This is a guest blog post written by Avanade alum, Vikki Leach.

As part of our quest to attract, develop and retain female talent that contributes to a gender-balanced organization, the Woman@Avanade campaign continues to grow.

First, we developed a dedicated program called the ‘Accelerator Program for Women’ targeted to women at group manager and manager level to better support them as they progress their careers at Avanade. We recognize we must focus on the female pipeline to build it and strengthen it so we can promote from within and attract more women to Avanade, promoting our objective to build a gender-balanced organization.

Why do we do this? At Avanade, we see incentives —beyond financial incentives — to close the gender gap and attract more women to the technology industry. Women bring a different set of skills to our organization than men, and it is that diversity that enables us to think differently, act differently, and ultimately realize results for our customers.

'Realize Your Potential' is a new program that reaches even more women across our organization. It provides support, guidance, mentoring and solutions to barriers women may face in the workplace and much more.  It is a six-month program dedicated to senior consultants and below, as women build their career at Avanade.

So far, it has been launched across our offices in Europe, Africa and Latin America, reaching over 130 women who now experience more connections and less isolation in their roles. By building this network of women, they are able to engage with each other as well as share experiences and knowledge among the group to help them grow professionally.

Through both programs, we now address the pipeline at every level up to director. As both genders move through the organization, we are excited to see more women being promoted. This tells us that our internal programs are effective in cultivating women through their careers and into leadership roles.

Avanade cannot thrive in this industry if it does not embrace the fantastic richness that diversity brings to the solutions and services we deliver to our clients, as well as creating an environment for all our professionals, which is motivating, fun and creates meaningful positive experiences every day.