LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY IN THE HEALTHCARE SECTOR
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ACHIEVING SUCCESS IN THE DIGITAL SPHERE THROUGH HARNESSING TECHNOLOGY WRITTEN BY
SEAN GALEA-PACE PRODUCED BY
JAMES PEPPER
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Rob Gwyther, IT Transformation Director of Healthcare at Accenture, discusses how technology is implemented in alignment with the customer
W
ith companies worldwide undergoing significant digital transformations to redefine the way day-to-day operations
in the workplace are conducted, it’s become vital to embrace and utilise the latest technological trends in order to obtain an edge over the competition. 221
As a global professional services organisation providing a range of different services such as strategy, consulting, technology, digital and operations, Accenture employs over 450,000 people and works across more than 120 countries worldwide. By ensuring customers’ demands are met and kept at the forefront of the firm’s priorities, Rob Gwyther, IT Transformation Director of Healthcare, understands how Accenture can continue to meet the requirements of its customers as it continues to develop as a company. Having worked for the organisation in a variety of roles since initially joining in 2005, Gwyther stepped into his current role as Director in late 2015. “When I first started at Accenture, a lot of the work we undertook in the public sector organisation was about the digitisation of manual processes to reduce paper and make the customers internal
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“ It’s normally about looking at what really makes sense from a business perspective and deciding what edge you’re gaining” 223
— Rob Gwyther, IT Transformation Director of Healthcare at Accenture
workflow more efficient. The focus was primarily on internal systems and workflow,” he explains. “However, with technology evolving significantly over the years, operations have become easier and the trend is now focused on how to provide more self-sufficient digital services to the citizen and focus more heavily on the citizens’ journey and experience.”
EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY With technological advances increasingly influencing the way businesses
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘ACCENTURE HEALTH TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING – HARNESSING TECHNOLOGY’ 224 operate on a day-to-day basis, Gwyther
tive and deciding what edge you’re
understands the importance of ensuring
gaining. With some of our customers,
new tools and solutions serves
we recommend retaining older legacy
a purpose, as long as it aligns to the
systems that are still reliable or can be
initial core strategy. “It’s vital to under-
stabilised to support transformative
stand exactly what benefit you’re
services. That’s where it’s important to
extracting from a particular type of
think about why you’re actually imple-
technology or programme, however,
menting technology and how the
most importantly that benefit must be
benefit aligns to an overall strategy. It’s
aligned to a core strategy before you
natural to think about a straight technol-
implement it in order to generate as
ogy replacement but it’s worth consid-
much value as you can. It’s easy to get
ering that if we stabilise the core of our
distracted,” he explains. “It’s normally
business and then build a layer on top,
about looking at what really makes
it can actually yield greater benefits in
sense from a business value perspec-
shorter time.” w w w.a c c e nt u re. com
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“ It’s vital to understand exactly what benefit you’re extracting from a particular type of technology or programme” — Rob Gwyther, IT Transformation Director of Healthcare at Accenture 225
With innovation considered a key
and the investment we make in innova-
focus area for Accenture, Gwyther
tion. Now, we have an innovation
affirms the company’s commitment to
architecture and a formalised way of
setting trends in order to stand out
implementing innovation. When you
from its rivals. “We’re a good systems
look at the innovation centres we’ve
integrator; we see a lot of what’s out
got worldwide and the investment that
there in the market and it enables us
goes into them, you see some of the
to figure out what’s relevant and useful
real concentrated bits of innovative
to suit our needs. We’re constantly
work and can really understand the
mapping out ways in which we can
leap forward we’ve made ahead of
serve our customers better, and that
some of our competitors.”
continually pushes us to innovate and keep an open mind,” says Gwyther.
FORMING KEY PARTNERSHIPS
“The big difference today in comparison
With a view to achieving and sustaining
to when I first joined is the coordination
mutual success, some companies
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Rob Gwyther Rob is a senior IT and technology leader, with over 15 years of experience. He works with clients to shape and deliver complex technical solutions and transformations and has a broad IT skill base. He currently leads Accenture’s health technology delivery practice and is a specialist in healthcare innovation. Rob has worked with a wide variety of organisations, in the public and private sectors, both in the UK and internationally and his breadth of experience ranges from complex programme delivery to developing new business services.
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choose to collaborate and provide the
a supplier that’s willing to collaborate
other with services to help drive opera-
with you and who has a very like-mind-
tions forward. In the case of Accenture,
ed outlook, then it’s a real asset because
Gwyther outlines what he looks for
then you can then go to market with
when searching for a key technology
that supplier.”
partnership. “We identify companies
Having established significant
where we can work alongside their
partnerships with BitTitan and Appian
leadership and which are aligned with
Corporation, Gwyther believes that
our strategy in key priority areas. It’s
these joint ventures will prove valuable
important to consider what the suppliers
to the company’s development. “Appian
roadmap looks like in terms of how they
is more of a power platform which
want to evolve their product, as well as
allows us to develop workflow and
what kind of engineering team they
applications in an efficient way – it
have at their disposal. If you’ve got
provides a single platform that enables w w w.a c c e nt u re. com
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“ The relationship we have with our customers is vital. It’s all about how we can continue to innovate and be proactive” — Rob Gwyther, IT Transformation Director of Healthcare at Accenture 229
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any development we do or any application we need to build,” explains Gwyther. “BitTitan is a smaller company, but they’ve got a really concentrated bit of technology that allows us to do migrations to the cloud very quickly. It’s that first stage you get when the customer from an on-premise environment into a cloud-based environment and BitTitan provide that very efficiently.” With customers’ demands firmly at the forefront of Accenture’s decision making, Gwyther believes there are a number of key drivers in transforma-
“ Within health and public services, the industry has transitioned towards putting the citizen and patient first from a healthcare perspective” — Rob Gwyther, IT Transformation Director of Healthcare at Accenture
tion in the industry that need to be observed. “Within health and public services, the industry has transitioned towards putting the citizen and patient first from a healthcare perspective. There’s a greater focus on the customer-user experience than ever before,” he explains. “Going back a few years, customers wouldn’t choose a startup or smaller company because of nervousness about the level of service they’d receive. However, there is some really great concentrated technology out there now that can be very useful. I look at our partnership with BitTitan and they’re a good example because w w w.a c c e nt u re. com
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ACCENTURE
$40bn Approximate revenue
1989
Year founded
470,000
233
Approximate number of employees
although they have really great technology. Our partnerships are really useful and has become one of our key strengths.” With the future in mind, Gwyther affirms Accenture’s relationship with its customers will be key to the business’ growth, development, and building a sustainable future. “The relationship we have with our customers is vital. It’s all about how we can continue to innovate and be proactive. We have a deep relationship with our customers and we try not to be one dimensional,” he says. “I think what’s really important to remember is that technology supports new ways of working, because when you see a trend emerging in one industry, sometimes it’s useful to embrace that and utilise it in another industry.”
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