Accenture’s acquisition push continued its fevered pitch this week with two new deals. The global consulting firm is buying Hjaltelin Stahl (a Danish creative agency) and Enterprise System Partners (a Cork, Ireland-based firm), Accenture said in separate announcements.
Hjaltelin Stahl, founded in 2003, is an award-winning Copenhagen-based agency that creates cross-media experiences for its clients. The agency’s approximate 150 creative workers specialize in advertising, branding, film production, social, and marketing automation. The company will become part of Accenture Interactive, boosting its capabilities as an Experience Agency in the Nordic countries, Accenture said.
Accenture has considerable M&A experience in the Nordic region. The company recently acquired Stockholm-based Adobe partner Kaplan. Before that, Adam Kerj was promoted to chief creative officer of the Nordics to help direct operations in the area.
Manufacturing Expertise
Accenture's second deal of the week comes from Ireland, where ESP will join the Accenture Industry X.0 team. The result: Accenture’s bolsters its manufacturing capabilities for pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device clients globally, the company said.
ESP has niche expertise in manufacturing execution systems (MES) and serialization. MES is used to digitally track and document the production process, providing the groundwork for more automated and analytics-driven manufacturing and supply chains. Serialization allows life science companies to digitally track each saleable unit from the packaging line all the way to the patient.
“Digital technologies are fundamentally transforming the factory floor,” said Ben Salama, a managing director who leads Accenture Industry X.0 in the United Kingdom & Ireland. “With ESP’s manufacturing solutions and our Industry X.0 capabilities, we can help clients take advantage of engineering and product lifecycle management, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence for a flexible, efficient, and cost-effective production process.”
ESP marks the latest of several deals Accenture has made to expand Accenture Industry X.0 in Europe and North America. The company acquired Mindtribe and Pillar Technology in August 2018 to help with the growth.
ESP, founded in 2003, brings 200 professionals with manufacturing, process, and IT knowledge to Accenture.
Accenture's M&A Strategy
Accenture in December 2016 revealed that it had a $1 billion war chest for digital, cloud, and security acquisitions. Since then, the company has snapped up a number of companies spanning all three areas, and also emerged as a Top 100 MSSP, according to MSSP Alert.
The results have shown promise. Accenture's 2018 revenue grew 10.3 percent in local currency (and 13 percent in U.S. dollars).
