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Thinking Big About Mobile Widgets
Mobile widgets—compact software applications that push Internet content and functionality to a mobile device—represent a significant market potential for service and content providers. Although consumer-oriented widgets get most of the attention, Accenture believes that enterprise-focused mobile widgets have the greatest potential to drive high performance. Helping Consumers Manage Their Digital Homes: The Importance of Premium Technical Services
Digital home technologies and services are an important and growing market. Yet companies that expect to achieve profitable growth in this industry must help consumers manage the technical complexities of the digital home-through more user-friendly products and through managed digital home services. Eight Trends to Watch in Mobile Computing
Mobile computing, communications and services are reshaping our world. Here are the top eight mobile technology trends to watch—trends that will affect usage patterns and industry positioning in the years ahead. Driving High Performance with Managed Services for Digital Content Creation and Distribution
Accenture believes that the time is now right for media and communications companies on the path to high performance to seek out larger-scale managed services solutions capable of handling the entire digital value chain from end to end. The Service Delivery Platform Is Dead. Long live SDP 2.0!
Behind all those innovative services consumers are enjoying with their mobile devices lies something called a "service delivery platform," or SDP. A new generation, SDP 2.0, is helping advanced communications companies create and roll out new services more effectively. Achieving High Performance by Transforming Sales Operations
To achieve profitable growth, executives need to focus their sales effectiveness programs more pointedly on transforming sales operations—the processes, infrastructure and administrative support that underpin everything a sales organization and its people do. It's a Mobile World, After All: Trends from the 2008 Mobile World Congress
There's no better place to assess trends in wireless technologies and services than the annual Mobile World Congress. Getting any kind of content to any kind of device, anywhere and anytime, was one big focus of this year's Congress. Here's a discussion of that trend, and several others in a mobile world. Successfully Expanding Outsourcing and Offshoring Strategies in the Publishing Industry
As competitive pressures mount, companies in the publishing industry must make greater use of offshoring and outsourcing models. These strategies carry risks. But by evolving their business practices and developing new approaches in areas such as training and project management, offshoring and outsourcing can be significant drivers of high performance in the publishing industry. Customer Portals: A Key to Achieving Customer Centricity and High Performance
Customer-centricity is critical to achieving high performance for today's communications, high-tech and media companies. A key aspect of a customer-centric strategy is the customer portal, which enables the creation, sharing and distribution of personalized content, as well as access to social networking and self-service capabilities. Advanced portal strategies can improve customer retention while driving customer service costs down. Living in a Device-Centric World
Creating compelling services across any consumer device—the TV, PC or mobile phone—requires an understanding of consumer needs as well as the underlying technology architecture that makes it all happen. Driving Service Innovation in Communications, High Tech and Media: The Impact of Google's Android Platform
The new Android development platform for wireless services, announced by Google and the Open Handset Alliance, has the potential for a big impact on wireless service innovation. How to Make a Lasting Contribution
How do we make a lasting contribution to our organizations, our communities or to the world? Here is a blueprint for setting a goal, creating a plan, marshalling resources and taking action. The new rules for customer service: Findings from the Accenture Global Customer Satisfaction Survey
Recommendations based on Accenture's latest annual Global Customer Satisfaction Survey can help companies influence consumer buying decisions and increase long-term loyalty. Shared services and high performance in a multi-polar world
The business case for shared services most often focuses on cost efficiencies. Accenture believes, however, that shared services is also an important enabler of success in a multi-polar world—a world requiring effective operations across regions of dispersed economic power. Achieving High Performance in the Japanese Insurance Industry
Japanese insurers must have in place a clear roadmap for the strategies and capabilities necessary to achieve high performance; this article looks at the characteristics of a high-performance insurance company. Walking the talk: Making the workforce investments that drive high performance from the finance function
Feel as if your finance organization is underperforming …not contributing as much as it should to business value? The problem might be an underinvestment in your finance workforce. Return on Learning, Part 8: Using technology to create a high-performance learning organization
New technologies, properly deployed, can support dramatic improvements in the business impact of enterprise learning. Revolutionizing HR Transformation for Business Impact
If HR transformation is to be successful, a new "portfolio-based" approach to creating business value through HR is necessary. This approach focuses on the needs of the business, not just on creating new HR roles, governance and jobs. Return on learning, Part 7: Running learning like a business
Increasing the business value generated from enterprise learning depends on running learning like a business: improving program management capabilities, leveraging technology in learning delivery and using more effective sourcing strategies. Communications & High Tech: Mastering Social Ecosystem Marketing
New global research from Accenture provides provocative and practical insights for communications, high tech and media companies about how to more effectively understand, segment and market to their digital customers. Understanding your customers' extended household and social ecosystem is key. Return on Learning, Part 6: "Phenomenal Learning" : A Key to Enterprise Learning Transformation
Cost control and efficiency are important goals of an enterprise learning transformation program; but so is delivering "phenomenal learning"—creating a surprising and delighting level of excellence in every aspect of the training experience. Exploiting the Full Potential of Mobile Video Services
For communications service providers, mobile TV services have real potential to boost top-line revenue growth, increase market share and improve customer satisfaction and retention. The scale of the opportunity is enormous. According to Accenture and IDC estimates, the mobile TV market value will be worth $30 billion by 2009. Return on Learning, Part 5: The Role of Governance and Leadership in Learning Transformation
A distinctive characteristic of any organizational transformation program is that it takes time—often several years if high performance is to be achieved and sustained. Return on Learning, Part 4: Maximizing the Business Impact of Enterprise Learning
One of the most important trends in enterprise learning is the ever-sharpening focus on linking corporate training programs to the business. Driving Successful Outsourcing through the Transformation of the Retained Workforce
Frequently forgotten in the details of an outsourcing arrangement are the retained workforce and the portion of a business process remaining in-house. Here's how to make sure transformational outsourcing effectively improves the performance of both the outsourced and retained portions of a business process. Embedding Change Management into Your Service-Oriented Architecture Development Strategy
A major shift in information systems and business solutions development is now under way: a move from application-centric to services-centric computing, also known as service-oriented architecture. Return on Learning, Part 3: Measuring the Return on Investment in Training
What is the value of an organization's training programs? What is the return on investment in enterprise learning and other workforce enablement initiatives? Human Performance: Managing the Risks of a Changing Workforce
A talent crisis is at hand in many industries and areas of the world, fueled by demographics, business and technology change, and evolving worker expectations. A comprehensive approach to risk mitigation is needed to respond to this crisis. Return on Learning, Part 2: Creating a Vision and Plan for Learning and Enterprise Transformation
Sustaining the benefits of an enterprise learning transformation program requires a sound business case, careful planning from the core leadership team and a vision rooted in the organization's core values. Finance Mastery (V): The Foundational Mastery of Finance Operations
Among the finance capabilities to be mastered in the pursuit of high performance, finance operations is the most fundamental. Finance organizations must achieve excellence within their basic accounting and administrative operations. Moving from Strategy to Execution to High Performance
Recent Accenture research, including in-depth conversations with executives, points both to the importance of innovation to growth strategies and to the largest obstacles companies must overcome to execute on those strategies. Return on Learning, Part 1: Generating Business Impact From an Enterprise Learning Transformation Program
An enterprise learning transformation program can deliver significant business returns, but requires an integrated suite of activities, from vision to governance to the innovative application of advanced technologies and learning solutions. Finance Mastery (III): Mastering Enterprise Performance Management
According to Accenture research, high-performance businesses possess a powerful drive toward value creation. Finance Mastery (IV): How High Performers Become Effective Financial Stewards
An effective finance organization is a faithful steward of the general financial health and direction of a company but, more specifically, of its financial capital. Shared Services Insights (Part 1): An Implementation Model for Successful Public-sector Programs
Closing the gap between planning and effective delivery is vital if the public sector is to reap the full benefits of shared services. This four-part model can lead to more cost-effective and timely shared services implementations. Shared Services Insights (Part 2): The Importance of Governance to Successful Implementations
Effective governance is essential to successful government shared services implementations. In this article, experienced government executives share their insights into effective governance during a shared services implementation. Finance Mastery (II): Enterprise Risk Management as a Key to High Performance
These days, all business is risky business. Threats to data and network security are everywhere, and failure of internal controls can severely damage the future of a business. Driving the Full Business Value of Mergers and Acquisitions through Better IT Due Diligence
Due diligence is an essential component of mergers and acquisitions that are successful in the long run and contribute to high performance. A detailed and open examination of legal and financial information can help ensure that a final "go" or "no-go" decision is made based on rational analysis and not merely hype or hope. What the Finance Masters Know: Mastering the Finance Capabilities that Support High Performance
Businesses and governments are increasingly turning to their finance organizations to help them on their quest to reach high performance. Accenture research has identified five essential capabilities of those who have mastered finance and performance management. Alliances: Adapting Governance Models to Maximize Alliance Performance
Strategic alliances are an increasingly important part of companies' strategies for sustaining high performance. Yet too many alliances underperform due to inadequate attention to matters of governance. Here are the keys to maximizing alliance performance through stronger governance structures. Governance and Government Transformation: Private Lessons for the Public Sector
Government agencies are adapting public-sector governance models to their unique environments to increase their chances for successful transformational efforts. Driving Speed to Value from an M&A Growth Strategy: Establishing an In-house Merger Integration Capability
For companies using acquisitions as an instrument of growth, an internal merger integration core capability is essential to capture and preserve maximum value from each deal. Finance Mastery (I): Value-centered Culture and High Performance
Accenture research has identified a value-centered culture as one of the key capabilities of finance mastery. Several common characteristics can be found in companies that have mastered the ability to create a value-centered culture through the finance function. The Role of a Service Delivery Platform in the Battle for New Communications Revenues
By creating a consistent, highly automated and reusable service environment—and by facilitating a more collaborative approach to product development—a Service Delivery Platform can dramatically accelerate a positive return on investment. Keys to High Performance in the Mobile Virtual Network Operator Marketplace
The marketplace for mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) is heating up around the world. Yet the downside risks are real. Every player must overcome a similar series of obstacles to achieving high performance with an MVNO strategy. IPTV Success: Lessons from the Front Line
Internet Protocol television, or IPTV, is a critical part of every communications service provider's strategy. Based on IPTV experiences and lessons learned by early adopters, here are some critical IPTV insights and the most important factors to be addressed for IPTV success. Outlook Special Edition
Outlook Special Edition: Breaking Away
How to create value with information technology
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