Hitachi Solutions Acquires Canadian-Based Ideaca To Expand Global Footprint

The acquisition of the Canadian solution provider will allow the San Francisco-based company to accelerate its footprint globally, said Craig Burbidge, vice president of market development at Hitachi Solutions.

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Currently, Hitachi Solutions does business in Japan, China, Europe, the United States and now with its new acquisition, Canada. The company is looking to strengthen markets and eventually expand into Southeast Asia and Latin America, said Burbidge.

"What we're going to be doing is taking and blending [the companies] together to take IPs [Internet Protocol] that we have here along with the expertise to provide a broader set of capabilities in Canada as well as the U.S. market," said Burbidge. "They bring quite a bit of expertise around business intelligence, like Microsoft platform capabilities that we will be incorporating."

Previously, in 2007, Hitachi Solutions and Ideaca partnered on a field services automation project and it blossomed from there, said Burbidge. "Up in Canada, they sold that solution, we supported them in that effort, and that’s really where we were able to get to know them and understand what a great company they are," said Burbidge. "It made sense for us to acquire them to grow our presence in Canada."

Presently, as a VAR and systems integrator, Hitachi Solutions has capabilities in ERP and growing its CRM delivery capabilities around industry solutions. In addition, Ideaca, now Hitachi Solutions Canada, will essentially leverage its Microsoft and SAP technology areas, such as Microsoft Dynamics and SAP ERP.

"There are places where we partner with smaller ISVs [Independent Software Vendors] that round out an industry's solution," said Burbidge. "As we expand our footprint, we are able to provide a broader set of capabilities and resources that comes with our expertise, subject matter experts, solution architecture and delivery around the solutions we provide."

While Ideaca previously served just Canadian-based companies in oil and gas, retail, financial and manufacturing services, agriculture, and forestry and fishing, the acquisition will allow larger global companies in Canada to have that same experience worldwide, said Burbidge.

"We will be able to provide customers with a broader set of integrated solution capabilities they can source through Hitachi Solutions then through multiple providers," said Burbidge. "If they have operations in the Middle East for gas and oil, we have a global presence to support that."

PUBLISHED DEC. 3, 2013