IBM deepens Salesforce play with Cloud consulting partner acquisition
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: IT Consulting Date: May 16, 2016
IBM has completed the acquisition of Cloud consulting and implementation service provider Bluewolf, one of Salesforce’s top partners globally. Designed to expand Big Blue’s Cloud capabilities in the market, terms of the deal will see Bluewolf join IBM Interactive Experience (IBM iX) to form a deeper consulting capability for clients adopting Salesforce solutions.
As one of Salesforce’s longest standing consulting partners, Bluewolf has implemented over 9,500 Salesforce projects for clients across the world, including Vodafone Hutchinson Australia, Stanley Black & Decker and Sapa Building Systems. “Delivering an exceptional customer experience has emerged as a fundamental element in modern business strategy, and essential to any company’s competitive position,” IBM iX Global Leader, Paul Papas, said.
“With Bluewolf, we’ve added expertise to address the growing demand from Salesforce clients for transformational, Cloud-based services that allow them to transform the experiences they provide their customers.” While financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, IBM iX provides next-generation services spanning industry strategy, creative and design, to scalable digital, commerce, mobile and wearable platforms.
“As a part of IBM iX, we will amplify our capabilities to create extraordinary customer moments and digital experiences,” Bluewolf CEO, Eric Berridge, added. “Combining forces brings game-changing strategy, data and design expertise, for customers of all sizes and industries, instantly transforming us into a formidable global partner in the Salesforce ecosystem.”
Infor Acquires Merit Globe AS
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: IT Consulting Date: May 16, 2016
NEW YORK, N.Y. — Infor RECENTLY announced the acquisition of Merit Globe AS (Merit), a leading provider of consulting services for Infor M3 across Europe. Merit brings approximately 250 seasoned consultants with decades of experience on Infor M3 to expand and enhance Infor Services in Europe. Infor will also leverage best-practices and technology developed by Merit to deliver proactive services to customers, detecting and resolving issues before customers have experienced any business disruption.
“Earlier this year we brought our consulting, support, and cloud operations into one group, Infor Services, to deliver an improved and more cohesive customer experience in the cloud era. As our projects get larger, move beyond edge applications, and address mission critical industry processes, Infor is investing in deployment and customer service,” said Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor. “The acquisition of Merit will bring a talented and experienced team to help meet growing demand for Infor M3, an enterprise resource platform (ERP) for equipment, fashion, and process industries, which have experienced accelerated growth over the last three years.”
Based in Norway, Merit has approximately 250 employees and more than 500 customers in 18 countries. Merit will remain a dedicated business unit within Infor Services, with Erik Outzen, CEO of Merit, continuing to lead the business unit and reporting to Darren Saumur, global head of Infor Services.
DayNine Consulting buys Decisif Consulting
Size: Undisclosed Industry: Professional Services Date: May 17, 2016
DayNine Consulting, Inc., a global Workday (NYSE: WDAY) Services Partner, today announced the completion of its acquisition of Decisif Consulting, an international Workday Advisory Services Partner that specializes in the localization of Workday Financial Management for global enterprises.
With the acquisition, DayNine will now be able to leverage pre-packaged global accelerators from Decisif, which are a collection of localized configurations for Workday Financial Management deployments in key countries. The accelerators will extend Workday’s own deployment tools and methodology, and are designed to enable rapid global deployments and ensure compliance with local statutory requirements for Workday Financial Management customers. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Founded in 2003 by Sylvain Nguyen, Decisif Consulting offers a robust portfolio of consulting and outsourcing solutions for global Workday customers. With European headquarters in Bordeaux, France, and offices in North America and Asia-Pacific, Decisif Consulting tripled its client base and grew its global team by 250 percent in 2015. Nguyen will join DayNine Consulting to co-lead the company’s global Workday Financial Management practice.
“We are excited to announce this news as it further demonstrates our commitment to being a leader in Workday Financial Management deployments, and a premier global Workday Services Partner,” said Tim Ramos, co-founder and CEO of DayNine Consulting. “By combining forces with Decisif, we have increased our ability to help companies transform their business and their investments in Workday Financial Management across the globe in each country they do business.”
“The combination of DayNine’s extensive Workday experience and success, combined with our localization expertise and accelerators, provides customers with a complete and optimized global deployment solution for Workday Financial Management,” said Sylvain Nguyen, founder and CEO of Decisif Consulting.
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Acquires McNeary, Inc
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: Risk Management Date: May 19, 2016
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG) today announced the acquisition of McNeary, Inc., headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 1956, McNeary, Inc. (McNeary) is a retail insurance broker providing commercial property/casualty insurance, risk management services, and employee benefits insurance and consulting services to clients throughout the Eastern United States. They specialize in insurance and consulting services for hospitals and the healthcare industry. William Yaeger and his colleagues will continue to operate from their locations in Charlotte; Marietta, Georgia; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana under the direction of Mitchel Brashier, head of Gallagher’s southeastern retail property/casualty brokerage operations and David Ziegler, head of Gallagher’s eastern employee benefit consulting and brokerage operations.
“McNeary is a wonderful example of our acquisition partner of choice. This well-established firm is highly regarded for its industry expertise, solid relationships with industry associations and team-focused culture,” said J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO. “Their southeastern presence, depth of expertise and high-quality client service will be terrific complements to our property/casualty and employee benefits brokerage operations. We are pleased to welcome Bill and his associates to our growing Gallagher family of professionals.”
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., an international insurance brokerage and risk management services firm, is headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, has operations in 31 countries and offers client service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants.
Elite matchmaking Consultancy Society W acquires HK’s Anteros International
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: Professional Services Date: May 23, 2016
Elite matchmaking consultancy Society W has announced the acquisition of Hong Kong’s Anteros International. Expanding elite matchmaking across Asia, Society W’s clients will now enjoy higher chances of true compatibility. Founded by Kaitlin Kapur, a former beauty pageant titleholder, member of the Association of Image Consultants International and an international dating expert, Anteros International is an exclusive matchmaking service for individuals with the most discerning of tastes. With cross-border matchmaking, individuals can expect to receive more introductions to sincere singles with similar relationship goals through discreet, quality, handpicked matches by highly trained professional matchmakers.
“In line with our long term goal, we aim to play an integral role in Asia’s dating scene so that the most eligible men and women have greater access to a bespoke matchmaking service that is efficient, targeted and most importantly, effective.” said Wendy Tse, CEO, Founder and Head Matchmaker at Society W.
Launched in November 2011, Society W’s memberships consistently grew over the years when successful singles shared about their matchmaking experiences through word of mouth. Dubbed Singapore’s Sassiest Matchmaker, Wendy is also the CEO and Founder at Blindfold, an online dating app for true blue singles to meet new people confidentially online.
Under Kaitlin, Society W will nurture an in-house dating academy to address the challenges that highly successful singles face when dating. These include bespoke coaching programmes, social etiquette courses and personal image consulting services, just to name a few. Like Singapore, singles who prioritize their careers in cosmopolitan Hong Kong are often time poor due to long working hours. With greater social acceptance of elite matchmaking in both cities, more are becoming receptive towards hiring professional matchmakers to help find their life partners.
(http://www.luxury-insider.com)
Microsoft Partner Valorem Makes HoloLens Play with Acquisition
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: IT Consulting Date: May 26, 2016
Kansas City-based Valorem Consulting this week announced its acquisition of Microsoft technology partner IdentityMine. IdentityMine is a 15-year-old software development firm headquartered in Seattle, Wash., with a focus on interactive design solutions built on Microsoft technologies and platforms. The company has built user experience (UX) solutions based on Kinect, Xbox, Xamarin, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and the Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform (UWP), among others. Its customers include Rosetta Stone, TripAdvisor, The Discovery Channel and Ford.
Under the terms of the deal, Valorem, a Microsoft consulting partner and a winner of the 2015 RCP/Rocket Awards, will obtain IndentityMine’s 80 employees, Seattle headquarters, and its offices India and Switzerland. The acquisition will bring Valorem’s headcount to over 220.
IdentityMine Co-Founder Mark Brown will have a “key leadership role” and report directly to Valorem Co-Founder and Managing Partner Domnick Parretta. David Meunier, IdentityMine’s other co-founder, will be brought onboard as a consultant.
“Like Valorem, IdentityMine brings deep user experience strategy and execution capabilities, an impressive client roster, and focuses primarily on Microsoft technologies,” Parretta said in a prepared statement. “The acquisition of IdentityMine further strengthens our ability to bring complex user experience and design solutions to market.”
For IdentityMine, the merger with Valorem stands to bolster its cloud chops. Valorem, which was founded in 2009, has long provided services around Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, as well as Office 365 and Dynamics CRM. Valorem, for its part, says the acquisition will solidify its presence in the Pacific Northwest region with the addition of IdentityMine’s Seattle headquarters. More important, it will be able to take advantage of IdentityMine’s expertise in HoloLens, Microsoft’s emerging mixed-reality technology.
Accenture Completes OPS Rules Acquisition
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: IT Consulting Date: May 12, 2016
Accenture (NYSE:ACN) has completed its acquisition of OPS Rules, a boutique analytics consulting company that specializes in the application of data science to create supply chain and operations analytics solutions. The acquisition enhances Accenture’s machine learning and operations analytics capabilities that can be used to develop innovative and transformational solutions for clients across industries.In addition to joining Accenture Analytics, OPS Rules will be a part of Accenture’s Data Science Center of Excellence (CoE), a global innovation team that focuses on solving immediate and complex client problems through advanced analytics approaches, including machine and deep learning.
While in the CoE, OPS Rules will be focused on developing pioneering analytics solutions that can help clients to establish more effective supply chain and manufacturing operations.OPS Rules’ data science experts – which includes David Simchi-Levi, a Professor of Engineering Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and renowned supply chain and operations analytics expert – have experience in applying machine learning and optimization techniques to provide multi-echelon inventory optimization, custom supply chain analytics, supply chain risk management and dynamic pricing services.“Our clients are increasingly asking us for innovative analytics solutions that involve advanced techniques like machine learning, so they can find new ways to experiment with their data and skillfully maneuver ahead of the competition,” saidNarendra Mulani, chief analytics officer, Accenture Analytics.
“The addition of OPS Rules’ sophisticated talent and David Simchi-Levi’s decades of operations analytics experience will expand our end-to-end analytics capabilities and enhance our ability to leverage machine learning techniques and optimize business operations for clients around the globe.”
(http://boston.citybizlist.com)
Leo Burnett announces iStrat’s merger with Indigo Consulting
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: IT Consulting Date: June 01, 2016
Advertising agency Leo Burnett India has announced the merger of iStrat with its digital-agency Indigo Consulting. iStrat, the Delhi-headquartered agency was acquired by Publicis in 2012. Post the merger, it will be rebranded as Indigo iStrat and will be headed by Harshad Hardikar, chief operating officer, Indigo Consulting.
Navneet Sahni and Sonya Sahni, co-founders of iStrat, will work closely with Hardikar to solidify the Delhi operations. Headquartered in Mumbai, Indigo iStrat will have a combined strength of over 300 employees across India and will have capabilities across user experience, technology, creative and strategy.
It will partner with all Publicis Communications companies in India including Leo Burnett, Publicis Ambience, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, MSL Group, Orchard Advertising and Publicis Capital.
Saurabh Varma, chief executive officer, Leo Burnett South Asia said, “As individual agencies as Leo Burnett or Publicis has acquired digital assets over the past few years. We realized that there is a greater power in coming together and creating a combined entity. It gives scale, size and specialization. Clients don’t care whether a group has four or five agencies they seek cutting edge solutions which Indigo iStrat aims to provide.”
Hardikar said, “The vision is to be the fastest growing digital agency in India. This merger adds great strength and scale to our value operations in Delhi. Indigo has a strong clientele, iStrat will bring along a much wider client vertical across categories.”
Established in 2000, Indigo Consulting became a part of Leo Burnett (Publicis Groupe) in 2012. Its independent mobile marketing division, Thmbstrk was introduced in 2011. It has a clientele that covers a large business spectrum, including banking & finance, telecom, hospitality, entertainment, consumer goods and B2B.
Based in New Delhi and Gurgaon, iStrat was founded in 2003. It offers a range of digital communication solutions delivered through six business units, including web and mobile solutions, online marketing, social media marketing, relationship marketing, touch screen solutions and digital films. Its client roster exists across business verticals such as BFSI, Healthcare, FMCG, Automotive, Building products, QSR and consumer goods.
Equation Acquired by MedAssets-Precyse
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: Healthcare Consulting Date: June 01, 2016
Equation, an innovator in financial and clinical healthcare analytics and consulting, is pleased to announce it has been acquired by MedAssets-Precyse. This union will result in an enhanced, end-to-end healthcare financial and clinical business intelligence and analytics solution for the healthcare enterprise.
“Equation is excited to combine our DataRiver™ analytics platform and consulting services with the MedAssets-Precyse solutions platform,” explained Trevor Kobe, Equation President and CEO. “We are now ideally positioned to expand our clinical and financial analytics-based solutions to further advance clinical quality, service, and affordability for healthcare organizations big and small. This new enterprise offering will remove the guess work by providing users with the end-to-end views necessary for better decision making across all segments of the healthcare organization. We are thrilled to be acquired by MedAssets-Precyse and to be a part of the new brand, which we will launch at the HFMA ANI conference. The solutions and services of MedAssets-Precyse are world-class and our analytic solutions and consulting services will enable us to do more for healthcare organizations.”
Equation’s cloud-based business intelligence platform, DataRiver™ converts healthcare data into actionable insights. It integrates and organizes clinical and financial data from disparate systems into one, enterprise-wide view. Additionally, it incorporates Equation’s proven algorithms and methodologies to guide and fortify the value-based initiatives of healthcare organizations.
“We are pleased to welcome Equation solutions and colleagues to MedAssets-Precyse,” Thomas Ormondroyd, MBA, President Education and Analytics, MedAssets-Precyse. “Equation’s leading-edge healthcare analytics and expertise increases our capabilities to meet the demands of today’s quality-centric healthcare environment and expands our ability to provide the right data at the right time for our clients. Equation shares our vision of how analytics and data are two of the key success drivers today and in the future of healthcare.”
(http://investor.biospace.com)
Detroit-based Giffels Webster acquires Lathrup Village consulting firm
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: Healthcare Consulting Date: June 01, 2016
Detroit-based consulting firm Giffels Webster on Thursday announced it has acquired Clearzoning, a planning and zoning consulting firm in Lathrup Village. Giffels Webster declined to disclose the acquisition amount. Rodney Arroyo, co-founder and president of Clearzoning, will become a partner at Giffels Webster, overseeing the firm’s community planning. Clearzoning’s CEO David Birchler will retire later this year following the completion of the acquisition. Clearzoning’s nine employees will stay on with the acquisition. Giffels Webster, a firm offering civil engineering, planning, landscape architecture and land development consulting services, has 96 employees.
“The talent of Clearzoning significantly strengthens our community-planning abilities and deepens the service portfolio we offer to our clients,” Scott Clein, president and partner at Giffels Webster, said in a news release.
Clearzoning will began transitioning its employees to Giffels Webster’s offices in Detroit, Washington Township and Birmingham this month. Giffels Webster will continue offering Clearzoning’s namesake product that converts zoning ordinances into illustrated, digital documents, along with its planning process for downtown districts. Clearzoning was originally founded in 1989 as a subsidiary of Birchler Arroyo Associates Inc. in Lathrup Village. The company’s clients include West Bloomfield Township, the city of Novi and Ludington State Park.
(http://www.crainsdetroit.com)
JLL acquires development-consulting firm Merritt & Harris
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: Engineering Consulting Date: June 04, 2016
In the latest escalation in the arms race against rivals like CBRE, JLL’s project and development group has acquired a consulting firm to buff up its growing construction management business. The real estate services firm will fully integrate Merritt & Harris, a construction-consulting firm that specializes in assessing properties for lenders and investors and monitoring construction as it progresses to ensure the projects stay on budget and schedule.
Merritt has offices in New York, South Florida and Los Angeles. Projects in New York have include SL Green Realty’s 1.6 million-square-foot Midtown East office tower One Vanderbilt, the office towers at Related’s Hudson Yards and Silverstein Properties’ World Trade Center towers 3 and 4.
“We have done property condition assessments, but it’s not our expertise,” said George Ladyman, director of JLL Projects, which currently advises clients on One Bryant Park and the Bank of America Tower. “Merritt and Harris will be adding great depth to our current platform.”
JLL declined to disclose the acquisition price. JLL will absorb Merritt’s 40 employees and drop the company’s name, fully integrating it into the projects group. The deal will help JLL compete for clients in the sector with rivals like CBRE, which two years ago acquired the White Plains-based consulting company IVI International. JLL ranked sixth among the nation’s top construction management firms last year with $1 billion in revenues, according to the website Engineering News-Record. CBRE ranked eighth, with $606 million in revenues.
Both JLL and CBRE, meanwhile, are looking to build their presence in Saudi Arabia, as the Gulf nation shifts its economy away from energy exports amid low oil prices. Merritt & Harris president and CEO Manny Kratsios said the deal with JLL helps the firm expand its reach into other markets.
Enstar EU acquires Surrey office
Deal Size: Undisclosed Industry: Professional Services Date: June 06, 2016
Enstar EU is set to move to Guildford Business Park after acquiring more than 17,000 sq ft of office space. The Enstar Group subsidiary, which acquires, manages and provides consulting services to the insurance and reinsurance industry, has taken the space on the second floor at Building 3 on a ten-year lease. The company is currently based at 2 Cathedral Hill, Guildford. Benson Elliot purchased Guildford Business Park in late 2015 and, working alongside asset managers Cube Real Estate, subsequently refurbished the second floor suite in early 2016.
Building 3 is now fully occupied, following a letting to Philips Electronics last year. The park also boasts Ericsson, Colgate Palmolive, DJO Global and Linden Homes as tenants. Enstar was represented by Lambert Smith Hampton and Benson Elliot/Cube Real Estate was represented by JLL and Montagu Evans.
Filed under: Consulting M&A Deals Tagged: consulting, deals, M&A, mergers and acquisitions, transactions
