As analysts, we spend considerable time at service provider events staring at slides featuring the logos of alliance partners. These always include the likes of SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft, and often EMC, Cisco and even increasingly IBM but recently we have noticed more and more attempts by service providers to position themselves in the “As-a-Service Economy” by including buzzworthy “Unicorns” that have recently emerged from startup phase or lesser known start-ups to disrupt some corner of the IT and business landscape.
These names are good to see but always raises the question whether they are generating real business or just a feel good logo swap to couple legitimacy with innovation. To go beyond that, we want to know how a service provider is systematically finding these start-ups and then connecting them with its G2000 clients. Quite frankly, it doesn’t fly for us when the answer to those questions is that the provider is opening an office in the Valley. While that location might be stimulating and fun, it is unlikely to yield much more than a greater awareness of the breadth of activity underway but not necessarily any more clarity as to what trends are emerging to disrupt the enterprise. This means those taking that approach will fall into the trap of being a fast follower, slapping up logos that have emerged and attempting to build practices around them after others already have.
This week while meeting with Accenture, we finally saw a program that seems to set itself apart from that model of presence by going a step further to define a program to identify and evaluate new start-ups from around the world and then test those start-ups for how they help drive business outcomes for clients. Started last year, the Accenture Open Innovation Network systematically builds relationships with accelerators like Rocketspace, as well as leading universities, client R&D labs, and top tier VCs. Out of this, they create a pipeline of startups with vetted technology and Accenture’s value add is to identify those with relevance to the business needs of the G2000. What sets this effort further apart from its peers is the creation of a two-way channel between the Open Innovation team and the Accenture client teams to capture and share what problems need solutions and then to look for the right start-ups to help solve those problems now. This dual channel of innovation from global enterprise to the valley is all too often missing when we talk with service providers about their logo slides.
For service providers, working with start-ups isn’t about finding the best investment or the coolest things first. It’s about knowing what the real needs of their clients are and then finding the new technologies that will solve those needs sooner and with the greatest competitive impact.
Less than a year in operation, the Accenture Open Innovation network has met with 300+ start-ups and identified 27 where practices are being developed in response to client needs. That’s the start of a program of “open innovation as-a-service,” which we at HfS can get behind.
