Executive Q&A: Adam Warby, CEO, Avanade

As CEO of Avanade, Adam Warby manages a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture that helps clients make better use of Microsoft technology to improve productivity and accelerate innovation. Although the company is based in Seattle, Warby manages his 21,000 employees spread across 21 countries from an office in London.

EARLY YEARS: Im a Brit, born and bred. I was fascinated by engineering like my dad and fell in love with information technology while working in California for a high-tech supplier to the nuclear power industry. It was like being in a playground to see from beginning to end how tech helped design and create the product. I worked for IBM for a time before joining Microsoft in 1991. I went to Avanade when it was founded in 2000.

CHANGE: Weve gone through several revolutions since I started at Microsoft, but the one we are going through now is the most exciting of them all. With everything connected and data available on devices everywhere, the possibilities are endless. Our customers are interested in four platforms: social, mobile, analytics and cloud. We have a mobile app called Avanade Touch Analytics, for example, which brings customer data to life.

PRODUCTIVITY: Most people who think about digital think of omni-channel marketing, or new business models. But what about the people? Customers may have a wonderful experience on the web, but if they talk to someone at your organization and cant get the right answers, youve lost an important connection. Its hard for an employee in the field to be an expert in every product, but if you can get a video or other form of information to that person, suddenly you have a more efficient customer experience. Microsoft has a rich set of technologies for that kind of situation. Getting productivity out of people is something Im passionate about.

APPLICATIONS: We can tap into our global experience to have a business-relevant conversation about how to apply digital technology, but we also have the knowledge in technology integration, user experience, and experience design and scale to make it real. The application we designed for Delta [Airlines] allows flight attendants to do everything from validating credit cards to handling business transactions like seat upgrades. You can imagine [wanting an upgrade] if you see someone you want to sit next to. We got the app into the hands of Deltas 19,000 flight attendants and support it as a service in partnership with AT&T.

BALANCE: We help companies manage and reduce the cost of IT systems while we carve out space to invest in innovation. Theres been a shift the last two or three years. Before, the drumbeat was about cost, but there is only so much savings you can get. This is a time of significant disruption for a lot of industries. Eventually, you have to focus on growth and customer productivity to differentiate yourself.

SIMPLICITY: Customers like to consume things in a simpler way, as a service on a per-user, per-month, per-transaction basis. We can do all that remotely in a way a small provider cant do. We are putting sensors in the tires of one customers vehicles to monitor usage. We have real data that tells customers when to change their tires, making the process more efficient and resulting in fuel savings. We offer the service on a transaction basis.

MICROSOFT: We wake up every day just thinking about how to make the best of the investment clients have made in the Microsoft platform. But we are in a multi-device, multi-user environment and, in the end, the customer decides. Customers feel better about the kinds of investments Microsoft is making in technology. When we help customers move to Office 365, it is as much about transformation for them as it is about getting onto the cloud.

THE FUTURE: The future is about consuming business services from the cloud, whether its running an airline or a utility. With the internet of things, there are going to be data not just in mobile devices, but in smart meters, driverless cars, bridges and machines. The ability to manage that data will require a massive cloud capability. Microsoft is well positioned for that. But Microsoft also has a lot of customers who have information in existing systems. We are working very closely with Microsoft about how to manage these hybrid scenarios.

COMPETITION: This summer, I was in Seattle for our annual technology competition focused on customer-driven innovation. We had 300 entries and narrowed it down to 20. We had customers both coaching and judging the entries. We do it globally, streaming the event live across the Avanade world. As you grow bigger, you need to find deliberate ways to sustain innovation. The competition helps that by creating a lot of engagement and excitement. To send a signal that it is important, there is a $25,000 cash prize. The more common way you see innovation at Avanade is through our innovation days, where we bring technology to the client and focus on ideas. Weve done 100 of those this year.

MANAGING FROM LONDON: Our culture is this blend of Accentures focus on customers and their needs and Microsofts passion for understanding technology. Its important to have a presence here and on [the Microsoft] campus. But at the end of the day, we have to work closely with customers, so were distributed around the world. I still get our global leadership team of 80 people together once a year. But we also talk regularly in video conferences. As you are presenting, people start chatting in the window. If this was a physical location and someone was chatting in the back you would say, Hey, shut up and listen to me. But in a virtual world, you want people to be chatting because that shows they are engaged. So, as always with technology, its a people and behavior issue as well as a technology issue. Its true for all sorts of collaborations.