Accenture Debuts SynOps Automation Tool To Reallocate Human Talent

Corporate consulting company Accenture is debuting its SynOps enterprise automation technology five years in the making, a tool that reports said could accelerate some organizations’ shift away from human capital or re-allocate human talent to more strategic roles.

Reports in Bloomberg said Accenture has been using the SynOps solution internally to automate procurement, accounting, marketing and other areas of the enterprise. The technology led the firm to cut 40,000 jobs, but Accenture Operations Group Chief Executive officer Debbie Polishook told the publication that all employees affected were re-trained for different jobs. Indeed, while the company was developing SynOps, its headcount actually rose.

“This is not trying to get rid of the human,” she told Bloomberg, “but to make them as productive as possible and get them to focus on the work that a human really needs to do.”

The SynOps solution deploys robotic process automation to automate repetitive tasks, allowing human talent more time for strategic analysis and value-added operations. In its announcement of the solution, Accenture described the tool as a “human-machine operating ‘engine.'”

“SynOps’ greatest value is in how it creates compound intelligence from emerging technologies powered by human expertise to deliver better insights, which lead to better-informed decisions, stronger outcomes — and results previously unimaginable,” said Accenture Operations Group Technology Officer Nirav Sampat in a statement.

So far, about 100 Accenture clients have deployed the solution for procurement, while 20 are testing the tool to automate finance. A handful of clients have deployed SynOps for marketing automation, Bloomberg reports said.

The solution is integrated into Accenture’s existing databases and record-keeping systems, using that data to predict issues like which invoices may be rejected. The technology can, in some cases, automatically correct those invoices to match contract terms if there is a discrepancy, Sampat told the publication.

SynOps also provides analytics for companies to benchmark their progress over time, and their performance against industry peers.