Accenture, a $33 billion global professional services company, works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. Today, that means adopting new digital technologies to transform customer experience with advanced analytics and artificial intelligence.
The company has been in Tampa Bay for more than 20 years, and has invested significantly in developing the talent that fuels this hotbed of entrepreneurial activity. A Fortune® World’s Most Admired Company for 14 consecutive years, Accenture’s Tampa office has more than 700 employees and features a development operations hub and delivery center. When Global 2000 companies want to pivot to new ways of doing business that disrupt industries, they rely on local technology leaders like Stuart Brown, Ashlee Lane and Jason Warnke.
“Our leaders recognized a significant change in the viewing and engagement behaviors of their people and are employing new techniques to connect with them. We are seeing some great trends toward dynamic, fast-paced, fun-filled and even interactive programming that is resonating with our people.”– Jason Warnke, Global Lead of Social Enterprise within the Accenture IT organization
Accenture: tested for pivoting to the New
Before implementing new technology for clients, Accenture often deploys it internally to its more than 411,000 people in 120 countries. This provides real-world experience and insights that cannot be discovered in any other way. Some of these technologies include the largest implementation of Windows 10 and Office 365 in the world. And, 75 percent of Accenture’s applications are in the cloud – far more than a typical global organization.
Another example is an internal social enterprise program that Jason leads. Among other capabilities, the program creates extensive digital video broadcasts for Accenture’s internal ecosystem. Accenture now turns multiple video feeds into fully produced broadcasts that create more of a TV-show experience for its audience. A 24/7 broadcast operation now serves the global organization, producing more than 300 broadcasts each month.
Accenture: committed to Tampa Bay’s diverse community
In addition to Jason, Ashlee and Stu’s active participation in several community organizations, Accenture supports Metropolitan Ministries, a Tampa-based grassroots, donor and volunteer-fueled nonprofit organization that serves poor and homeless families. Accenture brought its “Skills to Succeed” initiative to life on the ministry’s campus to help it better serve and enable its clients to achieve self-sufficiency, leading numerous employment boot camps to enhance their job search, resume writing, and interview skills.
Diversity is part of what makes Accenture exceptional, and it has many programs in place to promote diversity and inclusion worldwide. The first major professional services company to release its diversity numbers, Accenture recently committed to achieving a gender-balanced workforce, with 50 percent women and 50 percent men, by 2025. In the US, Accenture knows the dedication and discipline that veterans bring to the workplace, and offers rewarding career opportunities, tailored resources to help veterans transition, and a dynamic work environment to continue developing veterans’ skills.
One participant in these programs is Tampa Bay resident Melanie Golladay, who said her finance and accounting experience in the Air Force helped her land a job in the Accenture Tampa office. Today, she is determined to help the company meet its mission of recruiting military veterans. “I’ve recommended three veterans since I joined the company last year,” Golladay said, and two have already been hired because there’s a vast array of career options at Accenture.
Leading Tampa Bay in the New Accenture is solving real business challenges right here in Tampa Bay by helping companies pivot to the New and is passionate about developing the region as a technology hub. With a strong Global 2000 presence and rapidly growing startup community, Tampa Bay is well-positioned for strong growth in the coming years, and Accenture is helping drive this progress.
Stuart Brown – In addition to serving as Office Managing Director for the Tampa office, Stuart is the Southeast US lead for Accenture Operations, which drives transformation and delivers business outcomes through infrastructure, cloud and business process services. With 20 years of deep industry experience, Stuart also leads the Accenture Resources Cloud practice globally, focusing on helping clients transform with cloud technologies. With over 50 percent of Accenture’s revenue now focused on the New (digital, cloud and security), Stuart is passionate about helping clients across all industries understand how to take advantage of this new digital revolution.
Stuart has been deeply committed to the local community since his days attending UCF. He is an active member of the Tampa Chamber of Commerce, and currently serves on its board.
“The Tampa Bay area is our hidden gem that is ready to be a player in the larger world technology community. We have a strong entrepreneurial mindset, large leading universities, strong growth in potential employee base, and business-focused policies that are the fuel for future growth. I am thrilled about bringing the best of Accenture to help drive growth in the Tampa Bay region.”
Ashlee Lane – With more than 16 years at Accenture and a bachelor’s of science in biomedical engineering, Ashlee thrives on helping healthcare clients find strategies and solutions to complex challenges. She has extensive experience setting up and implementing complex, large-scale programs including member engagement solutions, sales performance management systems, and developing actions based on analytic insights to improve member and patient outcomes. As a managing director based in Tampa, Ashlee brings innovation to local healthcare companies including Avalon Healthcare Solutions. Accenture helped Avalon create a first-of-its-kind 100 percent cloudbased claims editor as-a-service platform to help healthcare payers reduce unnecessary lab spend. The platform can edit tens of thousands of claims per hour, with 99.99 percent uptime and 99.95 percent accuracy. The platform is “future proofed,” meaning it can be easily updated depending on changing insurer policies, research findings and regulatory guidelines.
“In this time of unprecedented change with technology in the NEW, the healthcare industry is going through an incredible transformation. Now is definitely an exciting time to be in the healthcare industry especially in Tampa with its strong and growing healthcare community.”
Jason Warnke is the Global Lead of Social Enterprise within the Accenture IT organization, reporting to Andrew Wilson, Accenture’s global CIO. A graduate of USF, he started his career in the Tampa Bay office in 1996, working in the Accenture Utilities industry group where he eventually became the North American Lead for Application Outsourcing. In his current role, he is responsible for global strategy and delivery for collaboration, content platforms and broadcast, as well as the marketing, legal and workplace portfolios.
Jason is active as a member of the executive committee and marketing chair of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum (TBTF), an organization whose strategic initiatives include attracting, retaining and developing top technology talent, telling the technology story of Tampa Bay and building connections within the technology community.
“I wanted to get more deeply engaged with technology leaders in Tampa Bay and be a part of a deeper movement to draw attention to what is going on in our beautiful city. There are so many talented tech leaders right here, in a city that continues to gain national and global appeal, first because of our beaches and amazing weather and increasingly because of the innovative companies and talented minds working here. I got involved with TBTF because I liked the approach and the common mission to drive awareness of tech in Tampa Bay.”
