Accenture launches Liquid Studio in Johannesburg, South Africa
Accenture has recently launched a new studio that aims at helping clients with accelerating their digital business transformation efforts. Based in Johannesburg, the new Liquid Studio will collaborate with the firm’s other studios situated in locations across the world, including Sydney, Singapore, Silicon Valley, Paris, Milan, London, Kronberg, and other locations.
In recent times, leading global consulting firm Accenture has been substantially boosting investment in its South Africa operations, particularly in the fields of training and hiring. The firm is also focussed on forging strategic relationships in the region to help drive innovation. In September, the firm came to a long-term, multi-million dollar agreement with Microsoft and Avanade, with the aim of helping companies “better detect, investigate, and respond to cyber threats.”
In its latest move, Accenture has launched its newest liquid studio in Johannesburg. Having been established in 18 locations worldwide, Liquid studios are an integral part of the firm’s innovation philosophy and overall process. In essence, the studios offer an open, interactive environment for intensive experimentation, where experts from the firm and clients can work hand-in-hand to create innovative and tailor-made solutions.
The primary objective lies in reducing the time to delivery and market impact drastically from weeks or months to days. To this end, the firm applies and tests the latest state of the art solutions in DevOps and the increasingly popular agile technologies. In addition, clients are provided the space to experiment with the latest disruptive technologies across the market, including: blockchain technologies, which are running rampant in the financial sector; cloud-based services, which have gained significant momentum in the IT industry; and even artificial intelligence and automation, which is increasingly improving procedural efficiency in organisations.
The studio operations will be supplemented by Accenture’s broader innovation infrastructure. Firstly, the studios work closely with Accenture Labs, where the firm conducts R&D projects with the aim of incubating and prototyping new concepts. In addition, the studio also leverages the capabilities of the firm’s innovation and delivery centres for their research and ventures.
Commenting on the methodology and procedures of the initiative, Managing Director for Accenture Technology in South Africa, Willie Schoeman said, “Through immersive workshops, organisations will receive tangible, hands-on experience of how their business can benefit from the most disruptive technologies. By leveraging agile teams, a start-up culture and multi-speed, microservice and cloud-based architectures, organisation will see more value quickly and lead in the new digital world.”
On the overall expansion of the firm in South Africa, Accenture’s innovation lead in South Africa elaborated, “Business cycle times are shrinking and competitive barriers are disappearing making speed to market critical in the digital world. The Liquid Studio will help deliver innovative solutions to businesses with speed and agility, The next wave of South African growth and competitiveness will come from continuous innovation, and I am proud that we are working closely with our clients to fuel innovation and solve critical business problems at speed and scale.”
On a global rampage
The boost in investment in South Africa is reflective of an overall boost in Accenture’s operations worldwide. In July this year, the firm earmarked a huge sum of $1.8 billion purely for the purpose of acquisitions around the globe, having already acquired three firms in the month before that, consisting of SolutionsIQ, Phase One Consulting Group and Intrepid, all based in the US.
Since July, the firm has made a number of additional acquisitions. In August, the firm acquired UK based sales consultancy Brand Learning for an undisclosed fee. A month later, the firm acquired VERAX Solutions, a technology consulting firm based in Canada that employs over 180 people. In the last two months, the firm has acquired: UK-based investment consulting firm Investit; US/Australia based consulting firm IBB; and has unveiled plans to acquire the French digital agency Altima, which has a team of 370 people spread across the France, Canada, the US and China.
