(P) Accenture Industry X or how you can use innovation and engineering expertise for the digital transformation of industry

02.19.2024 ZF English

Through Industry X, Accenture implements advanced solutions, powered by leading-edge technologies and engineering expertise, to transform industrial infrastructures and processes. The company focuses on innovation, integrating emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics, and the industrial internet of things, according to György Birtolon, managing director of Accenture Industry X Romania.

What is Industry X and what is its role in the context of Accenture's activity in Romania?

Industry X is an innovative initiative within Accenture, a company recognised for business consulting, technology and commercial operations. We are focused on engineering and play an important role in the digital transformation of various industries. Our main sectors of activity cover manufacturing, automotive, railways and consumer goods.

In Romania, we have offices in Cluj-Napoca, Târgu Mureş and Timişoara, where we combine Accenture's strong digital skills with extensive engineering and manufacturing expertise. In this way, we assist clients in transforming existing or new products to market, while simultaneously helping to increase manufacturing efficiency and resilience.

What challenges do you experience in attracting and retaining talent within the company?

We are in the process of recruiting in two areas, business and functional consulting, looking for professionals with specific knowledge of the respective industries. We are also looking for software engineers who will focus on all aspects of product engineering and associated system solutions.

In terms of skills, we are interested in virtually all technologies, as we deal with the transformation of legacy systems as well as the latest technologies such as Gen AI.

In terms of recruitment, we are finding people easier today than in previous years. The 2021-2022 period has seen an increase in demand for these engineering skills, with significant hiring from large technology companies. Today, we find and keep new people much more easily.

How many employees do you currently have and what are your plans for the coming years?

At the end of the fiscal year in August, we had over 900 employees in Romania. We expect this number to grow in the coming years, even in the context of uncertainty and ambiguity brought about by macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions.

Are there ongoing partnerships or collaborations with academic institutions to ensure a constant source of talent?

We have been collaborating for many years with universities in the cities where we are present, such as Babeş-Bolyai, with which we have been teaming up since 2007, and the Technical University of Cluj. We have also extended these relationships to Timisoara and Targu Mures. Our collaborations focus on supporting education through lectures by our experts, but also on joint projects, projects to validate the ideas and scenarios we develop for product or production. Expertise from various fields is of great help to us in these projects.

For example, in the field of robotics, we have a very good collaboration with the Technical University on automation. With Babeş-Bolyai, we have a good collaboration in the field of mathematics and data. Recently, we have started a collaboration with the Faculty of Economics and Business Management in the area of consultancy, and with the Faculty of Business Administration we have carried out two industry studies in the field of railways and the energy sector.

Are there training and mentoring programs to help employees grow professionally?

We focus on the skills and career aspects of our employees. We don't limit ourselves to hard skills in IT. We see an increasing need for industry-specific knowledge, and these skills are developed in the projects our employees are involved in. Before they start the actual projects, we organise so-called in-house academies to provide solid industry knowledge.

A concrete example would be our collaboration with colleagues in railway automation. We organise academies to cover all aspects of the subject, including signalling, train control and operational rules specific to this field. We apply the same approach in other industries, such as automotive, where we add a layer of specific knowledge for colleagues who already come with technical skills from IT.

We also pay particular attention to people skills such as ethics, empathy and emotional intelligence. In the context of technologies such as Gen AI, machine learning and data management and the insights derived from them, communication skills become essential to translate complex technical situations into accessible and understandable explanations for everyone.

If we look at the number of trainings we have conducted to develop our employees' interpersonal skills this year, we see that we have invested more in human skills development than in technology or industry domain courses.

How is Accenture Industry X adapting to technology trends such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, or industry 5.0?

Globally Accenture is investing $3 billion in artificial intelligence (AI), with the aim of developing a strong portfolio of Data and AI services and products. The goal is to deliver AI solutions to our clients across industries, efficiently and responsibly.

Looking back over the past year, we already have numerous case studies of transforming products into smarter entities, with practical applications in automotive, rail, life science and other sectors. From this perspective, AI has been of tremendous importance, and Gen AI adds a significant plus.

How has the Accenture Industry X sector evolved over the past year and what have been the main directions of growth or transformation?

Our growth directions focus on the areas of Data, AI and Gen AI, and an important focus of this expansion is sustainability. Every company is facing increasingly tight deadlines to meet carbon targets. Innovative and green solutions are essential, especially in the Industrial sector.

Another growing segment within Industry X is cyber security. As all aspects of a business digitalize and move to the Cloud, security becomes essential and resilience of systems is key to success for many businesses. We need solutions and processes that provide this resilience tailored to each individual customer.

What are the main ways in which Accenture approaches and promotes sustainability?

Globally, Accenture has ambitious plans. We are committed to achieving net zero emissions targets by 2025. We aim to actively reduce emissions by using only renewable energy, working with suppliers to reduce their emissions and encouraging employees to make environmentally friendly travel choices. We aim to recycle 100% of e-waste and phase out single-use plastic by 2025.

Furthermore, our portfolio of services - from strategy to execution - is designed to help our clients meet their biggest sustainability challenges. Organisations are facing increasing pressure and urgency to reimagine their value chains with solid impact on sustainability without impacting business growth or profitability. We help embed sustainability at every stage of the value chain. And we do it by collaborating with a diverse range of partners, from the largest software and cloud companies to small, disruptive innovators.

I'm glad to see that sustainability initiatives and projects are spreading in Romania. It's encouraging to see that the most involved are the young people of Generation Z. They are more aware of the importance of protecting the environment and are willing to take action to protect it.