HFS Highlight: Five things you’ve always wanted to know about Accenture SynOps for Finance but were too afraid to ask

CFOs and the finance function are increasingly being pushed forward to drive transformation within organizations. And in a continually volatile world, they must choose wisely to channel limited resources towards activities that will create meaningful and sustainable improvements in finance operations. Global service partners, ERP platforms, third-party software vendors, and startups are all starting to work closer with their finance clients to stitch together the next evolution in running finance, and helping F&A become more strategic to the enterprise. Enter Accenture, a global consulting, IT, and operations services leader that already has an industry-leading finance and accounting services practice. The service released an Intelligent Operations Platform, Accenture SynOps, some time ago and many in the industry noted it but still haven’t fully absorbed it. Here’s five key aspects of Accenture SynOps for Finance to help you further understand and evaluate this comprehensive, yet complex solution!

What is Accenture SynOps for Finance exactly?

When a client comes to Accenture seeking F&A services capabilities, but also has an appetite for adopting emerging technologies to make significant process improvements and enable more intelligent operations, SynOps is the platform that Accenture uses to help the client realize its goals.  At the outset, SynOps is used to bring together the combination of human + machine talent, benchmarking and leading practices, diagnostic and process blueprinting solutions to deliver targeted business outcomes.  Through a multi-phased journey,  Accenture works with its clients throughout the lifecycle of the engagement, going from process re-design, to introducing and managing Intelligent automation assets, to creating predictive insights (such as predicting disputes for consumer goods clients or collection strategies for high-tech companies), and ultimately, enabling AI-driven intelligent operations (such as an AI adviser for cash apps or AI driven Reconciliations).

Accenture describes SynOps as a ‘platform’ and is using it as an umbrella solution to bring together the optimal combination of the four key elements of intelligent operations (diverse data, human + machine augmented solutions, work orchestration, insights and intelligence) to deliver tangible business outcomes for its clients.  Think business operations services delivered using a data-driven platform to track and optimize performance and workflows.

Accenture has tried to create a comprehensive approach for complex components, such as blending human and robotic automation workflows, or getting into the weeds of unstructured data analysis. The goal is to work with F&A clients to move towards specific business outcomes, such as working capital optimization or P&L impact, or balance sheet integrity and stitches together multiple services and technology accelerators to deliver on it.

Exhibit 1: Accenture SynOps is used to accelerate the move to an agile operating model for finance

Source: Accenture, 2020

Are we still at a hypothetical stage, or is SynOps actually real?

It’s real! HFS analysts were shown a demo including multiple examples of how Accenture is starting to use SynOps with clients.  As of now, SynOps has powered over 220 client journeys since launch (including 133 clients in finance operations). According to Accenture, 90% of its operations contracts have some parts of SynOps components already embedded within the engagements. SynOps also features in 60-70% of Accenture’s newer sales penetrations where the service provider tries to differentiate itself on bringing a vast technology canvas to life within operations.

What capabilities does it stitch together to deliver on the promise of SynOps?

Accenture brings together capabilities from across towers to deliver digital transformation for operations clients, executed through the lifecycle of the engagement. E.g. proprietary analytics and data science teams from its industry leading Applied Intelligence practice are embedded within Accenture’s F&A practice to work with clients, using SynOps to both spot and monitor opportunities, and roll out initiatives. Services and technology components that are part of the engagement are as follows:

• Services: Accenture will work across its Operations and Technology towers to provide services including:
  • F&A operations services
  • Emerging tech implementation and support services to keep client organization future ready
• Tech: Accenture uses a blend of technology accelerators, frameworks, and tools including:
  • Bringing key data across the F&A functional processes being managed, and benchmarking them against all of Accenture’s clients (and aggregated benchmarks across industries)
  • Process mining and discovery (including both proprietary and partner tooling), proprietary process maturity mapping and diagnostics
  • Analytics, ML, and automation solutions custom-built on leading third-party partner tools

Demonstrating client examples of SynOps to HFS, Accenture showed how the solution goes across process analysis and diagnostics, automation, analytics, and ML, all driving towards more “intelligent operations”.

How do clients buy Accenture SynOps for Finance?

Accenture SynOps for Finance is commercially built along 4 different layers:

• Fixed fee elements that include productivity commitments, depending on each client for ongoing F&A transactional services
• Business outcomes layer that starts to look at how Accenture delivers outcomes such as P&L benefits, improved working capital and forecasting. The service provider links performance with outcomes it delivers through gainshare or variable fee components
• Full suite of SynOps on cloud deployed to transform retained or captive operations
• Elements of SynOps or fit for purpose  Accenture patented solutions can be deployed discretely as well, commercially structured separately with direct linkages to client business cases

Accenture’s focus on measuring and tracking to certain KPIs and outcomes is evident throughout SynOps functionalities. For example, Accenture runs order-to-cash for one of its clients, and as a part of the O2C lifecycle, SynOps has a dashboard that tracks outcomes such as working capital optimization, and associated KPIs such as DSO, payment terms deviation, and past due percentages. The dashboard not only shows the current stats, but also indicates what the client’s industry peers report on these KPIs, giving a snapshot view into key problem areas for finance leaders to work through. Similarly, another foundational area of SynOps is tracking productivity, and it features a Global Productivity Hub to measure adoption, capacity utilization, and efficiency.

Does it really change anything in the F&A services market?

The F&A services market has not fundamentally changed in the last twenty years. We’ve been talking about the next level of delivering value on F&A engagements for over a decade, and only making small, incremental progress. Accenture’s approach starts to paint a picture of how F&A service providers can evolve their offerings to go beyond labor arbitrage, and embed data, functional and industry leading practices, analytics, automation, and AI in a tangible and integrated way to impact KPIs and business outcomes for clients.

The Bottom-Line: Accenture’s SynOps for Finance is starting to offer a glimpse into the next generation intelligent finance operations delivered by human + machine augmented solutions.

And the most compelling part to us is the industry specific benchmarking of F&A operational performance data between Accenture’s clients, which will provide a true, real-time view into what best-in-class really looks like, and how transformation efforts are actually paying off. We will continue to watch the progress of Accenture SynOps and its peers as a part of our F&A coverage. The central challenge is going to be how the service provider can turn every engagement into a SynOps one, and deliver the same benefits as an embedded part of all its F&A operations in the future.