Dive Brief:

• Accenture will open 10 new innovation hubs around the U.S. by 2020, according to a press release. The innovation hubs will help serve clients working to compete in the digital economy, particularly in digital, cloud and security-related services. 

• The professional services ​firm says it also plans to invest $1.4 billion in employee training and create 15,000 new jobs in the U.S., increasing its workforce 30% by 2020.

• Among other things, Accenture is focusing on strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations to help boost clients' innovation efforts. 

Dive Insight:

Consulting firms are in high demand now that digital transformation and automation efforts are in full swing. Businesses need consultants to help them envision how technology can change the way they do business, and Accenture wants to make sure its prepared to take full advantage of the demand. The firm also wants to highlight the fact that it will create more jobs at a time, particularly as more firms look to onshore work. 

Accenture is already seeing some success in guiding companies to successful use of automation. Richard Lumb, CEO of financial services at Accenture, recently pointed to a case where the firm saved one of its banking clients $100 million by automating jobs in its compliance division.

Not to be outdone, Accenture’s primary competitor, Deloitte, announced a new collaboration with Amazon Web Services = last week and said it plans to launch an AWS-dedicated cloud practice with 2,500 practitioners.