Forbes
November 11, 2014
For a techie, Ashish Kumar landed his first job in a rather low-tech way: Through an ad he saw printed in ACM, a trade magazine. “A lot of research geeks like myself would read that in grad school,” he says with a laugh.
That was in the mid-1980s perhaps the last time anyone in the tech industry looked for a job in a magazine or newspaper. Just a bit over a generation later, Kumar is leading the charge in helping his clients climb to the next level of technological sophistication as Chief Growth Officer at Avanade, a global IT and business service provider with $2 billion in sales.
A joint-venture between Microsoft and Accenture, Avanade has its origins in incorporating Microsoft’s Windows 2000 and .NET products into clients’ business operations.
But for the past several years, Kumar says, Avanade has been transforming itself in two distinct ways.
One is moving up the value chain into more advanced software product lines-such as integrating Microsoft’s Dynamics Suite to handle higher-level customer demands in CRM (customer relationship management) and ERP (enterprise resource planning).
The second: Aiming to become a long-term client partner, providing not only technical systems integration expertise, but offering the technological know-how that comes from nearly 15 years in the business.
“What’s been exciting is as Avanade has grown, we ourselves have changed,” says Kumar. “We have gone from a pure technology integrator to what we call a business technology , managed services and cloud provider.”
Avanade is one-upping the competition, Kumar adds. Typically, when Avanade wins new business, “not only are we giving them an economic benefit, but more predictable and improved service levels,” he says. “We are also then bringing innovation to the party, which is something that a lot of our customers have said they don’t typically get from the traditional outsourcers or the pure-play offshore companies.”
Kumar says, “Avanade is doing something right”.
Headquartered in Seattle, Avanade has experienced double-digit sales growth during the last four- years. It now has 22,000 professionals working in 21 countries. Avanade also boasts earning Microsoft’s coveted “Enterprise Partner of the Year” title eight times, an honor that’s harder to win than it may seem, given Avanade’s close relationship with the software behemoth.
Says Kumar: “Microsoft is very clear. They work with lots of partners and their account teams align with the partner that’s the most qualified for the job.”
As for Avanade’s financial structure, Accenture is its majority owner and its financials are consolidated into those of the consulting firm.
Presently, Avanade sees the bulk of its revenue come from application and infrastructure services and helping clients maximize value by integrating their ERP and CRM portfolios.
But Kumar says Avanade is now moving into the next stage of its transformation: To be the cloud and digital leader helping customers realize results.
One major focus here is on what Kumar calls the “digital customer”-the idea that companies should reach their customers in not only the ways in which they now expect to be reached, such as via text message or email, but also in the context of buying patterns that have shifted with a proliferation of easily accessible content and opinions about their products and service. A strong partnership with digital marketing content provider Sitecore has helped Avanade deliver a simple, unified approach to digital marketing and web content management.. Kumar sees lots of opportunity in this “highly fragmented category”
By offering clients a unifying customer experience platform, Kumar says Avanade is able to reduce costs as well as “deliver agility and high-quality digital content.” Organizations can create a digitally empowered experience across the entire customer journey with the right mix of digital marketing, sales and services capabilities. For example, Avanade partnered with Delta Air Lines to improve its customer experience through an advanced mobile in-flight sales and service solution based on the Avanade Mobile Airline Platform. By putting mobile devices in the hands of Delta’s 19,000 flight attendants, the airline is improving how it serves customers by offering digital, real-time transactions and information during the flight.
Avanade is also heavily investing in the next level of customer experience, something Kumar calls the “360 view of the customer.” For example, in partnership with Accenture and Microsoft, Avanade developed a solution called the Connected Fitting Room which is currently being trialed at Kohl’s Stores. When a shopper enters the fitting room, the system, equipped with RFID, recognizes the items the customer has brought into the room and displays them on a flat panel touchscreen. The fitting room can suggest other clothing based on the item the customer has chosen to try on. Another example is with a leading motor cycle manufacturer. “We had our people sit in retail stores and watch how customers are coming in and interacting with the product,” Kumar says. So it’s not just web-design, he says, but this “‘experience design” is something we think is going to deliver a competitive edge for our customers and it is powered by data. Our point of view on that would be if you don’t have a 360-degree database of your customer, you’re behind, because everybody else, more or less, has it, or is well on their way.”
“If you’re not investing in that analytics to work on that data in terms of building models and applying machine learning, that is something that will put you behind in a couple of years because that’s where we see the bar moving to. We think this sort of proprietary analytics will really separate the winners from the losers,” says Kumar.
One other area of interest: Becoming a client’s “cloud partner of choice,” mainly by integrating Microsoft’s Azure cloud-computing platform.
Kumar sees opportunity in helping customers, for example, shift digital storage to the cloud instead of running enormous storage systems in-house or with private hosters.
“Some customers we’re working with are generating, I mean, not just gigabytes, but petabytes of new data,” Kumar says. “All this data is not going to keep coming into servers inside the firewall. Just imagine the cost of keeping that running.”
Combining cloud storage with Azure’s advanced analytics capabilities is another focus for Avanade. Once customers are running in the cloud on Azure, they can also use its analytics models, which can then be fed back to the customer in an easily digestable format. A partnership with another provider, Kumar says, enables Avanade to “push this data out to all types of mobile devices. So you literally have big data sitting on Azure, and you have the end result sitting in a very consumable mobile app.When we look at what is our differentiation we think there’s a fantastic value proposition with Azure in public and hybrid scenarios.”
Kumar is exploring other opportunities in developing a “digital workplace,” which aims to boost productivity by applying consumer technologies and so-called “intelligent context.” Through the Office 365 ecosystem and illustrated by a new Microsoft application in the works called Delve, Kumar says “intelligent context” enables software to do such things as troll through an employee’s email in-box to highlight messages that may be useful to an upcoming meeting, which the software also picked up while scanning the employee’s on-line calendar. “Customizing such product capabilities and integrating other internal and external sources of context can provide a material competitive differentiation for our customers”.
A native of India, Kumar started his career out of grad school at University of Florida, then-after answering that trade pub ad-working in Digital Equipment Corporation’s database unit. After five years, he was offered a job with Microsoft’s growing database group in Redmond but when Kumar’s wife, a doctor, secured a medical residency in Philadelphia, the family decided to stay on the East coast. This was in 1992, when Microsoft had just started a consulting arm in midtown New York; Kumar was offered a job there.
In 2000, that consulting arm eventually partnered with Accenture and became known as Avanade. Kumar started as Avanade’s CTO and spent time as head of Avanade’s European operations. He is presently its “Chief Growth Officer,” in charge of Avanade’s overall growth, acquisitions, innovation, entry into new areas and markets.
Avanade in 2014 is very different than the Avanade of 15 years ago. Transformation remains the key to success in building a robust global business. Today perhaps more than ever, says Kumar, “This is a very exciting time for us.”
Originally published at https://www.forbes.com.
Forbes
November 11, 2014
For a techie, Ashish Kumar landed his first job in a rather low-tech way: Through an ad he saw printed in ACM, a trade magazine. “A lot of research geeks like myself would read that in grad school,” he says with a laugh.
That was in the mid-1980s perhaps the last time anyone in the tech industry looked for a job in a magazine or newspaper. Just a bit over a generation later, Kumar is leading the charge in helping his clients climb to the next level of technological sophistication as Chief Growth Officer at Avanade, a global IT and business service provider with $2 billion in sales.
A joint-venture between Microsoft and Accenture, Avanade has its origins in incorporating Microsoft’s Windows 2000 and .NET products into clients’ business operations.
But for the past several years, Kumar says, Avanade has been transforming itself in two distinct ways.
One is moving up the value chain into more advanced software product lines-such as integrating Microsoft’s Dynamics Suite to handle higher-level customer demands in CRM (customer relationship management) and ERP (enterprise resource planning).
The second: Aiming to become a long-term client partner, providing not only technical systems integration expertise, but offering the technological know-how that comes from nearly 15 years in the business.
“What’s been exciting is as Avanade has grown, we ourselves have changed,” says Kumar. “We have gone from a pure technology integrator to what we call a business technology , managed services and cloud provider.”
Avanade is one-upping the competition, Kumar adds. Typically, when Avanade wins new business, “not only are we giving them an economic benefit, but more predictable and improved service levels,” he says. “We are also then bringing innovation to the party, which is something that a lot of our customers have said they don’t typically get from the traditional outsourcers or the pure-play offshore companies.”
Kumar says, “Avanade is doing something right”.
Headquartered in Seattle, Avanade has experienced double-digit sales growth during the last four- years. It now has 22,000 professionals working in 21 countries. Avanade also boasts earning Microsoft’s coveted “Enterprise Partner of the Year” title eight times, an honor that’s harder to win than it may seem, given Avanade’s close relationship with the software behemoth.
Says Kumar: “Microsoft is very clear. They work with lots of partners and their account teams align with the partner that’s the most qualified for the job.”
As for Avanade’s financial structure, Accenture is its majority owner and its financials are consolidated into those of the consulting firm.
Presently, Avanade sees the bulk of its revenue come from application and infrastructure services and helping clients maximize value by integrating their ERP and CRM portfolios.
But Kumar says Avanade is now moving into the next stage of its transformation: To be the cloud and digital leader helping customers realize results.
One major focus here is on what Kumar calls the “digital customer”-the idea that companies should reach their customers in not only the ways in which they now expect to be reached, such as via text message or email, but also in the context of buying patterns that have shifted with a proliferation of easily accessible content and opinions about their products and service. A strong partnership with digital marketing content provider Sitecore has helped Avanade deliver a simple, unified approach to digital marketing and web content management.. Kumar sees lots of opportunity in this “highly fragmented category”
By offering clients a unifying customer experience platform, Kumar says Avanade is able to reduce costs as well as “deliver agility and high-quality digital content.” Organizations can create a digitally empowered experience across the entire customer journey with the right mix of digital marketing, sales and services capabilities. For example, Avanade partnered with Delta Air Lines to improve its customer experience through an advanced mobile in-flight sales and service solution based on the Avanade Mobile Airline Platform. By putting mobile devices in the hands of Delta’s 19,000 flight attendants, the airline is improving how it serves customers by offering digital, real-time transactions and information during the flight.
Avanade is also heavily investing in the next level of customer experience, something Kumar calls the “360 view of the customer.” For example, in partnership with Accenture and Microsoft, Avanade developed a solution called the Connected Fitting Room which is currently being trialed at Kohl’s Stores. When a shopper enters the fitting room, the system, equipped with RFID, recognizes the items the customer has brought into the room and displays them on a flat panel touchscreen. The fitting room can suggest other clothing based on the item the customer has chosen to try on. Another example is with a leading motor cycle manufacturer. “We had our people sit in retail stores and watch how customers are coming in and interacting with the product,” Kumar says. So it’s not just web-design, he says, but this “‘experience design” is something we think is going to deliver a competitive edge for our customers and it is powered by data. Our point of view on that would be if you don’t have a 360-degree database of your customer, you’re behind, because everybody else, more or less, has it, or is well on their way.”
“If you’re not investing in that analytics to work on that data in terms of building models and applying machine learning, that is something that will put you behind in a couple of years because that’s where we see the bar moving to. We think this sort of proprietary analytics will really separate the winners from the losers,” says Kumar.
One other area of interest: Becoming a client’s “cloud partner of choice,” mainly by integrating Microsoft’s Azure cloud-computing platform.
Kumar sees opportunity in helping customers, for example, shift digital storage to the cloud instead of running enormous storage systems in-house or with private hosters.
“Some customers we’re working with are generating, I mean, not just gigabytes, but petabytes of new data,” Kumar says. “All this data is not going to keep coming into servers inside the firewall. Just imagine the cost of keeping that running.”
Combining cloud storage with Azure’s advanced analytics capabilities is another focus for Avanade. Once customers are running in the cloud on Azure, they can also use its analytics models, which can then be fed back to the customer in an easily digestable format. A partnership with another provider, Kumar says, enables Avanade to “push this data out to all types of mobile devices. So you literally have big data sitting on Azure, and you have the end result sitting in a very consumable mobile app.When we look at what is our differentiation we think there’s a fantastic value proposition with Azure in public and hybrid scenarios.”
Kumar is exploring other opportunities in developing a “digital workplace,” which aims to boost productivity by applying consumer technologies and so-called “intelligent context.” Through the Office 365 ecosystem and illustrated by a new Microsoft application in the works called Delve, Kumar says “intelligent context” enables software to do such things as troll through an employee’s email in-box to highlight messages that may be useful to an upcoming meeting, which the software also picked up while scanning the employee’s on-line calendar. “Customizing such product capabilities and integrating other internal and external sources of context can provide a material competitive differentiation for our customers”.
A native of India, Kumar started his career out of grad school at University of Florida, then-after answering that trade pub ad-working in Digital Equipment Corporation’s database unit. After five years, he was offered a job with Microsoft’s growing database group in Redmond but when Kumar’s wife, a doctor, secured a medical residency in Philadelphia, the family decided to stay on the East coast. This was in 1992, when Microsoft had just started a consulting arm in midtown New York; Kumar was offered a job there.
In 2000, that consulting arm eventually partnered with Accenture and became known as Avanade. Kumar started as Avanade’s CTO and spent time as head of Avanade’s European operations. He is presently its “Chief Growth Officer,” in charge of Avanade’s overall growth, acquisitions, innovation, entry into new areas and markets.
Avanade in 2014 is very different than the Avanade of 15 years ago. Transformation remains the key to success in building a robust global business. Today perhaps more than ever, says Kumar, “This is a very exciting time for us.”
Originally published at https://www.forbes.com.
