IBM To Acquire Solution Provider TruQua In SAP Channel Play

‘This move is up-skilling and acquiring new capabilities to meet clients’ needs in their transformation journeys,’ says Bill Piotrowski, an IBM senior partner and the line leader of IBM’s Americas enterprise application service business.

IBM Monday said it plans to acquire TruQua Enterprises, a solution provider focused on the SAP ecosystem.

With the acquisition of Chicago-based TruQua, IBM is getting a leader in SAP-based transformations in the financial, planning and analysis business, said Bill Piotrowski, an IBM senior partner and the line leader of the company’s Americas enterprise application service business.

TruQua works with customers’ CFOs and controllers to help them implement and optimize financial-focused technology, Piotrowski told CRN.

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While IBM is already one of SAP’s largest partners and recognized as a leader in the SAP business, it decided an acquisition of TruQua rather than a partnership was the best way to grow its SAP presence, Piotrowski said.

“The SAP technology space is continuously changing as clients shift workloads to the cloud,” he said. “IBM builds those capabilities from within, but we also look elsewhere. This move is up-skilling and acquiring new capabilities to meet clients’ needs in their transformation journeys.”

TruQua, while modest in size, brings a number of niche skills IBM finds very important, Piotrowski said.

The solution provider has a strong focus in SAP Central Finance, which is important when customers do mergers and acquisitions and end up with multiple legacy financial systems that need to be centralized. It is also strong in SAP Group Reporting, which streamlines the collection and use of data to plan where a business will grow, where it can optimize costs, and how to prepare for the annual budgeting cycle and make financial preparations for things like U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reporting, he said.

IBM and TruQua had not partnered in the past, but IBM was aware of its reputation via the solution provider’s presence in the SAP ecosystem, Piotrowski said.

“It came very well recommended by SAP,” he said.

TruQua co-founders Scott Cairncross and David Dixon are both slated to join Piotrowski’s senior leadership team at IBM, Piotrowski said.