Infosys acquires Simplus including 50-strong Australian team
After successfully pursuing a buy-and-build strategy for a few years, Simplus has now become a victim of its success. The international Salesforce consultancy has been absorbed by Infosys, which sees a team of around 600 consultants join its Salesforce practice, including 50 in Australia.
The market for Salesforce advisory and implementation services is on fire. On the back of Salesforce’s global rampage – the US-headquartered company now generates over $10 billion in fees, double the amount five years ago – the firm’s partner network is seeing booming demand for consulting and technology support.
With over 600 consultants and digital specialists dedicated to Salesforce, Platinum Salesforce Partner Simplus is one of the leading consultancies in the landscape, with a focus on the Quote-to-Cash segment. The company which has offices in North America, Sydney, Melbourne, London, and a large delivery center in Manila, serves a client base of some 4,000 organisations.
For Infosys, the deal valued at $250 million significantly bolsters both the depth and breadth of its Salesforce offerings, and adds a roster of new clients in the high-tech, financial services, retail, healthcare, life sciences and manufacturing sectors, among others.
“This acquisition demonstrates our commitment to the Salesforce ecosystem and reaffirms our continuous endeavour to strengthen our strategy of scaling our agile digital and cloud-first digital transformation,” said Pravin Rao, Chief Operating Officer of Infosys.
An end-to-end offering
Ravi Kumar, a President at the firm, added “Complementing our industry knowledge and existing Salesforce footprint with their strong presence in key markets, deep Salesforce consulting and advisory expertise will help accelerate the transformation journey of incumbent companies. With this strong addition to our portfolio, we further elevate our position as an end-to-end Salesforce enterprise cloud services provider.”
Speaking of the joining of forces with Infosys – Simplus was reportedly eyed by several global IT consultancies – Ryan Westwood, the CEO of Simplus said, “We have viewed this partnership from a culture-first lens from the beginning, and we believe that the alignment of our company values, and the preservation of our company DNA will allow us to accelerate growth and together become the strongest and most respected partner in the Salesforce ecosystem.”
The Australian arm of Simplus launched in January 2019 when Simplus acquired Sqware Peg, a company founded in 2004 that worked exclusively on the Salesforce Platform. As part of the integration, managing director Reid Meldrum joined Simplus and became a prominent shareholder.
The Simplus deal – which itself closed over five deals since 2016 including BaldPeak Consulting, EDL Consulting, Basati and CirrusOne – comes 1,5 years after Infosys bought Finnish Salesforce partner Fluido Oy for €65 million, and hot on the heels of rival Cognizant’s acquisition of EI-Technologies, a large French Salesforce partner.
