Accenture Expands Technology Strategy Capabilities with Acquisition of Strongbow Consulting

2023-07-27 22:23

RIDGEWOOD, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 27, 2023--

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has acquired Strongbow Consulting, a data-driven strategic advisory firm with deep expertise in helping organizations plan and execute technology transformation strategies, while minimizing risk and maximizing cost savings. Strongbow Consulting’s team of approximately 60 professionals is joining Accenture’s Technology Strategy & Advisory practice, bringing the capabilities to optimize and modernize companies’ IT infrastructure while seamlessly bridging the gap between old and new technology through successful change programs at scale. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

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Accenture has acquired Strongbow Consulting, a data-driven strategic advisory firm with deep expertise in helping organizations plan and execute technology transformation strategies, while minimizing risk and maximizing cost savings. (Photo: Business Wire)

With its long history of driving successful outcomes for global enterprises, Strongbow Consulting will become an integral part of Accenture Technology Strategy & Advisory in North America, forming the core of its Tech Value practice, which was launched when Advocate joined last year. Strongbow Consulting will help expand Accenture’s Technology Business Management (TBM) solutions with its capacity to find and unlock savings to fund modernization and innovation programs. With this new capability and Advocate’s strengths in TBM/TBM-as-a-service (TBMaaS), FinOps-as-a-service and TEM, Accenture can deliver a holistic lifecycle management solution to help enterprises secure a far greater return on their technology investments.

“This acquisition reinforces and fuels our ambition of helping clients seek, find and expand value by extracting maximum utility from their technology investments,” said Keith Boone, Accenture’s Technology Strategy & Advisory North America lead. “Strongbow Consulting will assist our clients in architecting, designing and running infrastructure modernization programs that improve speed to market and provide the agility required by today’s digital businesses. In addition to planning and building for the future, Strongbow Consulting’s command of balancing infrastructure stability with cost efficiency delivers the competitive advantage our clients ultimately need to succeed in today’s era of Total Enterprise Reinvention.”

Headquartered in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and founded in 2014, Strongbow Consulting brings together commercial and technical expertise in infrastructure modernization across three areas: Hybrid Cloud, Networking and End User Compute environments. Such a comprehensive suite of capabilities powers their ability to identify and capture savings from companies’ legacy infrastructure, unlocking the significant capital required to fund technology modernization programs.

“For nearly a decade, clients have relied on Strongbow Consulting to identify the optimal technology solutions to meet their business needs, while yielding better performing, more reliable global infrastructure that returns significant savings to their bottom line,” said Cathy Horst Forsyth, founder and CEO at Strongbow Consulting. “We are excited to bring our expertise to bear in order to scale and further augment Accenture’s Tech Value capabilities while helping more clients extract maximum value from their technology investments.”

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent and innovation led company with 732,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. We are uniquely able to deliver tangible outcomes because of our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Accenture Song. These capabilities, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients succeed and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “likely,” “anticipates,” “aspires,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” “believes,” “estimates,” “positioned,” “outlook,” “goal,” “target” and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance nor promises that goals or targets will be met, and involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These risks include, without limitation, risks that: the transaction might not achieve the anticipated benefits for Accenture; Accenture’s results of operations have been, and may in the future be, adversely affected by volatile, negative or uncertain economic and political conditions and the effects of these conditions on the company’s clients’ businesses and levels of business activity; Accenture’s business depends on generating and maintaining client demand for the company’s services and solutions including through the adaptation and expansion of its services and solutions in response to ongoing changes in technology and offerings, and a significant reduction in such demand or an inability to respond to the evolving technological environment could materially affect the company’s results of operations; if Accenture is unable to match people and their skills with client demand around the world and attract and retain professionals with strong leadership skills, the company’s business, the utilization rate of the company’s professionals and the company’s results of operations may be materially adversely affected; Accenture faces legal, reputational and financial risks from any failure to protect client and/or company data from security incidents or cyberattacks; the markets in which Accenture operates are highly competitive, and Accenture might not be able to compete effectively; Accenture’s ability to attract and retain business and employees may depend on its reputation in the marketplace; Accenture’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments and disclosures may expose it to reputational risks and legal liability; if Accenture does not successfully manage and develop its relationships with key ecosystem partners or fails to anticipate and establish new alliances in new technologies, the company’s results of operations could be adversely affected; Accenture’s profitability could materially suffer if the company is unable to obtain favorable pricing for its services and solutions, if the company is unable to remain competitive, if its cost-management strategies are unsuccessful or if it experiences delivery inefficiencies or fail to satisfy certain agreed-upon targets or specific service levels; changes in Accenture’s level of taxes, as well as audits, investigations and tax proceedings, or changes in tax laws or in their interpretation or enforcement, could have a material adverse effect on the company’s effective tax rate, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition; Accenture’s results of operations could be materially adversely affected by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; changes to accounting standards or in the estimates and assumptions Accenture makes in connection with the preparation of its consolidated financial statements could adversely affect its financial results; as a result of Accenture’s geographically diverse operations and strategy to continue to grow in key markets around the world, the company is more susceptible to certain risks; if Accenture is unable to manage the organizational challenges associated with its size, the company might be unable to achieve its business objectives; Accenture might not be successful at acquiring, investing in or integrating businesses, entering into joint ventures or divesting businesses; Accenture’s business could be materially adversely affected if the company incurs legal liability; Accenture’s global operations expose the company to numerous and sometimes conflicting legal and regulatory requirements; Accenture’s work with government clients exposes the company to additional risks inherent in the government contracting environment; if Accenture is unable to protect or enforce its intellectual property rights or if Accenture’s services or solutions infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others or the company loses its ability to utilize the intellectual property of others, its business could be adversely affected; Accenture may be subject to criticism and negative publicity related to its incorporation in Ireland; as well as the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed under the “Risk Factors” heading in Accenture plc’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, the timing and amount of costs related to Accenture’s business optimization actions and the nature and extent of benefits realized from such actions are subject to uncertainties and other factors, including local country consultation processes and regulations, and may differ from its current expectations and estimates. Statements in this news release speak only as of the date they were made, and Accenture undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such statements to actual results or changes in Accenture’s expectations.

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CONTACT: Michelle Schneider

Accenture

+1 412 874 0282

michelle.schneider@accenture.com

Andrea Duffy

Accenture

+1 646 295 5241

andrea.duffy@accenture.com

KEYWORD: NEW JERSEY UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: PROFESSIONAL SERVICES DATA MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY DATA ANALYTICS SOFTWARE CONSULTING

SOURCE: Accenture