Accenture Federal Journey To Cloud

A faster
cloud
migration
Call for change
Migrating core enterprise systems to the cloud As Accenture was about to embark on this 18-month
is one of the biggest tests an IT organization will cloud-migration journey, it learned that the company
ever face. In many cases, it’s critical to improve was given six months’ notice to vacate its existing
system agility, enhance enterprise security, and data center. Because the migration was a carefully
deliver a more sustainable and flexible cost orchestrated process—developed in partnership with
structure. Yet, at the same time, it is fraught finance, human resources, and security colleagues—
with risk, given the many unknowns often accelerating the move was not a certainty.
buried in the legacy environment.
The team quickly called up its contingency plan and
Accenture Federal Services (Accenture) geared up for immediately updated its requirements, weighing the
its internal cloud migration, but—sure enough—along different degrees of risk and levels of support required
the journey, an unforeseen twist occurred that raised for planning. What was on Accenture’s updated “must-
the stakes dramatically. The company—whose clients have list” for this environment? Increased flexibility,
include all US federal cabinet-level agencies—had greater resource availability, enhanced security, and
charged its IT team with migrating its entire financial reduced costs, to name a few needs. After careful
management suite to the cloud. By rearchitecting the assessment, the company set out on the migration
system in a cloud environment, the company would path on a highly expedited timeline.
improve manageability and streamline integration
with the many third-party applications reliant on this
system of record. While at the same time, moving
systems and data responsible for continuous billing,
payments, payroll, and reporting presented business
continuity risks.
Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved 2

Call for change
When tech meets

human ingenuity
It is tempting to consider cloud migration as an IT Application rationalization and inventory management
project, but fundamentally cloud migration is about is a critical first step to mitigating risk. Architects
serving the priority needs of the business, and often can develop an effective migration that eliminates
IT must work in lockstep with other functions to redundancies, simplifies integration, and ensures
ensure 24/7 continuity of service to its customers. that the new environment is provisioned appropriately
A project of this scale and at this speed requires a by carefully assessing where functionality and data
shared sense of purpose, and a shared commitment reside, how they are integrated, and how they
to practical matters, such as what to move first. are secured.

Call for change When tech meets human ingenuity
With a detailed The Accenture team confirmed backup In addition to redeploying systems and data, Accenture
reskilling and implementations were effectively in place
should they be required to roll back the
needed a plan for reassigning the highly experienced
workforce. While these workers were eager to embrace
change management proposed migration, as part of contingency new roles and skillsets, the company needed to invest
program in place, planning and due diligence. in new career paths, training, and operating models to
enable this shift.
employees were Having this type of recovery in place was critical
able to quickly given the stakes—the company’s financial integrity.

Like many organizations around the world, the
That foresight paid off: With a detailed reskilling and
change management program in place, employees
transition to team also had to grapple with the impacts of the
COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged during the
were able to quickly transition to new roles, in many
cases shifting their focus from simply managing
new roles. migration. Issues such as new travel restrictions, workloads to optimizing performance.
safety protocols, and supply chain disruptions
required more adaptive planning. For example,
hardware limitations created the need to
repurpose existing components.

A valuable difference
Following a detailed migration plan and with continued vigilance to potential System users are already reaping the rewards of Accenture’s new cloud-based
disruptions, the Accenture team was able to complete the migration on time systems in terms of flexibility, resource availability, enhanced security, cost savings
and on budget—a staggering pace for a migration of this scale. What this and beyond. Migrating the entire financial suite en masse—that included enterprise
success reinforces is the need to carefully plan each phase of the journey resource planning (ERP), enterprise data warehouse (EDW), reporting, and analytics—
(including the workforce), collaborate with all associated functions, and enabled faster, more responsive processes, which reduced system processing times.
have an operating model in place for the new environment. And, do not This allowed more time for the business to complete complex analyses during
omit a carefully-crafted contingency plan. monthly and quarterly close processes.

A valuable difference
From an enterprise perspective, the key benefits of the end-to-end transformation

are wide-ranging:
Security: Opportunity: “A move to the cloud

Cloud-native security components and The project put people at the center, with
automated refreshes allow Accenture to continuous training and skills development.
is inevitable for most
operate at a new security posture level, This allowed them to take on new roles, enterprises, but a successful
managing cyber activities (upgrading where they can have an even bigger impact implementation isn’t a given,
versions and patches) in days or weeks on enterprise performance.
versus months.
migration isn’t just a
Efficiency: technology issue. Rather,
Continuity: The cloud-based system can be provisioned in people, processes and
Data recovery and time to recover accordance with business requirements, such technology must work
improved by 50% immediately by using as time of day or month, to reduce support
cloud infrastructure, allowing for same-day costs. Moving to the cloud also cut Accenture’s
together to ensure a
business continuity of systems. on-premise footprint in half and extended its successful move.”
hardware refresh timelines.
Resiliency:
The cloud environment allows for rapid CHRIS BJORNSON
response to incidents and 5x faster Accenture Federal Services’
recovery, given the reduced infrastructure CIO during the migration.
and integrated use of cloud automation.
Accenture is using this cloud migration experience to develop its suite of FedRAMP-authorized
cloud platforms, its role as an accredited FedRAMP Third Party Assessment Organization (3PAO),
and in helping federal clients plan and execute their own cloud journeys.

About Accenture Federal Services About Accenture
Accenture Federal Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Accenture Accenture is a global professional services company with leading
LLP, is a U.S. company with offices in Arlington, Virginia, and across the capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Combining unmatched
United States. Accenture’s federal business has served every cabinet- experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries,
level department and 30 of the largest federal organizations. Accenture we offer Strategy and Consulting, Interactive, Technology and
Federal Services transforms bold ideas into breakthrough outcomes for Operations services — all powered by the world’s largest network
clients at defense, intelligence, public safety, civilian and military health of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our
organizations. Learn more at www.accenturefederal.com. 674,000 people deliver on the promise of technology and human
ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than 120 countries. We
embrace the power of change to create value and shared success
for our clients, people, shareholders, partners and communities.
Visit us at www.accenture.com.

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A faster

Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved 2

When tech meets

Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved 3

able to quickly given the stakes—the company’s financial integrity.

Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved 4

Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved 5

From an enterprise perspective, the key benefits of the end-to-end transformation

Security: Opportunity: “A move to the cloud

Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved 6

Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved 7

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