Accenture Labs to come up in Bangalore

Accenture plans next tech lab in India
The Economic Times


ACCENTURE intends to set up its technology lab in India, following the footprint of its software and BPO development outposts, which have a strong presence in the country.

Accenture Technology Labs is the research and development organisation within Accenture, which has a 20-year track record of turning technology innovations into business results.

The lab is most likely to be in Bangalore, and will be the fourth lab for the company. The other labs are located in Chicago and Palo Alto in the US and Sophia Antipolis in France.

Mr Karl-Heinz Floether, group chief executive (technology and delivery), said the lab will be set up soon, declining to divulge details of the investment or headcount. Information Technology analysts point out that Accenture’s move is a natural progression and shows the confidence that the company has on Indian talents. Other leading MNC technology vendors who have set up R&D outfits in the country are Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, IBM, Bell Labs, GE and Sarnoff.

Accenture officials said that research and innovation have been major factors for Accenture’s success. The company spends approximately $250 million each year on R&D.

Current R&D areas of focus include intelligent objects and environments — which explores the opportunities and potential offered by equipping objects and environments with tiny sensors — communications and tagging technologies. Accenture Labs is also looking at technology trends in nanotechnology, biometrics, biotechnology and quantum information processing (including quantum cryptography).

Personal Awareness Assistant, is one example of a product that has been developed in the labs, for applications such as memory augmentation; wearable commerce and team wear. This wearable information prototype consists of software and a miniature earpiece that’s designed to work in conjunction with a handheld device, such as a cell phone or PDA. It uses speech recognition technology in conjunction with two small microphones and a scrolling audio buffer. The product allows record of key phrases, names, requests or faces on behalf of its user. For example, the user can retrieve information later (“Who did I meet today?”) or have the system provide it at the appropriate time (“His name is X. You met him last month.”)