KPMG acquires Adelaide-based SAP specialist Think180
The Australian arm of KPMG has made its first acquisition in close to a year, picking up SAP specialist Think180 and its nationwide team of around 30 – including the addition of two new partners.
Professional services firm KPMG has picked up Adelaide-based SAP specialist Think180 for an undisclosed sum, with company co-founders John Schultz and Stephen Silver to become partners at KPMG once the acquisition is finalised later in the year.
A third Think180 co-founder, Peter Butler, will also join KPMG as a principal director, together with a team of more than 30 professionals spread across Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.
“Having built a long history delivering SAP solutions, joining KPMG represents a unique opportunity for us to ‘level up’ and expand our reach and impact,” said Schultz, Think180 CEO. “KPMG shares our ambition to create a world-leading SAP solutions business right here in Australia. By merging our teams and linking in with the depth and breadth of business, technology and compliance expertise within KPMG, we are taking a massive step on this journey.”
Originally called Locl, the trio established Think180 in 2007 together with former Capgemini principal Michael Tellis, serving clients in the energy, utilities, mining and construction sectors on SAP integrations and solutions in the areas of work execution, asset management, regulatory compliance, analytics, and managed services. Bridgestone, and electricity distributors Powerlink Queensland and SA Power Networks are among the company’s clients.
“The acquisition of Think180 reflects KPMG’s commitment to providing industry leading SAP services to meet the needs of the Australian market,” said KPMG’s SAP practice head Pauline Doherty. “Think180 has already established itself as a leading player in the assets and works space. We are excited to add their expertise to our existing team and further enhance KPMG’s unique, business-oriented approach to SAP implementations.”
The Think180 purchase is KPMG’s first major acquisition for close to a year, when it picked up intelligent automation and software integration consultancy Rubicon Red – adding a team of around 100 employees.
Local SAP businesses have been attracting the attention of larger players in recent years, including Accenture’s purchase of Zag for a reported $45 million, and Capgemini’s acquisition of Melbourne-based SAP gold partner Acclimation.
“SAP is a world leader in business technology and KPMG is investing heavily in growing our offerings in this space.” said KPMG CEO Andrew Yates. “By combining KPMG’s capabilities alongsideThink180’s, we are creating one of the leading SAP Intelligent and Enterprise Asset Management specialist teams in Australia. This acquisition underlines the firm’s commitment to technology transformation capability.”
