The COVID-19 pandemic may be slowing some companies down, but not Accenture.
During this turbulent time, the company has continued to expand its market reach and scale. Over the last few months, the company has made five acquisitions: Sentelis, PLM Systems, Callisto Integration, Gekko, and Revolutionary Security.
As PLM, Sentelis, and Gekko are all based in Europe (the latter two both in France), these acquisitions are a key aspect of Accenture’s growth strategy. Additionally, both PLM and Callisto will be folded into Accenture’s Industry X.0, the branch of the company that focuses on designing, engineering, and manufacturing products using digital technologies.
Sentelis strives to improve clients’ business outcomes by leveraging its data insights alongside AI and robotic process automation. Their client base includes some of France’s largest finance and retail companies. Accenture hopes to build on its own AI and big data solutions through this addition, and the company looks forward to helping clients scale AI across their businesses.
PLM Systems has expertise and experience in product lifecycle management systems. This acquisition presents an opportunity for Accenture to work with industrial companies on transforming the engineering core of their businesses. PLM Systems works with businesses across the automotive, fashion, aerospace, and defense industries.
Callisto Integration has roots in technology and consulting. It focuses primarily on the food and beverage, chemicals, and utility industries, and provides IoT solutions for precision farming services, and shop-floor control systems in North America.
Gekko is a leading AWS cloud service company that boasts a variety of AWS certifications. This addition will boost Accenture’s leadership in cloud and artificial intelligence.
Their final acquisition, Revolutionary Security, is an enterprise-class security provider. Their services include breach and attack simulation testing, and their clients span energy, manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and communications. This acquisition follows several other security-oriented purchases over the last few years.
While Accenture is making big moves, they have reported a 1% decrease in third-quarter revenues, at $11 billion. Fourth-quarter revenues are expected to be somewhere between $11 billion and $10.6 billion. The slight downturn doesn’t seem to be stopping them, as in addition to their recent acquisitions, Accenture also just announced that it is collaborating with Microsoft’s 100X100X100 program to host the Accenture Ventures Challenge for startups in India on August 11.
