Toby Ingleton |
Accenture is aiming to deploy Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system to more than 400,000 of its employees by 2018.
With the key ambition of enabling digital transformation, Accenture is looking to empower its workforce – many of whom are of the millennial generation – with a modern desktop offering.
“The way they (Accenture’s employees) work is changing and the kind of services they need are ‘cloud-first’ that allow real-time engagement and collaboration,” said Jason Campbell, director of product marketing, Windows Commercial. “Windows 10, Office 365 and the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security Suite are at the heart of the digital worker at Accenture and helping to increase productivity for them. OneDrive has transformed the way employees work across the company in different time zones, enabling them to collaborate and communicate in real time in a virtualised project environment.”
The Windows 10 upgrade at Accenture began back in September 2015, when all business applications were validated in terms of their compatibility with Windows 10.
In April 2016, an initial deployment began with a ‘two-lane’ approach, which started with upgrades to all new PCs with Windows 10, and a manual upgrade option for early adopters.
A second deployment began in August 2016. This focused on PCs running Windows 7, and let employees use an ‘In-Place Upgrade’ tool and process which uses OneDrive for file distribution.
With Windows 10, Accenture’s employees have access to the latest productivity apps, while also having a PC which is secure and up to date.
Accenture has the largest OneDrive in the world at more than 6 petabytes, and has seen maturity within Microsoft’s security value proposition via Windows 10 and the Enterprise Mobility Suite.
The success of these initial upgrades has seen Accenture commit to providing Windows 10 to more than 400,000 of its employees, representing the largest deployment of the operating system to date.