Deloitte buys risk consultancy Converging Data Australia
Deloitte has acquired Sydney-based risk consultants Converging Data Australia, with its founder and team joining the Big Four firm’s Risk Advisory practice.
Global professional services firm Deloitte has added boutique Sydney-based risk consultancy Converging Data Australia – a leading partner in the Asia Pacific for the data collation and analysis platform Splunk. The acquisition – which was made for an undisclosed sum – sees Converging Data co-founder and APAC managing partner Stuart Hirst join Deloitte as a Partner in its Risk Advisory practice.
Established in 2013 by Hirst and fellow co-founder Neil Murphy (who continues on in the UK as the managing director for the company’s non-acquired EMEA business), Converging Data Australia has since established a roster of public and private sector clients in the financial services, healthcare and supply-chain industries, providing among other areas risk and security services through the Plunk platform.
“Working in the areas of security, operational intelligence, and data analytics, as well as digital and IoT innovation, the Converging Data team will bring its deep domain expertise to help our clients keep pace with the continually evolving technology risk landscape,” said Deloitte’s Managing Partner for Risk Advisory Dennis Krallis, with the firm noting the increasing risks to business due to the convergence of physical and digital technologies in the industry 4.0 era.
James Nunn-Price, Deloitte’s Cyber leader for the Asia Pacific: “Today, businesses are investing in projects and programs that help them to monitor and stay alert to key risk events in real time – such as fraud, cyber security, compliance and financial crime. “Converging Data’s unique methods and solutions, such as its Data Platform as a Service (DataPaaS) offering, enable it to build, deploy and deliver cyber analytics solutions at scale and speed using the Splunk platform.”
“It’s a very powerful tool for capturing and analysing the vast pools of data that large organisations have to deal with,” adds Hirst, with Splunk claiming its software is used by 90 percent of the Fortune 100. “We are looking forward to combining it with Deloitte’s global team of more than 300 Splunk professionals to help more Australian businesses benefit from the insights and benefits Splunk software can bring,” Hirst said of Converging Data’s DataPaaS solution.
The deal follows other recent pick-ups in the local risk and data analytics space, including last year’s acquisition of Melbourne-based data science consultancy Connected Analytics, and the earlier purchase of Qubit Consulting, Australia’s largest provider of identity management services. “They will enhance and complement our existing investments in the design, build and running of bespoke Cyber Security Intelligence Operations Centres for clients,” Krallis said of the firm’s latest buy.
More widely, the latest acquisition continues a robust period of activity in the Australian M&A market – up nearly 200 percent in the twelve month toward the end of last year – including in the professional services and tech space, both for Deloitte and its competitors. Adding to its Connected Analytics acquisition, the firm also bought respective AWS and Microsoft partners CloudTrek and Mexia toward the back end of last year, while rival EY picked up digital consultancy Adelphi and, just last month, ERP and cloud specialists Plaut IT.
Related: Deloitte Digital buys New Zealand-based consultancy CloudinIT.
