In this podcast, Swaminathan goes into detail about the following:
- how four technology trends drive the elastic business model;
- what challenge businesses will face deploying the elastic business model among a wide spectrum of different generations in the workforce;
- how communication will change from a need-to-know model to a good-to-know model;
- and why the workplace of the future will resemble the open source community.
Every year, Accenture, the global technology service and outsourcing firm with $23.9 billion in revenue for 2008, does a thorough analysis to identify the major technology trends that will change the underlying business models and capabilities. In 2009, research conducted by Dr. Kishore Swaminathan, Accenture's chief scientist, identified four major trends that will define the technology landscape over the next five years: Internet computing, data management, mobility, and convergence of unified communications, collaboration, community, and content distribution. He says, "These technology trends will give businesses a new capability that we call elasticity. They will allow every aspect of a business -- from IT to businesses process to how a company innovates -- to be more flexible, and to expand, contract and change, depending on current market conditions."
To derive more revenue and business value from this elasticity, businesses must get all of these four technologies just right. Take Internet computing, For example. Swaminathan says that transformational technology trends often pose a dilemma for CIOs who now face a possible change to their applications, the enterprise architecture, or the business models. "You have several choices: You can commit to a major change that will take much time and money, and you won't see much business value right away. On the other hand, you can ignore the trend or put it aside, and then you can wait until you have no choice but to spend a lot of money and embrace the new trend. Many CIOs need to go experiment and get comfortable with things, such as how to source storage, or software as a service (SaaS). They have to understand the pros and cons."
Swaminathan says that many CIOs he has spoken with have a visceral reaction to SaaS, especially with security and data privacy issues. He adds that the visceral reaction is fine. "Ultimately, CIOs have to make a business decision based on solid empirical data. They have to get Internet computing right in the long run, but for the short term they need to experiment, gather as much data as possible, and learn about the model. Unless they are comfortable with a new technology, they shouldn't put in it on a critical path."
Accenture definitely practices what it preaches about technology trends. In fact, Accenture acquires as much first-experience with a technology before deploying it. Swaminathan says, "We try to determine if we have a successful model or not." Accenture's approach to collaboration mirrors this practice. The company has created a version of LinkedIn, called PeoplePages, where more than 100,000 Accenture employees have already posted their professional profiles. Swaminathan says the site enables employees to find communities or individuals with certain expertise. Meanwhile, the company has begun a project to put its collective knowledge into the Accenture Encyclopedia, modeled after Wikipedia. He says, "We're encouraged by the progress we have made to date." Accenture also has developed its own version of YouTube, where employees can use video to convey difficult concepts and then distribute those videos to colleagues.
Bio
Dr. Kishore Swaminathan is chief scientist at Accenture where he defines the company's technology vision and helps to set the company's research and development agenda. He also heads Accenture's Systems Integration research located in the United States, France, and India. Swaminathan joined Accenture in 1990, taking a position in Accenture's Center for Strategic Technology Research. He has a bachelor's degree in technology and aeronautical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology of Madras and holds a master's and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He was a Smithsonian Fellow. Media outlets ranging from ABC Evening New to The Wall Street Journal have featured his work.
Resources
The Grill: To Kishore Swaminathan, CIO means 'chief intelligence officer' - Computerworld
Enterprise 2.0: turning consumer-driven Web 2.0 technologies into business value - Kishore Swaminathan, Accenture
Accenture: Time is ripe to test cloud computing - ZDNet
Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio Producer
Audio Editing by Doug Marcis
