HFS Highlight: Accenture’s myWizard is operationalizing the journey toward the OneOffice

Among all the noise and hype around RPA and Hyperautomation, IT-centric automation approaches rarely get pushed into the limelight. Which in itself tells a story about how our industry works, as the level of automation but also the level of innovation for those IT-centric requirements is significantly higher. Furthermore, with the onset of Covid-19, we have to bring the discussions back to fully digitized processes and end-to-automation as organizations with only partially digitized processes have been found wanting. Thus, discussions with executives at Accenture about the release of a new generation of their myWizard Intelligent Automation platform was a timely occasion to take stock of those discussions.

myWizard is shifting the mindset from run to transformation

When myWizard got launched back in 2016, it comprised a broad set of building blocks that can be leveraged in a similar way we got used to thinking about PaaS platforms like IBM’s Bluemix that allows clients to build applications in a plug-and-play studio approach without the need for comprehensive coding. The myWizard platform has enhanced those building blocks by virtual agents that interact with developers and service desk agents. Fast forward to 2020, the platform offers a much deeper integration and support of DevOps and Distributed Agile automation capabilities. Furthermore, it offers an expansive pre-optimization for the migration toward Cloud Native. These development efforts are reflected in the perception of Accenture describing the evolution of myWizard as a shift in mindset from more traditional IT operations with an emphasis on run toward a “modern engineering” one. As exhibit 1 outlines, AI is at the center of myWizard which underpins a broad set of assets that are being curated in a library. Painting with a broad brush those assets are moving the emphasis from a proactive to a predictive model of operationalizing application and testing services. Having said that, Accenture was clear that myWizard is focused on service delivery rather than being a product. However, they will license it where clients want to extend it to other partners and business.

Exhibit 1: Overview of Accenture’s MyWizard platform

Source: Accenture 2020

myWizard is the North Star for service providers’ digital and automation platforms

From the expansive set of assets, 4 stood out for us. myWizard for Automation Journey is the reference point for benchmarking an organization’s current automation maturity, identifying opportunities and creating an ROI-driven structured intelligent automation journey across modern engineering and modern operations; backed by a rich data fabric and benchmarks across the industry.. The client business objectives and their current benchmark data is the base to define the “North Stars” for the transformation. In turn, those North Stars are being mapped to business and IT KPIs, driving the shift from traditional IT SLAs to Business Service Assurance. With myWizard for Applications + Infrastructure (AIOps) the platform got extended to the nuts and bolts of infrastructure and application management. The activities range from more traditional monitoring, event correlation, and proactive issue identification to more next-generation activities such as auto-triaging and self-healing. Having said that, executives were transparent in that self-healing is dependent on perceived confidence in use cases. Therefore, the threshold for automation may vary, especially as far as production systems are concerned.

While myWizard for Automation in the Cloud is driving the capabilities toward Cloud Native scenarios, myWizard Automation Marketplace is underlining the holistic approach to Intelligent Automation. It is an out-of-the-box, pre-configured catalog of bots that accelerates the development of automation use cases across the IT delivery lifecycle on multiple technology platforms. Examples of those bots are RPA libraries for SAP, Oracle, and Salesforce.

In our view, the myWizard platform offers clients the most expansive set of Intelligent Automation capabilities to date. Expansive both in terms of an holistic approach to Intelligent Automation but also more specially to more IT-centric capabilities. The deep integration and support of DevOps and distributed agile automation capabilities are intrinsically aligned to HFS’ concept of the journey toward the OneOffice. Yet, the challenge remains in convincing clients to go beyond point solutions on their journey toward the OneOffice. Thus, their North Stars are organizations that have the willingness and set up to drive real change.

Bottom-line: myWizard is a compelling proposition for end-to-end automation, yet many customers are stuck in incrementalism referenced by a sea of point solutions.

Thus, doubling down on business outcomes as Accenture is doing is prudent way of lifting the discussion from a narrow technology and tool-centric mindset that is all too prevalent in IT operations. Unsurprisingly, this is strongly aligned with HFS framework of the journey toward the OneOffice. Consequently, myWizard is literally operationalizing that journey.