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US-based professional services giant Accenture has acquired Melbourne-based digital design agency Bourne Digital, tapping into the Australian firm’s expertise with the SAP Business Technology Platform.
While the purchase price has not been disclosed, Accenture notes the acquisition will enhance its own SAP offerings in the local market, ‘particularly in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), financial services, resources, health and travel industries’.
Bourne Digital, which was founded in 2015 by Selim Ahmed and has offices in Sydney and Brisbane, specialises in the SAP platform to build design-led digital products and experiences for enterprise customers, including custom portal and web solutions, and mobile applications.
Bourne has a five-year association with global enterprise technology giant SAP, as a member of its SAP AppHaus network, which led to a 2019 partnership that created AppHaus in Melbourne. The centre is a collaborative space that brings together creative and technical experts to prototype and test ideas aimed at improving the user experience and adoption of SAP systems.
Accenture has a decades-long relationship with SAP that extends over the past 40 years.
“As a leading business partner, we work with SAP end-to-end from product innovation to development and delivery,” the company says on its website. “Together, we are revolutionising the future of business.”
The SAP platform is said to bring together data and analytics, artificial intelligence, application development, automation, and integration in a unified environment.
Bourne Digital’s 66 employees will join the Accenture SAP Business Group in Australia, becoming part of a global corporation that employs 738,000 people.
Accenture has more than 9,000 clients in more than 120 countries, with the company bolstering its growth each year through incremental acquisitions such as Bourne Digital, which is among more than a dozen acquisitions the company has made globally since January alone.
Ahmed, the CEO of Bourne Digital, sees the acquisition by Accenture cementing the agency he founded as a market leader in Australia.
“Joining forces with Accenture gives us the opportunity to scale to meet the emerging needs of SAP customers and address the increasing demand for SAP Business Technology Platform services globally,” Ahmed says.
“It will provide our experienced professionals, with their design DNA and deep SAP skills, with new development opportunities and career growth while helping Accenture further strengthen its leadership position in Australia.”
Australia has the world’s fourth-largest user base of the SAP platform behind the US, Canada and the UK.
“In times of disruption, organisations need to digitise business processes in an increasingly compressed timeframe to become more creative, competitive and profitable,” says Matt Coates, the technology lead for Accenture in Australia and New Zealand.
“With the acquisition of Bourne Digital, we will strengthen our SAP digital design and user experience capabilities to help our clients better utilise their SAP solutions.”
Peter Burns, who leads Accenture’s business in Australia and New Zealand, sees the acquisition of Bourne Digital creating a powerhouse in its field in the domestic market.
“Accenture’s deep heritage and experience in large scale technology transformation projects and Bourne Digital’s top talent and user-led design capabilities make a powerful combination in the Australian market,” Burns says.
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