Accenture announced its intention to buy BENEXT, a product consulting firm specialized in product management, agile coaching, cloud-based development, and data science, on Wednesday.
BENEXT, a full-stack product consulting firm located in France, was founded in 2014 with the goal of assisting customers in the design, organization, deployment, and efficient management of their digital products while also improving the consumer user experience. The company’s approximately 160 highly trained employees will join OCTO Technology, which has been a part of Accenture since 2017, to enhance Accenture Cloud First’s European and worldwide capabilities. OCTO Technology is a technology consulting firm that specializes in software development and digital transformation. The OCTO team is based in France, but it also works in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
“With many clients ramping up their multi-cloud environments, the need for new agile operating models and a seamless user experience across a multi-cloud network has never been greater. By tapping into the dynamic capabilities of the cloud, leading companies can reimagine their businesses from design to delivery,” said Karthik Narain, global lead, Accenture Cloud First. “Acquiring BENEXT would be a valuable addition to help more clients truly operate in the cloud and become digital enterprises. For clients, this ultimately equates to reaching a tipping point of change and pivoting the entirety of their business toward new opportunities.”
Accenture Cloud First brings together unmatched depth and breadth of cloud expertise, industry cloud solutions, ecosystem partner capabilities, and assets to help clients realize greater value from the cloud at speed and scale, thanks to 77,000 cloud professionals and a $3 billion investment over the next three years. Accenture has made a number of key investments to extend and strengthen its Cloud First capabilities over the last 24 months. Linkbynet, Gekko, and Cirruseo are among the most recent purchases in France.
Olivier Girard, market unit lead for Accenture France & Benelux, said “Together with BENEXT, we would bring more specialized skills to fulfill the growing demand for effective product management and agile methods by leveraging the use of the latest technologies such as cloud, artificial intelligence, data, and DevOps. The unique combination of our product management, organizational, and technical skills would generate more value to the French market in particular for our clients in the public sector, financial services, and the media industry.”
David Robert, founder, and president of BENEXT, said, “We are excited about this opportunity based on our history and would accelerate our strategy. The combination of our two organizations’ expertise allied with our deep product management expertise would enable us to take the services offered to our clients to a whole new level. Together, we can help clients reimagine their products, reengineer their product life cycles, and optimize their customers’ experiences.”
The acquisition would be subject to customary closing conditions and would need prior engagement with the appropriate works councils.
