Avanade looks to more success in Southeast Asia

“We are not the cheapest in town, to be frank. And that's not what we aim to be. But we want to provide the best value for the customers. And that's why the conversation with Microsoft is very open. Because they know that we will not do something else” says Megawaty Khie, Regional Managing Director for Southeast Asia.

It’s been 25 years since Microsoft and Accenture came together and launched Avanade. Since then, the global professional services company providing IT consulting and services continues to be the top provider for Microsoft around the world. From AI to cloud to managed services, Avanade serves more than 5000 customers around the world today.

In Southeast Asia, Avanade continues to empower organizations to use Microsoft technology to optimize operations, drive growth, and foster innovation, enabling them to excel in delivering exceptional customer experiences.

In an interview with CRN Asia, Megawaty Khie, Regional Managing Director for Southeast Asia shared how Avanade supports businesses in their digital journey in the region, despite the many challenges organizations face today.

Having served in channel leadership roles with top tech vendors in the region, Khie eventually decided to take on a different direction in her career when she accepted her current role with Avanade. Khie believes her strong leadership capabilities and experience in the partner ecosystem has given her the knowledge needed in her new role, whereby she focuses on helping businesses in their digital journey, especially when it comes to adopting emerging technologies.

“If you look at the market now, everybody talks about AI. Last year was a year of learning and businesses were trying to test out ideas. However, the testing days are over. There is now a need to go into the ROI of all these ideas. This year, we're looking at a lot of the customers saying they’re interested in doing it. Customers are interested to see how actually AI can benefit the business,” said Khie.

While the interest in AI continues to soar, Khie also pointed out that a lot of times businesses fail to realize that in order to reach the desired AI capabilities, they need to first have a very good data management strategy. Also, businesses then overlook security because most of the AI capabilities are in the cloud.

“Even if you have a very big company, with your own data centre and server room, you will not be able to achieve the AI capability unless you put your workloads on the cloud. The capability is not there. When you put it in the cloud, then obviously the security becomes very important,” explained Khie.

Apart from having a data management and cloud strategy, Khie added that businesses also need to look at their analytics capability, which is where Avanade comes in to provide a package solution to address all this.

“There is lot of demand right now and we've packaged our offerings together. That's where Avanade is in a very good space. Because we're able to provide that end-to-end service. A lot of partners are very good specifically in data and AI. But they don't know the other things. For Avanade, we're very fortunate. First, we have a global presence, and we are able to draw that global experience and customer stories into our Southeast Asia countries. In addition to that, we have this end-to-end portfolio that we are able to provide the holistic approach to our customers,” explained Khie.

The Microsoft - Accenture effect

As the world’s most experienced innovator on the Microsoft platform, Avanade is focused purely on Microsoft’s technology and drives the conversation on Microsoft technology with customers in the region.

According to Khie, while Microsoft has a lot of partners in the region, they all work together when it comes to providing the best service to customers. For example, as Microsoft looks to grow its presence in Indonesia and in Malaysia with the opening of a new data center, Khie said Avanade is preferred to drive the conversations in these countries because Microsoft finds the existing partner ecosystem may not be able to deliver a holistic end-to-end discussion with the customer.

“I think our previous experience, knowledge and industry focus comes into play. That's the differentiator. We are not the cheapest in town, to be frank. And that's not what we aim to be. But we want to provide the best value for the customers. And that's why the conversation with Microsoft is very open. Because they know that we will not do something else. Because other partners may work with multiple vendors. But we don't do that,” said Khie.

Khie added that Avanade also co-develops with Microsoft at the HQ level in terms of the technology. Regarded as the Partner Zero partner for Microsoft, Khie highlighted that Avanade has won the Microsoft Partner of the Year award 19 times.

On working with Accenture, Khie shared that Avanade has an alignment with Accenture. For example, when she goes to Indonesia, she meets up with the country manager of Accenture in Indonesia. Together, they’ll look at the market and see which accounts they want to go in. From there, they will decide who leads the conversations with the potential customers.

“Essentially, we don't compete with each other. So the way we actually operate or work together is that we look at a lot of factors - the size of the project, what's the scale? What are the capabilities they need? Then we have the alignment with Accenture. Who is going to lead? Do we go in together? Because Accenture also has a lot of services from a lot of different platforms. Whereas we are 100% Microsoft dedicated. But we work very, very closely. We work as though we are one team with the Accenture Microsoft Business Group,” said Khie.

Creating value for customers

For Khie, she believes the main focus for Avanade would be to create customer value with Microsoft. If they are not able to do that, they will not be successful.

“It’s crucial to deliver jointly deliver that customer value in whatever shape or form. Take financial services across the region for example. How do we enable it? How do we use the best of Microsoft technology to safeguard security, to provide the AI capability? I think those are the things that we look at as providing the latest technology in a secure way for a customer outcome,” said Khie.

Khie also believes that incubation is key for customers. For example, when it comes to working with mid-market customers, incubation is key so that there can be a higher chance of success. While it may be difficult at the early stages, over time, co-investing with Microsoft to have the platform for growth for mid-market customers is key as the mid-market customer of today could be the enterprises of tomorrow.

“I think that then if we're able to provide a credible delivery, good delivery, a good customer outcome, then we actually will be in that journey to accompany them to become big enterprise customers. And that's the platform for economic growth of any country,” said Khie.

When asked about her goals for Avanade, Khie highlighted that she believes that providing opportunities for females and for the younger generation as well as different nationalities will help a lot.

“Even for the countries that I'm expanding to, I'm very intentional of hiring, as best as I can, female leaders. I'm looking at female country leaders, for example. Because we can grow that as it’s not easy in tech. I am also focused on local talent, because they will know the ecosystem, the market and the network. So, I think the local knowledge is important,” said Khie.

Apart from that, Khie also stated that she is focused on driving the business with the priorities of the business. As Avanade is in the midst of planning for 2030, they are looking at the big bets they would take to achieve their goals in Southeast Asia. With Indonesia expected to be a prime focus, Khie concluded that Avanade aims to be a very important partner for Microsoft in the different countries in the region.