Accenture Takes E-Commerce To The Midmarket

Managed Internet Service combines Accenture's business consulting expertise with Microsoft's Internet business solutions and Avanade's Connected Architecture framework.

"We're bringing a lot of the value that customers derive from outsourcing down to smaller customers that aren't ready for the [type of full-scale transformation outsourcing engagements we do," said Hans Hwang, Accenture partner.

While New York-based Accenture has targeted the midmarket for several years, the new service provides a concrete offering in the form of prepackaged industry-standard components from Microsoft and other software vendors, prebuilt value-added extensions on top of the software, and a price model that's attractive to the midmarket, Hwang said.

The Managed Internet Service is part of Accenture's Commerce, Collaboration and Publishing Solutions for Microsoft's .Net. The idea is to offer a low-risk, high-value alternative to in-house solutions, Hwang said. The service is set to be unveiled within the next couple of weeks.

"There are many service components that are part of it," he said. "The solution is really a family of services, and we can manage all these components as a managed service so the customer only needs to worry about the requirements."

Hwang said Accenture is working through multiple channels, including joint marketing efforts with Microsoft and other partners, to approach customers about service components. These components include digital asset management, enterprise order management, digital settlement, integrated messaging services and ERP/CRM integration.

"Many service components are optional for customers," Hwang said. "For example, we have a mobility plug-in that a customer can choose if they feel there's value in deploying Web capability out to mobile devices."

The Managed Internet Service is based on Microsoft's platform for Internet business, powered by Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 and Microsoft Content Management Server 2001.

Accenture's new service grew from its relationship with Microsoft, which invited Accenture to the Microsoft Technology Center in Mountain View, Calif., to help with work for Microsoft client Jelly Belly Candy, based in nearby Fairfield, Calif.

"It's really different for us because you don't usually see us working with a family-owned company like Jelly Belly very often," Hwang said. "This service really has a great value proposition for the middle market because it helps reduce complexity across the entire e-business life cycle."

Steven Lee, business development director for the Microsoft Technology Center, said Jelly Belly was looking for the software, solution and prescriptive architecture, but also wanted someone to host it and serve as a single point of contact.

"We invited Accenture and Jelly Belly to come to the Technology Center, and it turned out to be a great meeting place because Accenture came in and helped with some development work," Lee said.

Dan Rosman, director of technology information at Jelly Belly, said the company decided on the Microsoft platform but then had difficulty finding a hosting company that could meet its needs for reliability and response. At least one hosting company walked away when the candy company asked for a guarantee on the service and a single point of contact.

Accenture sealed the deal by providing guarantees on the work, offering 24x7 monitoring and support with a service-level agreement guaranteeing up to 99.5 percent availability and functionality,all elements of the Managed Internet Service.