Accenture’s Adam Burden on Tech in 2022, from Cloud to Digital Transformation

hi i'm james mcguire and on today's e-speaks we're taking a look at where the enterprise tech world is heading in 2022 from cloud to edge computing we'll talk about digital transformation and the democratization of technology some big heavy terms in short we're taking a deep dive into the future to provide insight into all that i'm joined by a very special guest with me is adam burden who leads accenture technology in north america he's the chief software engineer at accenture adam very good to have you with us today great to be here thanks james so much and you know it is that time of year for predictions and the holidays so happy holidays and i'm pleased to have a chance to talk to you about where we think things are heading and and by the way i do absolutely love your sweater there today it feels very festive and very holiday well i didn't win the ugly sweater contest but i really tried hard if you can tell by the quality of this one never would have guessed it no all right so uh you've made some really interesting predictions i think for the upcoming year here's here's one of them uh you say quote cloud will continue its dominance which of course i think we get that one which means that managing and optimizing hybrid cloud environments will be front and center as well as charting the right strategy around using cloud to accelerate 5g and edge deployments that's really fascinating so you're tying in cloud and edge and also 5g how does that work for you well first we we really do feel strongly that these um technology disruptors are going to amplify each other in fact so much so we put them inside of our same cloud first practice uh because we think there's a lot of synergies to be gained uh in the way that uh edge deployments are gonna are going to take place in the future uh from what we have learned that has occurred and taken place in cloud and i do want to underscore that the cloud will remain a very dominant um element of so many uh technology strategies heading into next year but we believe that this is finally the year i think we've been saying this for a while but this is really finally the year where edge is really going to take off uh we think that the maturity of the technology is there uh the demand uh is is picking up quite significantly uh and we also believe that there's been a lot of innovations in this space uh introductions you know of of newer releases from like the google antho solution uh or what's happened in other areas which is really bringing this to prominence and making edge quite real uh and whether that's on the factory floor or if it's in autonomous vehicles or otherwise we think there's going to be this great explosion of edge demand the coming year not to mention you've got this other effect of 5g out there which is going to further enable people to take advantage of edge even faster just take a look at some of the announcements that aws made at re invent just a few weeks ago around what they're doing to bring private edge out and newer advances that they've got in edge as well uh it's pretty obvious this is going to be a big year for edge ahead and we think it's only going to be amplified by what's happened with cloud you know it's interesting about 5g i always hear 5g it's always you know on the way on the way on the way sorry are you thinking that it's kind of like cold fusion isn't it it's cold i think i think cold fusion is actually even further out than 5g if possible uh but um are you thinking 5g is going to be more than vaporware in the year 2022 yeah we are uh you know there look the um first of all i think that the what the carriers have done to begin deploying the technology has really accelerated things the thing that's been i think really interesting is some of the partnerships that are happening between um what i'll call new entrants in the carrier field like aws for example um private companies are setting up kind of their own private g 5g infrastructure as well as the adoption in devices and technology of being able to use 5g and i think that those things really have started to encourage and further the adoption of it and we believe as well based upon the the current coverage areas that are out there and the ever expanding approach of this that this is also something that's really going to make an impact in the in the coming year and something to keep your eye on too you know about both backwards compatibility with other uh communications technology and being able to really embrace what 5g uh is going to be able to do you know the difference in latency with 5g is the thing that i think is is really going to unlock a lot of the value of edge you think about something like um you know having autonomous vehicles or other things where real-time control or near real-time control is is absolutely paramount 5g gives you that especially with huge volumes of data and that's why we believe it's really going to be an accelerator interesting uh your next bold prediction is called across the business you say the democratization of technology is encouraging the decentralization of the i.t workforce as non-technical employees gain the tools to build their own solutions some of the burden is removed from it this means that it can work more hand in hand with business departments to build solutions that are aligned with specific needs and goals you know i think one of the most fascinating ideas is the democratization of technology it feels like that trend is being underreported in short it's this ability for for non-technical staffers to do more and more with technology that's a big big trend with what's going on today agree disagree i know you must agree really i agree i've written and talked about the this area for quite a while uh and i believe that uh yeah the the um enablement of business users uh to perform their own technology uh tasks and services especially being able to build their own apps to a degree is is the step that's really going to get us across the finish line with enabling the business um and uh i think that there's quite a bit of momentum out there in this space i um i wrote a blog not too long ago um that started off with the line and it was from one of my favorite movies it was uh this um movie called ratatouille where there's definite and he says everybody can cook i like to say everybody can code and i really believe that if you if you put the business users and enable them with these low code no code tools in the right way you're going to be amazed at the solutions and innovations that they that they create uh and we're at such an interesting period right now in this democratization of technology this enablement of the business to do even more and i really believe and accenture does as well that this is really just one of these other major changes that happens as all businesses become more digital businesses uh because the truly digital enterprise would need technical skills in every facet of their organization and now you're seeing them being enabled and let's not make no mistake too in many cases this is happening out of necessity i mean the scarcity of i.t skills that are out there it's it's no mistake right where this is something where it's very real and difficult to find uh very high-end skills so being able to take um folks that have a business acumen or expertise in a process technology or perhaps in a manufacturing area or otherwise in enabling with these types of tools it's going to unleash new areas of innovation and this democratization of technology is exactly what we need at the right time to be able to do that you know i think definitely with low code no code we're at an inflection point it's that's headed sort of it feels like hockey stick exponential growth in the years ahead i mean the one thing i've heard uh some a quibble about low code no code is that hey it is great but think about the cyber security you know problem potential cyber security i mean that that's that's that create really opens up a pandora's box does it though um i i think it does if if you do it sort of in an unbridled way um but the way that we look at it is is that you want to you want to create almost like bumper car uh like apparatuses around uh your low code no code environments and even to to a degree create almost tiering uh of different types of users of load low code no code solutions and we think that through that you can mitigate against a lot of the cyber security risks that might be out there so for example you might have a level one which is for people with really no formal training in software development or otherwise and really you know some of the restrictions in there are um yeah maybe they're not permitted to write directly to like a relational database or um the apps that they build um have to comply fully with the authentication and single sign-on capability of the enterprise um and then you know so that would be for like the true like we'll call the uh the level one brand new kind of uh into software development and then as people get more advanced they can actually graduate to other tiers and get more freedom um we think there's a balance here though james should be to be clear like um if you put too many restrictions on that exactly what you want to achieve with this unleashing of innovation and other things is is going to be compressed right so we don't want to do that what we want to do is to create something with almost bumper cars around it so people can have fun but they're not going to get hurt and they're not going to cause problems with cyber security around it and that's what it should be about it's about unleashing that creativity and the um enabling people who have not traditionally been able to build applications to do exactly that you think we've come up with the right solution to exactly how to solve that and address some of those concerns all right so your next big prediction is called in the classroom yeah and you say i like i like this one with a constant shortage of tech talent more emphasis is needed on worker upskilling and collaboration for instance accenture invested 900 million for employees to complete 31 million hours of training in tech and business topics organizations will need to first define the roles of the future and then prepare their i.t workforce it's sort of it actually it also relates to the democratization of technology a bit here what's your take on this one yeah i you look um uh i think that any organization these days who's taking a look at the labor market sort of recognizes that they they can't just be a recruiter of technology talent they have to be a creator of talent right so what are they going to do to cooperate and collaborate to reach further down into the talent generation networks and make sure that they're they're encouraging building talents and capabilities which are aligned uh with what their future needs are anticipated to be yes you have to pull out the crystal ball a little bit but in in that tradition that's what this session is all about right talking about what the future is so right think about it you know are there uh partnerships with universities or even high schools we're by the way doing some of that with high schools even to bring students into our organization into our offices early as possible to start getting them thinking about careers in this space and with colleges and universities you know for example we're working with one right now around uh data science um where we're collaborating with senior projects in the data science space to be able to talk to them about um have you have you thought about how to solve these kinds of problems using uh r um or data acquisition technology or dealing with um challenges and data quality and that really gets them sort of excited and interested in what a career in this space could be and that's why we really need to invest in this and it's not just for our own employees we yes we invest a lot of um of our market development investment dollars every year in making sure that our people have the most current skills but i also think we have to reach beyond that into the future generation recruits and make sure that we're building the talent that we want to be there and we're starting to attract them to our company as well we think other organizations really should be doing something similar because we have to be talent creators there's just not enough out there to go around yeah i mean i think if you if you're in college now and you're in your major is data science or a related field you will not have any trouble finding work that's i think you're not going to have much trouble finding it finding opportunities that's for sure yeah uh your your last one here is is need you call it on a platform and it goes like this companies are growing and converging by building platforms that other companies can use to provide complimentary services these network effect platforms often create new business models and strengthen strategic partnerships all with considerably less investment uh describe the platforms you're talking about yeah this is a this this area of the platform space um you know i'm sort of reminded by that adage of you know we sort of underestimate uh the time frame in which disruptive technologies will become important and then and then really uh us rather we overestimate the time frame in which they come in and then underestimate the impact um several years ago there was a great uh book that was published i'm sure you're familiar with it around platform revolution uh that really talked about these things um and i think right now we're on the precipice of an explosion uh in in the platform space we see our customers really thinking differently uh about how they want to present to their uh digital um customers and business partners and even employees out there and they're finding that like things from the network effect of a platform can really benefit them it allows them to expand into adjacent industries and to receive new growth that was unexpected uh it gives them an opportunity to protect against risks in their future i i recall one client in particular who's embarking on a journey and many others but one in particular was in the insurance industry very concerned about the way that um automotive was beginning to bundle insurance into uh into cars so you would almost buy cars as a service and they were concerned like how does this create from a like a dyson intermediation effect and what is this impact to our business as a result so what they embarked on was a more full-featured platform solution to engage better with their customers introduce them to new financial products and services new insurance uh solutions and other things so at the time you know that perhaps you know we do all start buying cars as a service and maybe that's in the future that's not a prediction i'm gonna make today though well i think it may be coming but yeah anyways it could be coming but they're well insulated against it because you know what they've created a genuine network effect they've invited others onto that platform they're benefiting from distribution power law and the other benefits that we all talked about and believed in when when platform revolution was was released and we said oh this is tomorrow well it turns out it was a few years later but the impact is much bigger than i think we ever imagined uh and we believe and we're seeing today a lot of clients out there who are investing even further in these platforms whether it's to create their own or to join a platform with full force because they see the benefit and really believe in it for the future well let me clarify if you give maybe another example of a platform i i understand the the cars and bundling insurance with the sales of the cars but what's another example of a company maybe you can name a name if not that's okay of a company building a platform with this idea in mind yeah so there's quite a few out there that are doing things like this so another one is um one that kind of looks at like um academic achievements uh of of students and for a long time they're quite um you know it was involved in their primary purpose was around measuring that academic achievement but never really got into the hey what about tutoring or what about the analytics that we could run around students and look at correlations between the type of course load they took and their future success or their likelihood to get into a college or other things which people would be interested in consuming that what about the identity of all the students that have used that particular platform and they've been authenticated how can we actually create new opportunities for revenue and service on that i mean the possibilities really are unbounded when you open up your thinking to what if we were truly a platform business we bring others onto this platform we benefit from network effect and from the other things that are there and i don't think this is right by the way for every business to be clear but i think at least every business should be part of a platform ecosystem and for some of them they have an opportunity to create their own and create their own network effect as a result interesting well adam i think you said it i mean 2022 should be an interesting year at the very least i i hope it is only interesting uh maybe that's been my one optimistic thought me too please only be interesting right right exactly so perhaps we will talk a year from now at any rate have yourself a great holiday and and a great new year i'd like that james same back to you take care you

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