Accenture buys supply chain consultancy Icon Integration
In its fifth deal in Australia in the past twelve months, Accenture has acquired Icon Integration, an IT consulting firm specialised in supply chain and business intelligence services and solutions.
The move, which adds a team of around 70 professionals to Accenture in Australia and New Zealand, comes two months after the global consulting and technology giant bought Apis Group, a Canberra-based professional services firm focused on the public sector. Other 2019 deals in the region include that of Analytics8, cyber firm BCT Solutions and Oracle partner Prime.
Founded in 2011, Icon Integration supports its clients with supply chain management services, with a focus on warehouse management. The company, which has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, also helps companies with developing and delivering bespoke enterprise technology solutions, operational excellence in operations domain and data optimisation.
Icon Integration is an expert in SAP-based supply chain offerings, having built a long standing track record in SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), Warehouse Management (WM), Transport Management (TM) and logistics execution technologies such as Radio Frequency (RF) and Voice enabled workflows.
Integrating Icon Integration into its consulting and technology mix enables Accenture to enhance its business technology offering, said Scott Hahn, at a time of “rising demand for technology solutions” by SAP users. Hahn, who leads Accenture’s Technology practice in Australia and New Zealand, added, “Combined, we offer a unique proposition to help clients realise business benefits from their technology investments.”
According to Bob Easton, chairman of Accenture in Australia and New Zealand, the deal demonstrates the firm’s “ongoing commitment to deepen its capabilities and to scale at speed in areas where there is growing demand from clients.”
For Icon Integration, while the transaction sees the firm lose its ten-year independent status, it adds a number of benefits, said Paul Roddis and Peter Collett, co-founders and co-managing directors at Icon Integration. “We will be able to tap into their breadth of capabilities and specialisations, and our people will be able to expand their skills and grow their careers through exposure to new clients, new work and new experiences.”
Most importantly, the firm’s clients will be able to “gain access to a broader set of services and capabilities, both locally and globally.” Worldwide, Accenture has around 492,000 employees in 50+ countries.
Earlier this month, US-headquartered Salesforce consulting and implementation firm Simplus including its 50-strong Australian team was acquired by Infosys. Meanwhile, in the UK, Accenture acquired data advisory firm Mudano.
