Accenture has acquired marketing and sales consultancy Brand Learning and technology services firm Search Technologies, both for undisclosed sums.
In terms of the Brand Learning acquisition, a press release states that Brand Learning’s advisory team will join the management consulting and industry specialists within Accenture’s Customer and Channels practice. The partnership, according to the press release, will enhance Accenture’s offerings in terms of marketing and sales strategy, organizational design, industry-specific consulting, and HR and leadership capabilities – allowing the professional services company to deliver end-to-end solutions and help clients create more integrated customer experiences. It will also tap into the digital design and engagement skills of Accenture Interactive, the release reads.
“More than 90% of CMOs say marketing will undergo fundamental change in the next five years, driven by analytics, digital, and mobile technologies,” Laura Gurski, senior managing director and head of Accenture’s Customer and Channels practice for several industries, stated in the release. “With increasing digital innovation and personalized customer engagement, the marketing and sales functions are now seen as the key driver of top-line growth.”
Brand Learning boasts an impressive track record with more than 160 clients across 60 countries, the press release states, including Unilever, Johnson and Johnson, and Royal Philips Electronics. It’s assisted clients in numerous areas, the release continues, such as customer strategies and vision, new operating models, process development, content, cultural change, and learning programs.
“Accenture is a leading global force in digital transformation, and it is very exciting that we are coming together and that our talented team will also help contribute to the development of deeper consulting capabilities within Accenture,” Mhairi McEwan, executive president and cofounder of Brand Learning, said in the release. “Being part of Accenture will allow our clients to benefit from a seamless service, building their marketing and sales capabilities to create the outstanding and connected customer experiences needed to drive growth.”
As for the Search Technologies acquisition, a separate press release states that Search Technologies’ proprietary Content Processing Framework and API-level data connectors will be integrated into the Accenture Insights Platform (AIP). According to the release, the connectors provide access to unstructured enterprise data across legacy and disconnected systems. This integration, the release explains, will help Accenture customers embed analytics and artificial intelligence into their businesses to reveal new insights and drive business outcomes.
Search Technologies will join the data scientists and engineers within Accenture Analytics. According to the press release, this team will focus on creating solutions that make unstructured content (e.g. social media, video, voice, and audio) easily searchable, which will support data discovery, analytics, and reporting. Accenture’s Global Delivery Network will also add a delivery center in Costa Rica, the release states, which will serve as the home-base for the more than 70 Search Technologies big data engineers who reside there. This team focuses on customer and content analytics, the release explains, and will work with Accenture Interactive’s digital content production and marketing services professionals.
Furthermore, Kamran Khan, president and CEO of Search Technologies, will now lead a new content analytics team that will reside within Accenture Analytics.
“Both search and big data analytics require a deep understanding of the nature of structured and unstructured content and the know-how to extract knowledge and business value from the data,” Khan stated in a release. “We have done this successfully for over 800 customers in industries, including e-commerce, publishing, media, financial services, professional staffing, and manufacturing. Search Technologies’ vision is very closely aligned with Accenture’s, and this acquisition will help us play a major role in building the future of big data, enterprise search, and AI as we integrate our capabilities onto AIP and leverage the scale of Accenture to globalize our offerings.”
This summer has been full of Accenture acquisitions. The company acquired Agile transformation services provider SolutionsIQ, modernization and digital company Phase One Consulting Group, and mobile design and development firm Intrepid in the month of June alone. It also acquired digital optimization company Clearhead in July and completed its acquisition of research and laboratory information technology consulting firm LabAnswer that same month.
