Some very innovative individuals work at Accenture's research laboratory at Sophia Antipolis in the south of France.

The management consultant employs an array of IT researchers, many of whom have developed leading-edge technology as part of their PhD studies.

Like an over-anxious kid in a sweet shop, Martin Illsley, European director of Accenture technology labs, said that it's hard to choose his favourite technology.

Pushed to make a decision, he selected Accenture's very tasty sentiment monitoring service, a tool that interprets whether the tone of written text is positive or negative and then provides the user with an analysis of the results.

When completed, the software could help PR departments scan websites and articles automatically for feedback on companies and their products, saving thousands in media monitoring costs.

Such developments are Accenture's stock-in-trade, despite the fact that in recent years business leaders have learned to be sceptical about the 'next big thing' when it comes to technology.

"After the internet bubble burst, you would have believed that no one wanted innovation," said Illsley.

All that's changing however, and blue-chip businesses are queuing up to speak with Accenture's research staff. "We see about 350 clients a year and there's a definite increase in interest," claimed Illsley.

Accenture's continued commitment to IT research and innovation is strong. The company spends $250m (£140m) a year on research and development and employs 150 staff at three locations: Chicago, Palo Alto and Sophia Antipolis.

The Sophia Antipolis lab carries out research and development in a number of core areas, including ubiquitous commerce, information insight, human performance, media and entertainment services, and privacy and rights management.

Computing was given a first-hand demonstration of Accenture's approach to research and development work in a recent trip to the Sophia Antipolis lab, and the fresh thinking at the facility is providing tangible results.

"Innovation is changing," explained Illsley. "In the past, it was controlled: you'd write papers and it wasn't connected. Innovation took a long time to hit the public. Researchers can have lots of ideas but it can be difficult to get them to market. You need the right people - ideas follow people."

Accenture's labs are now helping companies benefit from high-tech research more and more quickly.

The staff are split between two main tasks. Its 50 researchers work on business applications at the initial stage of innovation. And its 100 development people translate ideas into systems and tools for clients.

Good researchers, however, need a challenging problem. Many of the lab's investigations are derived from trends in academic research.

"We fill the gap in the middle," said Illsley. "We take speculative research and try to get business results."

For this reason, Accenture also lets its clients in the business community help generate research problems, and as much as 35 per cent of its researchers' lab time is spent with clients.

"It's of great value," explained Illsley. "The 'sweet spot' of innovation is between business context and technological research and development."

As technologies are developed, Accenture returns to businesses to discuss how its innovations would work if they were implemented.

"Our research is free from commercial pressure. But we connect with business at the right time to understand what's relevant for the clients," said Illsley.

Accenture has spent much of the past seven years forging ahead with leading-edge developments in RFID technology. Its sensor-based continuation of RFID, known as sensor telemetry, is currently being tested by blue-chip clients.

"Sensor technology is the next step, and both systems will create a lot more information," explained Illsley.

Developing leading-edge technologies in this manner means that Accenture needs to protect its research work carefully, and the company has more than 100 patents.

"It's expensive to manage these patents and you need to make sure they are aligned to your strategy," said Illsley.

Thankfully, Accenture Labs is not expected to cover its research costs. The organisations has metrics, but these are closely related to performance.

"The costs and returns on innovation can be fairly intangible. But we're expected to make or create a long-term return for a client," explained Illsley.

"And when a technology such as RFID takes off, we can say to our clients that we helped them see that market."

From RFID to sensor technology

Most UK business leaders are just beginning to see the potential of RFID in changing system processes and efficiencies. The technology is a kind of high-tech and more powerful barcode, uniquely tagging individual items.

While high-profile retailers such as Wal-Mart trial first-generation smart tags, researchers at Accenture's lab in Sophia Antipolis are already working on sensor telemetry, a tool that the management consultant views as the next stage of identification technology.

"RFID is in our faces right now," said Illsley. "Sensor telemetry is what's going to happen next. It's a significant change, but it shouldn't be viewed as a disruptive technology."

Before sensor telemetry takes hold, Accenture's researchers are working hard to understand its potential impact.

"We've been gathering information from various vertical industries to test the technology and to begin understanding the costs and benefits," explained Stefan Therond, senior manager at Accenture technology labs.

He said that most businesses - particularly retailers - aren't bothered about the much-talked about price of tags. That's more of an issue for suppliers, because most retailers will expect their providers to tag delivery boxes.

Retailers are more concerned about infrastructure, data management and possible changes to the company's day-to-day working environment.

With these issues in mind, Accenture's researchers are asking the crucial question: is retail, and a host of other vertical industries, ready for RFID and open supply chain technology? Therond maintained that adoption is going to be a complicated process.

"Bandwidth in Europe is being released and the technology will evolve," he said. "But as companies begin to use these systems, they need to make sure people aren't afraid to use the technology, and that they are trained to use the systems properly."

What's more, businesses will have to be prepared for the proliferation of data that RFID technologies will create.

"You need to understand the architecture so that you can make the best use of the new information in your systems," said Therond.

Most early RFID supply-chain systems will rely on the tagging of delivery crates and boxes, rather than individual items.

Accenture believes that the RFID tagging of individual items could be as much as 10 or 15 years away. With this timeline in mind, the lab's researchers are already beginning to demonstrate how companies can associate additional services to an RFID tag.

For example, it has developed a home entertainment system that allows users to place a tagged object, such as a music CD, on an RFID reader.

Through a Media Player interface, the tagged CD can then unlock a range of additional content such as images, videos and music. However, widescale rollout of this type of product is likely to take some time.

"First, we need to have individual objects tagged, and that depends on retailers. Then we need consumer manufacturers to produce electronics," explained Robert Hasson, manager at Accenture technology labs.

But progress is being made and Nokia, for example, recently announced a mobile phone with RFID capability.

Accenture is also beginning to apply the lessons learned from seven years' analysis of RFID to its development work on sensor telemetry. This technology uses a network of high-tech sensors to provide more data than radio frequency tags.

"Whereas RFID allows an object to say 'I'm here', sensor telemetry says 'I'm here, this is my location, this is what's happening to me and this is what needs to be done,'" said Illsley.

A large element of Accenture's laboratory work has involved the development of the Mobile Ad-hoc Network (Manet), a collection of mobile sensors that communicate with each other over wireless, instead of relying on a pre-installed communications infrastructure.

Real world examples of sensor telemetry can already be found. The Pickberry Vineyard in California is using Manet to help ensure that water and pesticides are delivered at the right time. Linked sensors across the field analyse a range of variables, such as soil moisture and rainfall.

"Unless you're going to walk round the vineyard, you're not going to get the information. It's important to be able to control the conditions," explained Illsley.

Sensor telemetry allows Pickberry to track the results, and the vineyard is able to make sure that its grapes are maintained at the right temperature and moisture.