Accenture M&A Deals Fuel Enterprise Digital Transformation Strategy

With two acquisitions in one week, Accenture continues to focus on enabling enterprise digital transformation. The deals underscore the global systems integrator’s plans to spend billions on M&A to fuel its own expansion and capabilities.

On Thursday, Accenture said it has snapped up The Beacon Group, a growth strategy consultancy. That announcement came a couple days after Accenture said it will purchase Inspirage, a supply chain specialist firm with expertise in Oracle Cloud.

Accenture did not reveal the terms of either deal.

When it comes to enterprise digital transformation, Accenture will look to The Beacon Group to deliver strategic advice to C-suite executives. The Beacon Group serves Fortune 500 companies across technology, aerospace, industrial, health care and life sciences — prime verticals for deploying next-generation technologies. To that end, Accenture will add Beacon’s 60 employees to the Accenture Strategy group.

Accenture’s Chris Roark

“Today’s disruptive market environment is fundamentally challenging companies and changing the way they operate,” said Chris Roark, North America lead of Accenture Strategy. “Business leaders must be able to understand, and quickly act on, new or existing pathways that will drive profitability. The addition of Beacon’s senior talent, growth framework and market modeling platform will expand our capabilities.”

The Beacon Group, with headquarters in Portland, Maine, was founded in 2001.

Accenture Looks to Inspirage for Touchless Supply Chain, More

Next up, Accenture further will lean on 15-year-old Inspirage for enterprise digital transformation specific to Oracle technologies. Accenture expects Inspirage to expand its touchless supply chain and digital twin efforts across various industries. Those include high tech, life sciences, manufacturing, consumer goods, retail, and oil and gas. Inspirage is a platinum member of the Oracle Partner Network.

Accenture’s Renato Scaff

“In a time of unprecedented disruption and supply constraints, companies need to reimagine, build and operate supply chain networks that orchestrate change, simplify people’s lives and positively impact business, society and the planet,” said Renato Scaff, North America lead of Accenture Supply Chain & Operations. “With the addition of Inspirage and its deep industry and systems experience, Accenture will be even better positioned to help our clients reinvent supply chain and manufacturing through Oracle technologies.”

Samia Tarraf, North America Oracle Business Group lead at Accenture, agreed.

“Together, we will help unleash the power of Oracle Cloud to drive impactful results,” Tarraf said.

Inspirage is based in Bellevue, Washington. It operates offices across North America, Europe and Asia. After the acquisition closes, Accenture will put Inspirage’s 170 staff into the Accenture Oracle Business Group.

Accenture’s M&A Roll for Enterprise Digital Transformation

The Beacon Group and Inspirage acquisitions follow on the heels of the Romp and YSC Consulting agreements that Accenture announced last month. Accenture has made other small purchases over the summer as well. On the whole, the company expects to spend around $2.5 billion from its M&A fund this year.

“We had previously said we thought it would be about $4 billion,” Accenture CFO KC McClure said on the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call in late June. “We’ve done $2.2 billion to date, 27 transactions year-to-date. We now think it will be about $2.5 billion. And that’s because there’s about … $1 billion … that is going to go into next year because of required regulatory approvals.”

Indeed, Accenture does not intend to let up on its M&A plans, which are key to its ability to support enterprise digital transformation. Here’s what CEO Julie Sweet had to say in June about why Accenture is on an M&A roll: “[T]here are three big reasons. The first is, we will do it for scale. So, you saw us do a lot of cloud acquisitions, for example, because we wanted to capture the momentum in the market … The second reason we do it is to move into adjacencies. … [W]e’re really going into new areas with new skills and capabilities. And then third, we’re always looking to continue to add in our industry and functional expertise. That strategy has served us well and we continue to believe that that’s an important part of our growth going forward.”

Accenture will hold its fiscal fourth-quarter and 2022 earnings call on Sept. 22.