at Avanade Inc. in Chicago, Illinois, United States
Job Description
Organization Context:
The Technology, Experience, and Advisory Business Groups are Avanade’s growth engines responsible for developing market relevant capabilities and solutions to help clients resolve critical business and technology issues.
Technology is the largest business group within Avanade and what our clients look to us for the most. Within the Technology BG are Avanade’s Solution Areas (SAs) which represent our direct connection to Microsoft and other key ecosystem partners. These leaders are responsible for maintaining our strong interlock with Microsoft and ecosystem partners, growing Avanade’s market share relevant to the solution areas, and building competitive capability, solutions, and assets within their aligned Practices.
Each Solution Area within the Technology Business Group has multiple Practices. Practices are where Avanade’s employees are ‘homed’ based on their skill, experience, and career pathway. Practices are responsible for attracting, developing, and retaining talent, managing deployment of practitioners and creating/evolving assets and solutions to reduce the cost of sales, delivery, and operations. Practices range in size from approximately 40 to 2,000 practitioners.
Employees from Practices in BGs are deployed to client accounts, integrated go-to-market (GTM) lines of business (LOBs), and Center of Excellence to support sales, solutioning, and delivery efforts in regions and capture market share globally.
Role Overview:
As the North America Solution Area Lead, Applications & Infrastructure, you are responsible in North America for the relationship with Microsoft and Accenture as it pertains to the Applications and Infrastructure solution space as well as relevant ecosystem partners. You will be responsible for building and maintaining key relationships with both Microsoft US leaders, as well as Accenture Cloud First leaders. This includes overall accountability for driving aggressive growth of this Solution Area in alignment with set plans and targets across multiple channels/plays/Lines of Business, and building the required competitive capability, solutions, and assets within your Practices.
In this role, you will have overall accountability for a North America portfolio of business that exceeds $1B in sales and revenue generation annually.
In this role, you will be a member of the Global Applications and Infrastructure Solution Area Leadership Team working with your counterparts in Europe, Growth Markets, and the ATC.
This role will cover both the Application modernization business and the Azure core infrastructure business.
As enterprises undertake the Journey to the Cloud, the focus quickly turns to ’what’s next.’ Once in the cloud, the immediate opportunity arises to begin the modernization of the complete end-to-end of the technology estate.
Modernization is the act of updating organizational processes, systems, and tools to the most current versions or best practices. In the context of cloud computing, modernization is the process of transitioning an organization’s applications, processes, and data management to a cloud-first approach. The goal is to improve organizational and technological performance, enhance the quality of customer and employee experiences, and accelerate time to market for new offerings and updates.
In the Application and Infrastructure Solution Area, you will be focused on helping our clients maximize their investment in Azure and Azure stack through application modernization strategies, solutions, and processes.
This role reports directly to the Global Application and Infrastructure Solution Area Lead and will lead multiple North America Solution Area Practices Leads. Practice Leads are responsible for developing strategies for attracting, developing, and retaining Practice talent; creating approach for deployment of Practice client-facing employees within Areas/Regions; and creating/evolving Practice assets and solutions to reduce the cost of sales, achieve delivery excellence and operational efficiency. As their leader, you will provide leadership and guidance to ensure consistency and deliverable quality.
Key Accountabilities:
Microsoft Solution Area and Practices
-Establish and sustain strategic relationships with relevant North America Microsoft leaders. Align global strategies and priorities, including approach to joint pursuits and bring this to life within the North America portfolio. Drive achievement of shared objectives and goals to ensure that Avanade protects its Microsoft-centric competitive advantage. Be overall accountable for designing, framing, and executing on a joint growth plan with Microsoft North America.
-Establish and sustain strategic relationships with relevant Accenture leaders as it relates to the Applications and Infrastructure Solution Area. This includes building and maintaining strong and aligned relationships with Cloud First in North America. This also includes being overall accountable for designing, framing, and executing on joint North America Avanade/Accenture growth plans in the Accenture channel for Applications and Infrastructure solutions.
-Establish and sustain strategic relationships with independent software vendors (ISV) partners. Align global strategies and priorities, including approach to joint pursuits, and bring these to life within the North America portfolio. Drive achievement of shared objectives and goals to ensure that Avanade protects and evolves its market position.
-Maintain the overall health of the relationship between Avanade North America, Accenture North America, and the relevant Microsoft Solution Area and Microsoft North America business
-Own and execute the GTM market plans for the relevant North America Solution Area working closely with other North America Solution Area Leads, Business Groups, Integrated GTM, Client Group, and Sales Leaders
-Be the voice of the Microsoft Solution Area to the Integrated GTM in North America
-Cultivate the reputation of the Solution Area externally in North America to ensure we can attract and retain the right talent with the capabilities we need to differentiate us, deliver superior client results, continue to win, and serve as a partner of choice and trusted advisor
Practice Assets and Solutions
-Oversee the development, packaging, and evolution of Practice assets and solutions across the relevant Solution Area to ensure alignment with the Solution Area strategy and integrated lines of business and plays to address client needs in North America
-Contribute to the relevant Solution Area’s innovation agenda in partnership with Microsoft and Avanade’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO). Activate Avanade’s innovation agenda within the North America Solution Area in partnership with OCTO and in alignment with the Portfolio council and Global BG Lead
Sales Support
-Work with North America Sales and Marketing to effectively position the relevant Solution Area in the North America portfolio
-Represent the relevant Solution Area in North America and support strategic deal pursuits, reviews, and approvals with deep technical expertise in domains relevant to the Solution Area
-Collaborate with Accenture Microsoft Business Group (AMBG) and Cloud First to help clients navigate their journey with a focus on maximizing business value utilizing Microsoft Solution Area technologies
People & Culture
-Attract, develop, retain, and manage performance of the North America Practice Leads in the Solution Area
-Drive Avanade’s inclusion and diversity agenda, promote wellbeing, establish the relevant Solution Area identity, and bring our employee value proposition to life
-Champion initiatives that create distinctive experiences, limitless learning, and ambitious growth for employees across the Practices within the Solution Area
Delivery
-Oversee the planning and development of solutioning standards for the So
