IT and consulting giant Accenture, has acquired BRIDGEi2i, an artificial intelligence and analytics firm headquartered in Bangalore, just days back. This is one of the many acquisitions the tech giant has conducted in the last two years. Especially in 2021, it has been on a shopping spree and added many companies, big and small, to its kitty.

Taking a closer look at the acquisitions from the last two years’ framework, we can see that most of these have happened in the Accenture Cloud First, Accenture Applied Intelligence, Accenture Industry X and Accenture Interactive domains. This is very well echoed in the company’s Business Future 2021: Signals of Change Research. It said, “Organizations are using data analytics and artificial intelligence to make decisions and define strategies that anticipate the future.”

Cloud competition is increasing among tech giants

With COVID-19 hitting the world globally and the rapid pace of digital transformation that followed, Accenture, with its latest acquisitions, seems to have realized that the future of business lies in cloud, artificial intelligence and data analytics. The company launched its Cloud First segment in September 2020 with a $3 billion investment plan over the next three years. These acquisitions aim to use the companies’ expertise to help in scaling growth and stay ahead of the competition. In addition, through these acquisitions, it will access the talent from these companies for its clients who are already skilled in providing end-to-end cloud services.

Recent Cloud First sector acquisitions are these:

• BENEXT–Independent product consulting company specializing in product management, agile coaching, cloud-based development and data science; acquired in October 2021.
• Linkbynet–Cloud services provider headquartered in France, specializing in cloud optimization and managed services, cloud transformation and cloud security; acquired in July 2021.
• Cygni–Sweden based cloud native full-stack development firm; acquired in March 2021.

What are the competitors up to?

Other tech and consulting giants are also stepping up in the Cloud space: 

• Last year in August, Infosys launched Infosys Cobalt. It is a set of services, solutions, and platforms to help enterprises in cloud-powered enterprise transformation.
• Consulting biggie, EY launched a cloud enablement centre for financial services in Phoenix. It will focus on delivering an array of services and solutions for clients with cloud and agile technology capabilities.
• TCS teamed up with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to launch the new TCS AWS Business Unit (BU). It is a full-stack, multidisciplinary group that offers enterprise customers end-to-end services and solutions around cloud migration, application and data modernization, managed services, and industry-specific innovation leveraging AWS.

Betting on AI, Data Analytics

It is a well-known fact that the importance of data for today’s businesses has skyrocketed. The acquisition of boutique AI firms will help Accenture improve its AI skills and data science capabilities to give better value to its clients. Sanjeev Vohra, global lead for Accenture Applied Intelligence, said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has made technologies such as AI core to business success, with scaled investments enabling enterprises to thrive by refocusing on growth during the most disruptive time in their history.” Business Future 2021: Signals of Change Research by Accenture also emphasizes the importance of data and AI. It says, to find new patterns in data and better anticipate future decisions, new data sets, which include real-time data from across the value chain, are being processed by new analytic approaches based on artificial intelligence.

Following are Accenture’s Applied Intelligence acquisitions:

• Bridgei2i–India-headquartered AI firm with additional offices in the US and Australia; acquired in October 2021.
• Core Compete–Cloud analytics services firm headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, with additional offices in the UK and India; acquired in April 2021.
• Byte Prophecy–An automated insights and big data analytics company based in Ahmedabad, India; acquired in May 2021.
• End-To-End Analytics–A boutique applied analytics and data science consultancy located in Palo Alto; acquired in December 2020.
• Pragsis Bidoop–Spanish company with strong expertise in big data, AI and advanced analytics; acquired in September 2019.

Expanding footprint in different markets

It seems that Accenture wants to increase its foothold in different markets with the acquisitions. These recent buyouts in AI, cloud and cybersecurity are all spread out in important markets like South America, Australia, Europe, Australia, and India, among others. Accenture is trying to capture these important markets to tap on the opportunities and assert dominance over its competitors.