I be posting to Facebook?” adopters” in order to understand what
path to resolve consumer problems.11 Instead of many systems, and many interactions. IT will It’s “How do my customers want to interact is possible.
phoning a call center and waiting for a human need to work with the business to capture with my services?” Social is overturning our
with whom to interact, consumers leave a tweet. how their customers and other stakeholders way of interacting with the world; it has its • Place IT at the center of conversations
In effect, the company is using social as a new might want to interact with their services— own language, taboos, interaction styles, on social in the organization.
entry point into existing business processes. and determine how to manage accordingly communication channels, customs, habits,
Early results show that customers who are using across everything that social media touches. preferences, and pace. It provides businesses • Appoint a tech-savvy social champion
the Twitter channel are getting much faster with new interactions, new services, new who can easily demonstrate mastery of
resolution of their concerns and are much more So what does the rapid proliferation of social customers, new forms of loyalty, and new the new interaction models.
satisfied with the telco’s responsiveness. Its mean for IT departments? For one thing, revenue. Those not actively engaged with or
customer satisfaction ratings via Twitter are they can be instrumental in breaking down experimenting with social, or planning ways • Draft a survey of how business
approximately 85 percent, compared with about the organizational structures that segment to move it beyond marketing, risk putting functions within the organization
70 percent for its conventional contact center. customers into interaction channels. If, for themselves at a significant disadvantage. already use social and how their use
example, there is an IT subgroup that is
Similarly, insurer MetLife is using Facebook compares with best practice across
responsible for the “digital” channel, its purpose
as a customer support channel, staffing a industries.
and its place in the organization will need
special team to resolve “crisis issues” in two a rethink. Such siloed approaches erode the
hours or less.12 (The incentive for this type of • Begin discussions with the business
value of integrated customer interactions.
initiative: the chance to preempt the explosion about which other business units are
of bad news that social media can enable if a interacting via social; work across
disgruntled customer becomes vocal online.) business units rather than just with
Elsewhere, insurer Geico makes it possible for marketing.

28

PaaS-enabled agility
A maturing platform-as-a-service (PaaS) market
will shift the emphasis from cost-cutting to
business innovation

29

Trend 5 - PaaS-enabled agility Accenture Technology Vision 2012


IT leaders must look beyond cloud debates to pinpoint
the business processes and applications that will matter
most to their organizations—and that are best suited
to a platform-as-a-service model. PaaS is not just
a tool for squeezing cost out of IT; it will provide an
environment that can support rapid evolution for key
business processes that need continuous change.
More than ever, businesses have to be able to For years, many IT organizations have been not have had clarity on how PaaS would impact
act and react quickly to changes in the market. striving for these levels of agility. (At a recent their organizations’ technology direction.
IT’s ability to support such agility has long conference for CIOs, the chief executive of a
been a laudable aspiration of many CIOs. leading software vendor depicted business But the PaaS landscape is changing fast.
logic as a string of pearls that can easily be More IT departments are now engaging and
Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) technologies are restrung.) They’ve tried to structure applications experimenting with PaaS, although primarily
emerging as key enablers to turn aspiration into as collections of services. They’ve also invested for ancillary services. For example, security
reality. By providing the organization with a substantially in integration efforts—think company G4S is about to deploy a cash-in-
technical base to design systems that permit the middleware—and funded custom development transit application on Azure.14 And Lionsgate,
rapid reassembly of business processes to suit to extend the services. These efforts have also a global entertainment company, is deploying
new business needs, IT essentially enables the tended to remain in-house—a burden for all its SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP)
organization to launch and learn from quick, low- concerned. CIOs are now looking outside their system to Amazon Web Services.15
cost experiments. It becomes possible to innovate four walls to find easier paths to IT agility.
rapidly and react to market shifts in ways that That said, it is tempting for CIOs and their top
were simply impractical before. For instance, a call PaaS offerings—defined as platforms sourced managers to evaluate PaaS as a cost-saving
center can quickly test a possible new protocol from and hosted by a service provider that measure, using technical specifications as their
for flagging and prioritizing calls regarding the handles the platform’s maintenance, evolution, lens. If they continue to do this, they will miss a
latest product release, working with a subset of and operation—have been touted as an option, large part of PaaS’s potential. Instead, the key is
customer service representatives. If customer but until recently have not been sufficiently to stay focused on the business services that will
satisfaction scores go up, the protocol can be developed to be practical. Platform providers require a significant level of innovation, flexibility,
integrated into the standard procedure; if not, the were not prepared to commit to the service- iteration, and, therefore, experimentation
experiment can be rapidly iterated or scrapped. level agreements (SLAs) that CIOs would over the lifetime of an application. It is PaaS’s
typically require before moving critical business ability to enable the business to act and
applications to the platform. Similarly, CIOs may react quickly that will ultimately differentiate
the organization from its competitors.
31


Reasons to pay attention
to PaaS now
At the same time, providers with strong
infrastructure capabilities—such as the traditional
in Internet reviews, companies can experiment
to see what their users think. They can offer the What it means for
Platform providers have made significant strides,
infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) players—are
busily adding platform services in order to climb
automatic grammar-check functionality to a small
set of reviewers and consumers and find out if the business
adding capabilities that were not typical this the stack. In the short term, the emphasis here they care. Companies often become paralyzed
time last year. Data options on various platforms will be on custom development. For instance, by these open questions; this experimentation • Greater agility—meaning a faster pace
have increased: Google now offers Google VMware has moved from virtualization products gives them the ability to answer them. of change and speed to market
Cloud SQL for use with Google App Engine, into virtualization infrastructure, and now is
establishing itself as a cloud platform provider PaaS involves shorter development cycles, • Quicker entry into new markets and
and Microsoft is piloting a Hadoop distribution
with the introduction of Cloud Foundry. Others— enabling organizations to quickly iterate new business opportunities
on Azure. Enterprises that want to leverage
such as Red Hat, through its OpenShift PaaS functionality and respond more nimbly to
their current developers’ skills now have Java-
offering—are adopting similar strategies. short-term opportunities. For example, during • Fast, low-cost experiments to help
based PaaS, such as Red Hat’s OpenShift. And
holiday-shopping sales surges, the platform minimize “big bet” investments and
operational support—one of the biggest concerns
allows the business to quickly add new
for any IT shop—is now available. For instance, Moving toward an improve feedback
functionality without an 18-month development
Rackspace now provides support for OpenStack. innovation mindset life cycle. Support for, say, a special one-day • Greater risk of overreliance on some
There is also an accelerating convergence Savvy IT chiefs are already thinking beyond retail promotion can be quickly added, rapidly platform providers
toward the PaaS space as the other as-a- metered cost when they’re considering PaaS. scaled up when demand is rising, scaled down
service players move up and down the stack, However, it’s our observation that there’s still as the demand ebbs, and then removed after • Fresh opportunities to try out new
each pushing toward a more complete set a strong tendency to look at PaaS offerings the holiday passes. Many current approaches business models
of capabilities on every layer. In last year’s primarily as scale or outsourcing capabilities. stumble over parts of this scenario: almost all
Technology Vision report, we predicted that this Those are important aspects of what PaaS scale up readily, some can scale back, but few
would start to happen throughout the cloud offers, but they represent only part of its value. allow easy manipulation of the capabilities.
ecosystem. Today, providers with rich catalogs Importantly, shorter development times aren’t
of business services—the software-as-a-service Simply put, in the longer view, the IT agility that
PaaS creates will enable and even encourage just about getting products to market more
(SaaS) players, for example—are pushing down quickly. Because applications can be built for
the stack, offering platform capabilities to business innovation—not simply IT innovation.
It overcomes longtime IT challenges such as less investment and fewer resources, both
augment their offerings. Salesforce, NetSuite, funds and staff are freed up to drive more
and Workday are actively moving into the PaaS rigid application development, provisioning,
and deployment, providing an agility that experimentation and to start making early
space. SAP and Oracle are also expanding the decisions about which experiments have the
relevance of their SaaS offerings with PaaS. fundamentally lowers the barriers to business
innovation. It will enable businesses to test new greatest potential to produce valuable outcomes.
Here we’ll see an upsurge in PaaS “app stores” Amazon, for instance, focuses on keeping
that unify the services offered on the platform; business models, new markets, new products, and
new strategies. And it can make them far more costs as low as possible for experiments—that
lightweight software engineering practices for way, it can run a lot more of them.16 This rapid
assembling solutions will be the norm. PaaS app responsive than they are today. For example, a
company can open up new features and functions prototyping capability makes it easier to shut
stores such as Salesforce’s AppExchange, Intuit down experiments that aren’t working and to
Marketplace, and Apperian are just the beginning. in production to a small user group. Instead of
simply reading about the debate on whether it figure out how to bring successful experiments
is ethical to fix grammatical and spelling errors back in-house for further in-depth work.

32


This time next year It starts with the business process preserve the benefits of PaaS by minimizing
the use of extensions. They should be judicious
Even with PaaS vendors growing in maturity, about the decisions they make to create
Over the next 12 months, the IT to some degree CIOs still struggle to decide extensions—being honest with themselves about
organization should: what to look for in a platform-as-a-service. which services are differentiating and which
At the most basic level, PaaS must offer a are commodity—and source them accordingly.
• Forge closer partnerships with the breadth of applications and services that
business to allow blended teams with attract business users—such as inventory In general, the more services that can be
fast-turn experiments in mind. management or payroll. But, at the root, if shared on a common platform—from financial
platforms are to be truly viable, providers will management services, say, to inventory
• Demonstrate the organizational need to offer—and IT leaders will need to look management—the easier it will be to handle the
structures and skill sets that will for—reusable business services, integration inevitable integration challenges, to hold down
enable IT to evaluate and work with capabilities, and extension capabilities. costs, and to demonstrate the true flexibility of
platform providers much as it works PaaS. These services can be hosted as part of the
Enterprise IT leaders and their business platform and should be run and maintained with
with conventional outsourcing services.
colleagues will want to extract the maximum a set of SLAs. In many cases, they are optimized
value from their reusable business services, for the infrastructure they are running on.
• Sign a formal agreement with at least
utilizing them wherever possible, to preserve
one PaaS provider. A platform that offers a large body of services
many of the benefits that PaaS offers, such as
faster response and lower cost. At the same means fewer platforms to deal with over
• Pilot one application with the PaaS time. At the same time, as more active app
time, recognizing that the range of available
provider to prove the PaaS business stores of services develop around certain
applications and services will never meet all
case and accelerate adoption through platforms—leveraging the ecosystem of
the needs of an enterprise, IT managers will
the enterprise. developers that surround their platforms—
look for integration capabilities that allow them
to wire together multiple existing services, they will present powerful ways for their
those from third parties and legacy enterprise platforms and core services to be augmented.
services. Essentially, they need those capabilities
Even though platform technologies and
to confirm that what gets moved onto the
strategies are evolving rapidly, there is still
PaaS (“into the cloud”) is connected to the
no single platform that provides all of the
enterprise in all the right ways, consistent with
features we have described. In some areas,
their approaches to security, data management,
PaaS is quite immature: PaaS tools for
usability, and business process governance.
management, development, and measurement
Where gaps persist, custom development certainly aren’t what IT staff are used to
may still be necessary to create or extend working with on-premise, for instance.
existing services. However, our experience is
It’s also important for enterprises to consider
that overuse of customization dilutes platform
the readiness of their own organization—both
benefits because it typically increases the costs
the IT group and the overall business—to use
of long-term maintenance and support costs.
platform services. That calls for clear-eyed
So, high-performance enterprises will try to
views of the enterprise’s most valuable business
33


processes—potential as well as current—and for
rapid understanding of which platforms will be
Another desirable characteristic of hybrid
platforms is that they offer some insurance Your 100-day plan
of most use for which sets of business needs. if the PaaS provider isn’t meeting a
company’s SLAs or if the security risks of Suggested actions to take during the next
Being alert to lock-in using as-a-service technologies are deemed three months:
unacceptable. In effect, they provide an exit
When evaluating PaaS options, IT leaders
strategy, allowing companies to pull the • Create a plan to reassess the
also have to be alert to the likelihood and
applications back in-house when necessary. organization’s business needs to
consequences of platform lock-in. As they’re
identify what else could be done
assessing platform choices, they need to be However, these types of platforms have not with services that would add lasting
careful that one part of their cloud strategy dealt significantly with reusable business service value, assuming IT could deliver every
doesn’t undermine another. For instance, catalogs to date, and the services that do exist application as a service.
the selection of a PaaS may affect their are typically hosted third-party services. In such
ability to use hybrid cloud for processes scenarios, bringing services back in-house is • Assess the business architecture
where seamless operation across on-premise still uncharted territory—both technically and capability and start discussions on its
and off-premise systems is needed. in terms of business issues such as licensing. evolution, focusing on the elements
Some platforms make it difficult to seamlessly One important guideline to bear in mind: of business processes that are
move services and applications back in-house today, use of PaaS offerings looks a lot more differentiating.
from the cloud. For example, users of like outsourcing, so when you’re picking
Force.com are tied to that platform; it is not a platform, you’re effectively picking a • Start short-listing appropriate PaaS
designed to accommodate an in-house version partner rather than a software vendor. providers.
of its software stack. If users wish to move
services back inside, they have to commit to The path to utilizing platform-as-a-service will • Envision PaaS’s place within the overall
some level of redevelopment. By contrast, other not be short; nor will moving every business IT strategy and how it augments the
platforms, such as Azure and Cloud Foundry, do process to PaaS make sense while the offerings overall IT platform.
provide this flexibility because they allow users are still maturing. But the payout can be big
to replicate the stack in their own data centers, for those that start the journey now with • Check and confirm that cloud platform
making it fairly straightforward to move services the right processes. Do you know which choices don’t create conflicts with
or data back into their own environments if processes are the right ones? Do you have a existing plans to leverage hybrid cloud
they choose to do so. These types of platforms plan for how IT will be able to support them? for certain processes.
are useful for “cloudbursting” scenarios—
handling overflow loads such as those incurred
by seasonal sales spikes or end-of-fiscal-
year processing. Even more crucial for many
organizations, they simplify already difficult
issues of data distribution like, for instance,
when some parts of customer data must be
kept in-house for policy or regulatory reasons.

34


Waiting for the hybrid cloud to grow up
Of all the cloud-related topics making Thefirstwave, which we are experiencing Thesecondwave will see workflow Thethirdwave could be described as
headlines these days, hybrid cloud is now, centers on point-to-point, mostly that spans on-premise and off-premise “white label” integration of enterprise
arguably the one that is attracting batch-style, data integration between services where the business process applications in a hybrid cloud model,
the most interest from IT leaders. enterprise applications and software-as- involves both. This will demand integration seamlessly mixing on-premise and off-
But they are stymied because of the a-service (SaaS) applications. The early at data, service, and business process premise services in the package. There’s
relative immaturity of the tools and adopters of this wave include enterprises levels, potentially across multiple still a long way to go before cloud-
frameworks that support hybrid cloud. that need to expand into a new geography clouds. The challenges look much the based software development lifecycle
and opt for a SaaS-hosted model for some same as in the first wave, but with far tools and application frameworks
We envision the necessary tools applications, requiring data integration greater complexity, and a higher degree have built-in support for hybrid cloud.
and frameworks maturing in three with existing applications. Other early of consistency is required at multiple End-to-end management across
waves over the next few years. adopters include those that need new levels. Cross-cloud security management, all aspects of the applications and
functionality added to an existing for example, becomes critical here. systems is virtually nonexistent.
system, which requires integration with
external data sources in the cloud—social
networks, for example. Another set of
early adopters: those that need analytics
applications where external sources are
ingested or internal sources are published
to cloud-based analytics systems.
Today, there is no shortage of tools
for point-to-point integration, but
frameworks for data integration that
support hybrid cloud are few and far
between, especially those that help with
large-scale cross-cloud master data
management. Furthermore, consistent
data virtualization is still difficult to put
together in a hybrid cloud context.

35

Orchestrated analytical
security
Security breaches are inevitable—and data
platforms (not just device management) will be
how you deal with them

36

Trend 6 - Orchestrated analytical security Accenture Technology Vision 2012


Nontraditional systems are now getting connected, exposing
the organizations that use them in entirely new ways.
Organizations will have to make peace with the security reality
of today and begin preparing their second line of defense—data
platforms—to mitigate the damage of attacks that get through.
Security-minded IT leaders are seeking hackers to target as those systems and devices taken for future analysis. Credit card companies
ways to help their organizations harness get connected to corporate IT. It’s not an can be notified of the card numbers that were
new capabilities while managing the exaggeration to say that IT is frustrated by the stolen, and customer support can begin to reach
risks that come along with them. confluence of security threats they now face. out to cardholders affected by the losses.

The bad news: the organization will get attacked, We see a fundamental flaw in today’s typical Today, optimal IT security is not about 100
and some attacks will get through. The good approaches to enterprise security. In too percent prevention; it’s recognizing that to
news: technologies are emerging to enable many organizations, the prevailing security minimize the damage, first you have to know
organizations to start responding appropriately mindset is about prioritizing compliance that attackers did get through and get a sense
to the threats that do slip past the gates. and then working down the list of other of how they did so. That calls for security
strategic security initiatives with whatever professionals to think like the enemy at all times.
The risk of attack on organizations’ systems resources remain. Compliance is the comfort
is soaring, and threat levels are skyrocketing zone; it drives the security investment. We see three core security issues that have
as sophisticated, targeted forms of cyber- received too little attention. First, IT leaders must
crime emerge. We’re no longer talking only However, the new high ground is about be aware of the host of nontraditional “attack
about solitary hackers and occasional virus fundamentally managing business risks surfaces” that threaten their organizations
outbreaks—we’re describing increasingly by expecting and monitoring for security today. Second, they must develop “data-
professional attacks. Although most companies compromises in the first place and reacting to centric” mindsets, leveraging new data
have invested substantially in IT security them when they occur—commensurate with the platform concepts to design, implement, and
systems—even during the economic downturn— risks they pose to the business. So when a hacker run systems that substantially improve levels
they are still largely unprepared for the scope, gets through the firewall to steal customers’ of protection. Third, security leads have to
severity, and sophistication of today’s attacks credit cards, a second line of defense can be in think and act in terms of orchestrating security
or for the growing list of exposed entry points place. Companies can monitor the usage of the resources and responses across systems,
that highly skilled attackers can now exploit.17 credit card data for anomalies; for instance, the providers, and communications channels,
Governments and organized crime groups copying or downloading of all card data can bringing in relevant capabilities as needed.
are being added to the lists of hackers. Cars, trigger a security mitigation plan. The “action”
assembly lines, pumps, and mobile phones are can be stopped midstream when it’s caught
quickly becoming new vulnerability points for early. A snapshot of the system and data can be

38


Increasingly connected means
increasingly exposed
monitoring system as the cyber-gateway.19
The manufacturing sector is perhaps the most
move from monitoring to understanding; from
collection of data to visualization of behaviors What it means for
In many IT security departments, the tendency
vulnerable to such attacks; in one case, an Italian
security researcher recently disclosed a security
and anomalies. That means, for instance,
moving from simply maintaining a list of system the business
is to prepare for yesterday’s threats rather vulnerability in a control system used for yogurt administrators to flagging the creation of new
than today’s and tomorrow’s—and to tackle production. At the time of the disclosure, sysadmin positions. It also calls for a shift from • Increased vulnerability as a result
known security weaknesses without exploring another researcher, a university student, an asset view to a process- and data-centric of many more connections such as
those as yet unknown. The weaknesses that was able to identify 250 vulnerable systems view of what’s happening in the networks. An industrial control systems that were
are much in the news these days are concerns using only simple online search engines.20 example: moving from monitoring what badges not designed to repel cyber-attacks
about the risks of extending the enterprise have access to which areas toward monitoring
Given the convergence of security threats today, how often badges are used to attempt to get into • Increased need to prioritize the risks
through cloud computing and mobility
it is a good thing that there is momentum behind areas the badge holders don’t have access to. of IT security breaches; specifically,
systems. Both are among the top five reasons
remediation efforts. The IT security community— learn to identify and highlight the data,
why organizations’ security functions have
from the U.S. government’s Los Alamos National In reality, of course, it is impractical to do this systems, and initiatives that are critical
become more complex in the last few years.18
Laboratory to software vendors such as EMC—is using only traditional IT security approaches. to the business, and do so regularly to
Yet the cloud and smartphones are the least working hard to push analytics out to the edges Conventional perimeter defense is the first line keep their security strategies current
of it. Organizations are becoming increasingly of their networks to better monitor and detect of defense, but once threats have breached the
exposed because they are increasingly threats. McAfee snapped up NitroSecurity, a perimeter, current approaches are not sufficient • Increased involvement of the business
connected. Legacy systems that were never spinoff from Idaho National Laboratory that by themselves. Nor will these complex and functions in security given that only
designed for a connected world have been offers a security platform for industrial controls, constantly changing challenges be met by they can properly articulate the risks
brought online, opening up further weak a nontraditional security weakness. And venture discrete systems that secure specific data assets to their critical business processes and
points. Nontraditional systems such as building capital groups are investing in start-ups that or specific technologies such as e-mail scanning. identify the irregularities that may
controls, manufacturing controls, and power aim to manage the risks of nontraditional IT indicate a breach
environments—from anti-tamper technologies We predict that to better understand their risks
distribution networks are also connected,
for industrial control systems to embedded and to detect attacks security organizations
and IP-enabled devices in the home, car, and • Increased need for collaboration with
devices that shield the smart cards in your wallet will increasingly turn to data platform
pocket open up further opportunities for IT security; by aligning their strategies,
from remote access. Leading organizations technologies—technologies that provide access
attackers to exploit personal technologies. they can help to ensure that security
will recognize the expanded role of security in to and aggregation of data via services. The
data platform will allow security to easily handle does not become a barrier to business
Since IT security was never a part of these supporting the extended enterprise and seek
large volumes of fast-changing data—orders of objectives
systems’ original requirements, many are ways to integrate these new techniques and
wide open to attack in the context of the new tools into their holistic security architecture. magnitude greater in scale than traditional log
analysis. It will also make it easier to harness • New prioritization of information
connected world. The warning shots are being
security as a board-level concern;
fired: recently, the Internet was awash with Leveraging new data platforms new forms of data from the unstructured world,
business leaders must be ready for
reports of attacks on water-utility pumping opening up additional opportunities for security
to better detect incidents analysis. These platforms will help organizations the shift to higher levels of security
infrastructure in the United States, including
acquire a new understanding of their risk awareness and actions across the
one attack that may have done physical Security incidents will happen. The only way to
landscapes, explore their data in new ways, and enterprise
damage. And a few years ago, other hackers minimize the damage is to detect when they
penetrated a car’s main communication bus happen. To deal with the complex and ever- create more timely detection and responses
using the vehicle’s wireless tire-pressure- changing array of threats, organizations must to improve the confidence of the business.

39


This time next year In one scenario, the data security platform might
help to suppress insider threats by analyzing
sophisticated attacks and recover from other
attacks far more rapidly when they do happen.
data about comparative network usage patterns
Over the next 12 months, the IT to see whether a suspect employee’s time spent However, the grander vision of comprehensive
organization should: downloading reports is out of the ordinary. In data-centric security platforms is still largely
another instance, the platform might compare just that—a vision. Such platforms will give
• Establish processes that make robust, information packets; the same packets going to enterprises constant and immediate monitoring
flexible security a priority when different hosts could indicate that information of an organization’s security status; they will
IT systems are being designed and is being echoed to a snooping threat. Or it deal easily with new data sources and detect
developed. could amend a user’s privileges because it can and connect disparate events. They will also be
track and correlate across several systems, capable of experimenting with correlations to
• Demonstrate compliance at any time as system levels, and ID information, deducing detect attacks or determine root causes, and
a result of security investments—rather that the user is “testing” your security by trying will have the means to take broader actions
than letting compliance drive security to use systems he doesn’t have access to. The in milliseconds that fend off some attacks.
investments. advantage is that the same data platform can For now, there are plenty of “basics” that
help handle all of these kinds of tasks, whereas companies must revisit: the vast majority of all
• Create clear orchestration roles that today each might be the job of a different tool. attacks could be denied or at least mitigated if
specify how IT works with service companies were as disciplined and consistent as
providers. It’s important not to wait for vendors to deliver
the perfect tools. Because your enterprise is they ought to be about applying updates and
unique, its vulnerabilities are and will be unique patches to their existing security systems.
• Rework all SLAs that prevent the The recently released Microsoft Security
organization from responding too, and therefore unlikely to be “healed” by
standard product offerings. The emphasis must Intelligence Report, volume 11, found
immediately (and appropriately) to that less than 1 percent of exploits in the
threats. be on fully understanding your risk profile and
the type of integrated picture that can help you first half of 2011 were against zero-day
better manage to it. A case in point: credit-card- vulnerabilities—that is, software vulnerabilities
• Identify the skills necessary to manage that are successfully exploited before the
a data platform for IT security. ready parking meters will drive both government
revenue and user satisfaction, but they also open vendor has published a security update or
up an entirely new risk point. Are IT staff in local “patch.” By contrast, 99 percent of all attacks
• Define a well-practiced, collaborative, during the same period distributed malware
strategic response to sophisticated and municipalities monitoring that point for attacks?
through familiar techniques, such as social
determined attacks. Mastering risk and figuring out the big picture engineering and unpatched vulnerabilities.21
for your enterprise makes data and analytics
• Implement effective mechanisms the two new core competencies of the security While they deal with basics like these, chief
for regular, actionable dialogue with organization. For example, security professionals information security officers have to get busy
business functions about IT security at several large financial services firms are figuring out what enterprise data is needed to
issues. borrowing analytics techniques that those feed into the data platform. And they have to find
firms now use to compete on the trading floor. ways to build security into their new systems,
The security staff’s goals: to be able to better evaluating new data sets to do so. Security
detect and mitigate the damage from some can no longer be viewed as an afterthought.

40


Orchestrating security
resources and responses
Those teams will include skills that are in short
supply today in many IT security organizations. Your 100-day plan
For instance, they will feature analytics
IT security chiefs who see the value of a data specialists whose skills sets are a world away Suggested actions to take during the next
platform for responding flexibly to a host of from what’s required for typical security jobs, three months:
threats will need to demonstrate that they such as managing the appliance that monitors
can rapidly marshal security resources. At the e-mail. Also needed: individuals with strong • Identify the organization’s most critical
management level, orchestration will involve investigative and “sleuthing” skills. Instead of business systems and data sets and
identifying and accessing the right resources staring at a dashboard that reads “all clear,” assess their vulnerability to cyber-
when needed and getting them to work in these experts will constantly be scanning the attack.
concert, at speed. As CISOs detect signs of data for new patterns and anomalies. And
attacks in progress, they pull in threat data from because fewer of tomorrow’s data solutions will • Identify nontraditional IT systems that
industry security researchers to understand be off-the-shelf and more will be tailored to are being connected to the IT backbone
what’s at stake, tap into pools of niche skills each business, IT security leaders will want to to assess their vulnerability to cyber-
to solve the problem, and then work together hire more professionals who understand how attack.
with various infrastructure, application, and to extract value from data. The challenge for
service providers to close the vulnerability. many of those IT leaders is that such specialists • Audit basic security operations—from
Such orchestration may lead to flatter security are in short supply. Part of the reason: many are patch management processes to how
organizations that don’t manage policy, being hired by the security software vendors. user access is managed and tracked, for
architecture, monitoring, incident response, instance.
There is one bittersweet factor that sets the
and remediation from end to end but focus on
stage for development and implementation of
selecting, guiding, and managing collaborative • Sketch out the elements of a strategy
much more stringent security systems in the
networks of specialty security providers. to partner with select security
near future. Quite simply, it is that more and
more organizations are openly admitting that
providers.
The skills of orchestration will be not unlike those
required for strategic outsourcing. Managers they’ve been attacked. While such revelations
might seem to serve only to ring alarm bells— • Meet with business peers to gauge
selected for orchestration roles ought to excel
“everybody’s at great risk, our systems are failing, alignment of security strategy with
at harmonizing service-level policies among
our children are being stalked”—in our view, it’s a business strategy and to articulate a
their infrastructure providers so that they can
very healthy step in the right direction. After all, shared sense of risk tolerance.
quickly work with them when a problem occurs
rather than waiting for a response, which if nobody puts their hands up to say they’ve been
currently can take several days. Orchestrators attacked, there is far less impetus to change.
will be masters at blending teams of business-
oriented data specialists with no-nonsense
professionals, who often have military and
intelligence backgrounds and whose “constant
vigilance” perspectives help counterbalance
any traces of corporate complacency.

41


Anonymization won’t be enough to
protect privacy
Nearly every day, we’re bombarded by The truth is that, despite assurances of Although the capabilities to circumvent
statements from employers, financial anonymity, today’s privacy-preserving privacy are getting stronger, the demand
services institutions, health care technologies will fail because the scale for—indeed, the outcry for—better
companies, and other service providers of, mobility of, and access to data privacy protection isn’t going away. We
notifying us that our information is being make it ever easier to invalidate the anticipate that the real advances in
shared with various third parties. Some mathematical assumptions on which the privacy will come from new approaches
of these notices ask for our consent; technologies are built. The algorithms to privacy policy and strategy that
others present a take-it-or-leave-it typically used to provide anonymization improve protection while balancing
situation tied to using their services. In employ sets of assumptions about the the utility of the data. From those, a
either case, we’re usually assured that we data, generally based on characteristics new wave of supporting technologies
shouldn’t be worried because no personally of scarcity—the deliberate omission of key will emerge to enable enforcement of
identifiable information is being shared. data. Problems arise when data sets grow those policies and implementation of
exponentially, use cases change, or the those strategies in the real world.
We should be worried. In the world data is mashed up in unanticipated ways.
of Big Data, that information may be
shared all too easily. Because of the way The frailty of today’s anonymization
the data landscape is changing, what’s technologies was already apparent
private today won’t necessarily be private in a study run a decade ago.23 Using
tomorrow. In one case, a graduate student traditional data-access methods and
was able to match available health conventional databases, researchers
care data with other publicly available were able to uniquely identify 87
records to assemble the medical history percent of the U.S. population simply
of a prominent politician.22 We contend by cross-tabbing zip code, gender, and
that it will soon be within the skills of date of birth information. Even at the
many college students to be able to level of a county—containing many zip
discover information about people who codes—it was still possible to pinpoint
think their data is completely secure. 18 percent of the population. Traditional
anonymization techniques become even
less effective now that there are so
many new data sources, new analytics
technologies, and the power of the cloud.

42

Implications - The CEO’s agenda Accenture Technology Vision 2012

How will technology
alter the CEO’s agenda?
Business leaders are motivated to act on In a world where competitive advantage is
clocked in hours, not quarters, and in which
Speaking the CEO’s language to
elevate the discussion
the changes that imminent technology business models themselves are powerful
competitive weapons, business leaders cannot The six trends referenced in this report become

trends will bring. Their challenge is to afford to ignore or dismiss the most pressing the specifics of the discussions about the
technology trends. business impact that the CIO and team must

make sense of what matters most—and
initiate with their executive colleagues. Although
Today, most C-suite executives sense that driven by technology, these conversations must
powerful technology shifts are sweeping across
when to take action. That’s where their
be carried out in the language of business—in
their organizations. Indeed, many have become terms of what impact the new trends will have
quite familiar with the essentials of the changes
CIOs must step up. They have to begin to
on customer experience, revenue growth, profit
that have evolved over the last decade—cloud margins, cost structure, cycle times, and more.
computing, mobility, the push toward analytics,
lead the conversation.
The conversation must also focus on how the
and other shifts that are already helping to hold trends will affect the organization in aggregate.
down costs, improve productivity, or deliver Two areas in particular require attention: moving
fresh insights. beyond the constraints of legacy systems, and
rethinking the IT–business partnership.
But they’re less likely to grasp the technology
trends that are just gaining traction—trends that The decision to address legacy constraints needs
are only now appearing on the horizon. This is to be made now. There are abundant signs
where CEOs’ and COOs’ relationships with their that IT is reaching the limits of its capabilities,
IT chiefs can make a huge difference to how as currently constituted—it is becoming a
skillfully their organizations can turn the new brake on the business rather than enabling it
trends to advantage. The trends themselves are to accelerate. Constant updating, patching,
inevitable; if an organization’s top team does not and jury-rigging of legacy systems is simply
quickly grasp their impact, a competitor’s leaders becoming too difficult in a world that is growing
surely will. The IT leadership has a vital role to increasingly complex and faster-paced. For
play in conveying that impact. most companies, addressing this change will

43

Implications - The CEO’s agenda Accenture Technology Vision 2012

Coming soon –
Technology Vision
2012 Business
Implications report
not take place as one giant effort, but rather as business stay up to speed with technology? What How can we accelerate and augment
incremental investments, updating systems one forms might deeper collaboration take? As data innovation if we have a more agile
piece at time. The roadmap required to manage is applied for competitive advantage, how do organization? Is “social commerce” real?
the change is not sketched out overnight; it companies start blending IT and business teams? What new risks will we be exposed to in
involves meticulous planning and systematic And is there now a case for challenging current a “data, data everywhere” world? Do we
design so that every discrete IT project takes the orthodoxies about the discrete IT department? need to rethink technology as we look
organization a step forward. at expanding into emerging markets?
These lines of thinking raise some of the
At the same time, the business and IT must thorny questions about IT skills sets and IT Those are just a few of the questions that
become better partners—much more closely organization structures that need attention now. Accenture will answer in its upcoming
aligned. Certainly, the lines between them are The conversations between CIOs and business Business Implications 2012 report—the
blurring already. But much more interaction colleagues should revolve around what the essential companion to this Technology
must happen. For instance, securing systems will organization needs IT to do—not what IT can Vision 2012 document. That report will
require the coupling of traditionally disparate and cannot do. The discussions should create a dive into the business priorities that we
skills; it will call for a fundamental understanding sense of urgency. They should galvanize action. believe are natural outcomes of the trends
of how security technology affects business Today would be a good day to start. explored in these pages, spotlighting
processes, and it will mean that experimenting the important subthemes that will drive
with new services will be as much about the executive discussions and identifying
contextual data that IT can gather as the the management roles that will be
business expertise that exploits the data. needed to lead the coming changes.
In short, there needs to be a partnership that Among the array of topics we’ll
sees IT as much more than simply meeting the examine in detail: reframing the use of
day-to-day needs of the business functions. technologies in emerging economies;
That requirement forces re-examination of the social media’s imminent impact on
IT–business relationship and the responsibilities every type of business relationship,
of each party to the other. What obligations at scale; and new concepts of
does the business now have if technology is to information privacy and security in a
be leveraged for maximum value? How does the world where data is free to roam.

44

Implications - IT’s agenda Accenture Technology Vision 2012

IT’s agenda to create
business impact in the
year ahead
Converging data architectures
IT will need to become the catalyst Context-based services and Industrialized data services

for specific actions over the next year It will be the CIO’s job to frame for the C-suite
the opportunity of contextual services—
At a minimum, it will be necessary for CIOs to
help CEOs and business lieutenants see broader

to position the organization to take pushing the executives to “dream bigger” and
identifying what new products and services
opportunities to leverage data—internal and
external to the organization. Within 12 months,

advantage of the six overarching changes are becoming possible as context becomes
key. Over the next four quarters, the IT
as IT and the business continue to build out new
data services, each data service project should

in technology that we have determined organization should be driving the business
toward a concrete list of context-based
be used as a stepping stone, helping to move
toward development of a data platform for both

will have the greatest impact. services and drafting a data roadmap that lays
out how IT and the business, together, will
structured and unstructured sources of data.

acquire the critical data needed to deliver.

45

Implications - IT’s agenda Accenture Technology Vision 2012

Social-driven IT PaaS-enabled agility Orchestrated analytical security
CIOs will need to lead the C-suite to a The IT chief must parse the discussions about It’s up to the CIO and chief information security
new understanding of the opportunity in cloud computing, helping the business team officer to make security a board-level concern.
social media. To start with, they will have to look beyond cost savings to put the focus Breaches will happen, and organizations need
to demonstrate that social is not just about back on the business process. Within 12 to start thinking beyond prevention alone. The
Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and that months, the processes that will benefit the CIO and CISO will need to align with business
it involves more than just the marketing most from agility and experimentation should leaders to assume a vigilant monitoring
department. The business has to learn to see be prioritized and evaluated for transition to mindset. Data will provide the clues, but both
social technologies as the catalyst that is PaaS. IT should be working with at least one IT and the business are needed to effectively
changing the ways that customers, employees, PaaS provider and evaluating early results from detect and respond to attacks that slip past
and partners use technology to interact with a pilot program running with that provider. the gates. Within the next four quarters, the
the world around them. In a year’s time, CIO and CISO had better have good answers
the CIO should have a core team in place to the CEO’s questions about the myriad
to design and pilot cross-functional, social- new risks to data security. They should also
enabled systems. IT should be working closely be able to display a detailed roadmap for
with the business to reinvent the company’s how they plan to aggregate the data needed
interactions with its customers, and to create to monitor the breaches that do occur.
and update the technology channels that
support these new interaction models.

46

The evolving trends Accenture Technology Vision 2012

Accenture Technology Vision 2007-2012

47

Research methodology Accenture Technology Vision 2012

Research
methodology
Each year, the Technology Vision team at These hypotheses were then screened against The Vision team then worked with our
Accenture Technology Labs sets out to inputs from an array of other sources. The RD groups to consolidate, filter, and
determine the emerging IT developments sources included the recent activities of prioritize, and to test each hypothesis
that will have the greatest impact on commercial RD labs, the academic literature, against the following criteria:
enterprises, government agencies, and other the flow of venture capital funding, trends
organizations in the next few years. highlighted by IT analysts, and key themes • Certainty of transformational impact
at industry conferences. For perspective, on corporate IT departments
The Technology Vision 2012 research effort we tapped Accenture’s High Performance IT • Velocity and scale of technology change
began by collecting several hundred hypotheses research and the findings from our annual • Impact beyond any one IT or industry “silo”
from the Labs’ scientists, architects, and CIO Forum. And we validated our hypotheses • More than a “one for one” replacement
engineers. Additionally, we reached out across with Accenture practitioners who are of an existing solution
Accenture to crowdsource fresh perspectives continually helping our clients implement • Enables practical action in the next 12 months
on technology change from the wide range new technologies around the globe. • Transcends any one vendor or
of professionals who see its impact every day discrete “product” technology
in their work with clients. The Vision team
looked beyond the technology themes that are These tests produced a handful of robust
already driving change—themes as current as hypotheses that were synthesized into
mobility, Big Data, and cloud computing—and the six overarching themes presented
concentrated on the topics that will soon start in this year’s Technology Vision.
to appear on the agendas of most CIOs.

48

End notes Accenture Technology Vision 2012

End notes
1. ew York Times
N 9. oyota press release
T 17. ccenture
A
“A Short-Circuit to Distracted Driving” “Salesforce.com and Toyota Form Strategic Alliance “Traditional Approaches to Information Security Are No
January 20, 2011 to Build ‘Toyota Friend’ Social Network for Toyota Longer Sufficient”
Customers and Their Cars” November 23, 2011
2. isys press release
M May 23, 2011
“Misys Launches Consumer Location-Based Offering 18. bid
I
to Reduce Bank Fraud via the Force.com Platform” 10. almart press release
W
September 14, 2011 “Walmart Unleashes Shopycat Holiday Gift Finder” 19. ouf, Ishtiaq, et al.
R
December 1, 2011 “Security and Privacy Vulnerabilities of In-Car Wireless
3. igaOM Pro
G Networks: A Tire Pressure Monitoring System Case
“Report: NoSQL Databases – Providing Extreme Scale 11. Marketer
e Study” in Proceedings of the 19th USENIX Security
and Flexibility” “TELUS’ Social Media Team Solves Problems, Builds Symposium, pages 323–338, August 2010
July 6, 2010 Relationships”
September 12, 2011 20. ANS Analyst Program
S
4. nformationWeek
I “Critical Control System Vulnerabilities Demonstrated -
“IT’s Next Hot Job: Hadoop Guru” 12. nsurance.com
I And What to Do About Them”
November 9, 2011 “Why You Should ‘Like’ Your Insurance Company on November 2011
Facebook”
5. he Times of India
T November 9, 2011 21. icrosoft
M
“In-Memory Computing Is a Huge Breakthrough” “Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, Volume 11”
September 21, 2011 13. eico press release
G October 2011
“New GEICO App Gives Facebook Users Access to their
6. mazon.com
A GEICO Policies” 22. hm, Paul
O
Annual Report (2010) October 25, 2011 “Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the
April 27, 2011 Surprising Failure of Anonymization” UCLA Law Review
14. he 451 Group
T Vol. 57, p. 1701
7. CM Queue
A “Microsoft Tunes Its Cloud Position to Play for a Hybrid August 2010
“A Conversation with Werner Vogels” Audience”
May 1, 2006 December 1, 2011 23. weeney, Latanya
S
“Simple Demographics Often Identify People Uniquely”
8. ll Facebook
A 15. aseline
B Carnegie Mellon University, Data Privacy Working
“Facebook Security Improvements Coming Soon: “Two Keys to Successful Cloud Computing” Paper 3, 2000
Trusted Friends and Application Passwords” June 14, 2011
October 27, 2011
16. arvard Business Review
H
“Institutional Yes: The HBR Interview with Jeff Bezos”
October 1, 2007

49

Contacts

Dr. Gavin Michael
Chief Technology Innovation Officer
g.c.michael@accenture.com

Scott W. Kurth
Director, Accenture Technology Vision
scott.kurth@accenture.com

Michael Biltz
Director, Accenture Technology Vision
michael.j.biltz@accenture.com

Copyright © 2012 Accenture About Accenture
All rights reserved. Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 244,000
people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities
Accenture, its logo, and across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture
High Performance Delivered collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated
are trademarks of Accenture. net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

Accenture Technology Vision 2012

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