Walk in the Cloud

What happens when the world’s largest software company, a multinational energy company and Accenture get together to tackle decarbonisation? They try to save the world. Microsoft’s Matt Highman and SSE’s John Downes explain why their organisations see partnerships as essential to achieving the most audacious goals of their businesses.

No organisation can hope to complete its cloud transformation journey without strong leadership from its CIO and CTO. Emma Roscow, Accenture UK’s Cloud Infrastructure Engineering Lead, unpacks how these roles are changing as the cloud goes mainstream. She argues that as tech and business needs become more intertwined, the remit of these roles is continuing to expand.

People are the engine of every organisation. What will it mean for them as organisations move to the cloud? Nicole Knott, Managing Director, HR Consulting with Accenture UK, looks at how the cloud opens up new doors of inclusivity, productivity and talent management. Nicole argues that organisations can only meet expectations for an employee experience if they embrace the cloud.

The cloud can help us to make things better—and to make better things. Maddie Walker, Industry X Lead for Accenture UK, unpacks how the cloud can create the digital intelligence that will drive the fifth industrial revolution, dives into how the cloud is changing the role of the COO today, and shares how today’s manufacturing leaders think and what they do differently.

Marketing hasn’t always thought of itself as a technological field, but new tech like the cloud is placing tremendous new opportunities at the doors of marketing leaders. Accenture Interactive Lead for the UK and Ireland, Pritesh Gadhia explains how Chief Marketing Officers can embrace the cloud to achieve more with less and drive customer obsession.

Ambrose Shannon, Accenture’s CFO and Enterprise Value UKI Practice Lead shares why cloud is one way for CFOs to arm themselves with faster insights to inform business decisions in today’s fast-moving world. By embracing lifelong learning, Shannon explains, CFOs are in the unique position to help organisations successfully navigate cloud transformations.

Applied Intelligence leader Vikas Sindwani believes the best cloud transformations start with innovative dreamers who spot the potential in vast lakes of data, then dream up business-changing things to do with them. Chief Data Officers' enterprise data strategies are driving a new breed of super-responsive, super-flexible organisations. Vikas explains how they do it.

Chief information security officers play an invaluable role in spotting and mitigating risks so the rest of the organisation can get on with building the dream. Cyber security guru Jane Frankland explains how the best do it, while bringing up some hidden threats they may be missing. Amongst them: a worrying lack of women in the field which may leave doors open to targeted fraud.

CEOs who think of cloud simply as technology and relegate it to their tech teams are doomed to failure, argues Accenture’s Strategy & Consulting lead Rachel Barton. Rachel talks about the three categories of CEO she tends to see when relating to cloud and the challenges facing each. Building back better in the UK after COVID-19 and Brexit makes this episode particularly relevant.