Google Cloud Lands Accenture Exec For Manufacturing Role

The cloud provider can help process manufacturers navigate a ‘critical digital transformation journey,’ whether it’s by helping accelerate their information technology/operational technology convergence efforts with its hybrid and multi-cloud Anthos platform or further industrializing artificial intelligence, according to the newly hired Suchitra Bose.

Google Cloud continues to strengthen its vertical market focus with the hiring of a former Accenture managing director for its newly created director of process manufacturing role for the Americas.

Suchitra Bose, previously managing director and North American lead for digital productions and operations at Accenture, will be responsible for growing Google Cloud’s business in process manufacturing industries such as chemicals. Process manufacturing involves the combination of supplies or ingredients according to formulas or recipes, rather than the assembly of discrete parts through mechanical processes. Bose also will further develop Google Cloud’s process manufacturing industry strategy and road map, focusing on sales enablement, industry partnerships and deal support.

Bose said she’s happy to join Google Cloud at a time when the manufacturing industry—which already was facing challenges from increasing cost pressures to efficiently modernize shop floors prior to the coronavirus pandemic—now is reinventing itself amid the ongoing crisis.

[RELATED: 10 New Google Cloud Products You Need To Know About]

“The onset of the pandemic made the already-volatile environment even more uncertain: The monthslong shutdown impacted sales, as did the drop in new orders and shipments of goods,” Bose said. “Now, as the industry adjusts to a new norm in the pandemic’s initial aftermath, manufacturers are resiliently finding new ways to work as well as new revenue sources. I think there will be a significant focus on discovering, refining and scaling the best practices to navigate new operational and consumer landscapes such as having more remote and connected workforces, further industrializing artificial intelligence [AI], focusing more on sustainability and implementing more digital transformation initiatives at scale.”

Google Cloud is in a position to help the industry “navigate a critical digital transformation journey,” including by helping process manufacturers accelerate their information technology/operational technology convergence efforts with Google Cloud’s hybrid and multi-cloud Anthos platform, according to Bose.

A vertical market focus is key to Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s strategy to win enterprise customers. In an interview with CRN in April, Kurian said providing industry-specific solutions for six target industries—manufacturing and industrial, financial services, health care, the public sector, retail, and media, telecommunications and entertainment —was one of three primary Google Cloud capabilities.

Bose has more than a quarter-century of experience in technology and manufacturing. At Accenture, she worked three-plus years as a managing director at Accenture Digital, leading its North American digital manufacturing and operations practice, with responsibility for strategy, business development, industry alliances, assets and acquisitions.

She previously served for 16 months as senior director of strategic partnerships and industry solutions at Prysm, a Milpitas, Calif., provider of large-format laser phosphor displays, and 21 months as global vertical head of the life sciences, consumer product goods and manufacturing practice at UST Global, an Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based digital technology services company. Bose spent seven years at Cognizant, an information technology, consulting and business process services company in Teaneck, N.J., most recently as head of its manufacturing and industrial IoT practice until April 2014.

In her new role, Bose will report to Dominik Wee, Google Cloud’s managing director of manufacturing and industrial since 2018.

“Investing in our industry solutions leadership enables us to extend our reach and meet customer demand in all of our priority industries, especially manufacturing,” Wee said in a statement. “Suchitra brings a wealth of invaluable experience to our team, from helping customers excel in their digital transformation journey to facilitating the adoption of cloud computing, Industry 4.0, IoT and AI. We’re honored to have her join, knowing she’ll bring immense value for our customers such as GlobalFoundries, Johnson & Johnson, Whirlpool and more.”