Accenture and Pivotal Software, Inc., have formed a new business group to help Fortune Global 500 companies and other large enterprises accelerate their software development and innovate at startup speed.

The Accenture Pivotal Business Group (APBG) will help enterprises migrate legacy applications to the cloud and accelerate cloud-native application development on Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF), one of the world's most powerful cloud-native platforms. Operated and managed by Accenture and powered by Pivotal's next-generation software development methodology, the APBG will offer clients new capabilities for developing modern cloud-native products and services that leverage artificial intelligence and other innovative technologies in areas such as the internet of things and connected cars and homes.

Accenture and Pivotal will launch two APBG locations, one in Columbus, Ohio, and another in New York City. The joint facilities will be dedicated spaces where APBG will help large enterprises rapidly migrate their businesses onto PCF and prototype innovative products and services. The group has already begun work with companies in the banking and insurance sectors.

While information technology (IT) teams are tasked with building customer-facing products and services that can evolve with changing buyer preferences, many enterprises still face challenges operating their business on modern cloud technologies. This can impede their ability to respond quickly to market opportunities. The APBG can bridge this gap by bringing together the skills, capabilities and experience needed to help clients redesign and modernize their legacy IT applications and infrastructures.

"By combining our cloud services expertise with Pivotal's software development methodology and platform, the Accenture Pivotal Business Group will help clients accelerate the pace of new innovations and fast-track their digital transformation," said Paul Daugherty, Accenture's chief technology & innovation officer. "Together we will help clients adopt cloud-native technology, build software at scale, and use an iterative, high-speed model, enabling them to be more agile, disruptive and competitive."

Rob Mee, Pivotal's CEO, said, "The Accenture Pivotal Business Group's vision is to help the world's largest enterprises move at startup speed to respond to customer expectations and bring new ideas to market faster. We will help clients continuously improve the software applications that run their businesses, freeing them to focus on higher-value aspects of their businesses while dramatically increasing developer productivity and operational efficiencies."

APBG's integrated product teams will enable clients to work side-by-side with Accenture experts, including product managers, designers and engineers trained in Pivotal's unique methodology. Using a development process guided by business goals, these collaborative teams can take advantage of comprehensive Agile transformation capabilities. More than one-third of the Fortune Global 100 run their businesses on PCF, and many report significant increases in developer productivity and lower IT costs.

Accenture and Pivotal will invest significant resources in APBG over the next several years, with plans to expand to additional locations and scale the group's software development, application transformation and training capabilities.

Accenture brings more than two decades of experience building open systems; significant Java capabilities through a global team of 40,000 Java professionals; and experience executing more than 20,000 cloud projects for three-quarters of the Fortune Global 100. The company is a long-time contributor to the Spring Cloud community project and a gold member of the Cloud Foundry Foundation.