The market is moving toward an As-a-Service delivery model that provides plug-in, scalable, consumption-based business services that deliver the business outcomes that every organization demands—increased revenue or decreased costs.

1. The New World
of As-a-Service
The market is moving toward an As-a-Service delivery model
that provides plug-in, scalable, consumption-based business
services that deliver the business outcomes that every
organization demands—increased revenue or decreased costs.
The As-a-Service economy is
here but it’s catching some
businesses off guard
Our research with HfS Research finds:
But...
small and medium-size
enterprises are more likely
to see As-a-Service as critical
or absolutely critical for
these transformations. 42% 42% 25%
<$1B
$1B -$10B
>$10B
And...
Asia Pacific buyers are at
least twice as likely to see
As-a-Service as critical
or absolutely critical.
As-a-Service key benefits
1. Transforms business services
2. Supports new business models
3. Delivers business outcomes
Intelligent
Scale quickly
Robust
Plug in Pay for what
you use
Reduce costsInnovate faster Drive revenue
As-a-Service comprises a stack
of 5 components:
✓ Outcome oriented
✓ Vendor agnostic
✓ Innovation enabled
✓ Future protected
As-a-Service key value levers
Unlock greater cost control, faster processing, streamlined processes
and a better user experience. If your current mode of service delivery
is not hitting these value levers, you’re not yet benefiting from the
full power of As-a-Service. Consider this a checklist:
As-a-Service success
How to achieve As-a-Service transformation
Be prepared to encounter resistance
and manage change
Research shows 63 percent of the C-suite versus 21 percent
of operations executives expect their services to be cloud
based within two years. Change management is critical;
be sure the whole business is aware of the overall
strategy and buys into it.
Comfort
zone
CFO
21%
63%
C-suite Operations
These early movers are at a tremendous advantage. Large incumbents
may be at risk if they do not aggressively pursue As-a-Service capabilities.
Learn to buy in new ways
Executive leadership will need to be educated about
how to buy As-a-Service in a piece-by-piece manner.
Focus on leadership and talent
Only 1 in 4 buyers are actively addressing their talent
shortfall. Success with As-a-Service requires broad
and deep expertise across your business.
Blend your analytics and automation
strategies to deliver intelligent automation
Currently 70 percent of companies have definitive plans for,
or are considering, investments in effective analytics tools
and skills. By contrast, only 40 percent are that advanced
with their plans for robotic process automation.
70%
40%
Start small, pilot, pivot, then scale
An As-a-Service model allows you to start small and scale
fast in a way that other models don't. Choose a function
that is less business critical or a single geography: use
that success to build commitment with leadership and
middle management.
Build a relationship that drives innovation
The best providers are not just transaction engines, but
consultants—always looking for ways to advise, identify
and drive additional value, re-engineer and even unravel
processes, not just incrementally improve them.
Agile
Business Processes
Applications & Platforms
Cloud
Security
Infrastructure
Business processes are optimized by applying industry and functional expertise alongside
automation and analytics technologies to drive greater efficiencies and productivity,
capture new value and unlock actionable insights that drive faster innovation and
deliver business outcomes such as increased revenue and reduced costs.
Underpinning every business process is a supporting application or platform. Using new
and emerging digital technologies ranging from robotic process automation to artificial
intelligence to SaaS platforms—to standardize, analyze, automate, drive and support
business processes, and to deliver high-quality data.
The connective tissue of the digital business, providing enterprises with the agility to
accelerate innovation by enabling them to plug into core business services and scale
those services up and down quickly, on demand and at scale.
Comprehensive, proactive and adaptive threat protection embedded into the fabric of the
digital business at speed and at scale.
An intelligent infrastructure that is dynamic, real time, always on and always available,
enabling businesses to take advantage of the latest technologies and allowing rapid
deployment and provisioning of resources.
Analytics
Underpinning the entire stack of
capabilities is analytics—descriptive,
predictive and prescriptive—embedded
in business processes to help companies
identify trends and opportunities to
streamline processes, innovate and
improve competitiveness.
Expertise
On-demand access to industry,
operational and technology acumen
across each layer of the “stack.” The
combination of forward-thinking
leadership with transformational
consulting through to operational
expertise enables continuous innovation.
As-a-Service can transform business services, enabling
more intelligent, agile and robust business operations, as
well as innovation that disrupts existing business processes
and supports entirely new business models.
Accenture–accelerating the
As-a-Service economy.
enterprises do not expect
their core operations to be
delivered As-a-Service for
at least 5 years...
7out of 10
✓ Plug in
✓ Scalable
✓ Standardized
✓ Consumption based
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of senior vice presidents and
above see the As-a-Service
economy as critical or
absolutely critical for their
organization.
53%
Copyright ©2015 Accenture. All Rights Reserved. Accenture, its
logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.
This document is produced by consultants at Accenture as general
guidance. It is not intended to provide specific advice on your
circumstances. If you require advice or further details on any
matters referred to, please contact your Accenture representative.
Source: “Beware of the Smoke, Your Platform is Burning:
Thriving in the As-a-Service Economy,” HfS Research 2015.
Absolutely critical
Critical
Significant
Insignificant
SVP & Up
37%
16%
47%