Accenture To Acquire Industrial IoT Consultancy

Channel heavyweight Accenture, one of the world’s top solution providers, has agreed to acquire a Houston-based consulting firm that helps energy-related industries with Industrial Internet of Things technology.

Accenture – No. 2 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 list – said Wednesday its acquisition of Cimation will combine the expertise of both firms for clients in the oil and gas, pipeline, chemicals, metals and mining industries, focusing on such technology as field sensors attached to equipment like oil and gas wells.

Cimation, which employs 230, is an affiliate of Audubon Companies, also based in Houston, and helps clients with process automation, IT and industrial control system cybersecurity. The company was founded in 2009 in Louisiana and maintains an office in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie. The employees, all based in the United States and Canada, will join Accenture’s Asset and Operations Services group, Accenture said.

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Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. No closing date was announced either.

The deal supports the integration of enterprise IT systems and operational technology that resources industries need to capitalize on such opportunities as automation solutions, production optimization, asset analytics and industrial control systems cyber security, the Accenture statement said. As a result, companies can improve the maintenance and operations of their wells, pipelines, refineries, chemical plants and mines, the solution provider’s statement added.

’Industrial companies are realizing the value of (IT and operational technology) convergence to lower costs, increase productivity and improve reliability and safety,’ said Peggy Kostial, senior managing director for Accenture’s North America Resources operating group. ’Our union with Cimation will expand our digital, management consulting and technology consulting capabilities to help clients achieve their goals of managing their assets more effectively and with greater security.’

A spokesman for $31 billion Accenture said the company would have no further comment until after the deal closes.

In the statement announcing the acquisition, David Abood, who leads growth and strategy for Accenture’s Resources operating group, called the deal an ’important step’ in the company’s strategy "to move beyond enterprise and back-office services into our clients’ asset and operations technologies and the Industrial Internet of Things.’

The announcement comes three months after Accenture announced its intent to acquire Cloud Sherpas, one of the world’s fastest growing cloud solution providers and one of the largest providers of Google and Salesforce.com cloud applications.