Accenture Will Acquire Orbium To Boost Financial Services Muscle

Accenture is placing a big bet on banking and wealth management software provider Avaloq with the planned acquisition of a Switzerland-based company.

The Dublin-based solution provider -- No. 2 on the CRN Solution Provider 500 -- announced Wednesday that it had agreed to buy Orbium, the largest services provider for the Avaloq Banking Suite, software that is used by more than 150 banks and wealth managers around the world.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Accenture did not reply to requests for comment.

Orbium has three times the number of Avaloq-certified specialists than any other company, Accenture said in a statement announcing the deal. It is also able to provide training for Avaloq professional certification. Once the acquisition is complete, Accenture will fold in Orbium’s global workforce, as well as technical assets, and project accelerators developed specifically for the Avaloq platform.

Accenture said the wealth management industry is shifting away from “high-cost, inflexible” legacy solutions and towards SaaS, and business process outsourcing that provide open architectures needed to give banking the digital services it demands.

Orbium has more than 500 employees in offices in 11 countries across Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and the U.S. The company was founded in 2004 and now boasts clients among “tier-one” banks, premium wealth managers, as well as private banks around the world.

“In leveraging Accenture’s leading-edge capabilities, we will be able to significantly expand the reach and scope of our market solutions. Accenture and Orbium share a common focus: our clients’ success,” said Samir Gherbi, a partner at Orbium.

During Accenture’s most recent earnings call, the company said it planned to spend $1.5 billion on acquisitions during this fiscal year.

In October, the company made another foray into financial services with the purchase of TargetST8 Consulting, which specializes in using artificial intelligence and robotic process automation in corporate and commercial lending.

TargetST8, which was founded in 2013, focuses exclusively on the financial markets, serving banks and investment firms in the U.S. and Europe, and was expected to be used to enhance Accenture’s capabilities in the commercial and corporate lending industries, and bolster its credit consulting practice.