CSC Expands ServiceNow Practice Into Mainland Europe With Aspediens Buy

CSC has fortified its cloud and service management consulting superpower status by purchasing an 80-person European ServiceNow partner with sky-high customer satisfaction scores.

The Tysons, Va.-based company, No. 5 on the CRN 2015 Solution Provider 500, said its acquisition of Nyon, Switzerland-based Aspediens represents a 20 percent increase in its ServiceNow project base, providing the company with a presence in mainland Europe for the first time. The deal will also enable CSC to expand its offerings to include multiyear managed services and enterprise service management.

Aspediens will join CSC’s ServiceNow practice within Fruition Partners, a Chicago-based cloud service management firm that was acquired by CSC in August and is ServiceNow's largest dedicated global integration partner. Fruition co-founder Marc Talluto will continue to lead CSC's global ServiceNow practice, overseeing Aspediens CEO Michel Regueiro.

[Related: CSC Buys Two Firms, Hints Public Sector Business Could Be Acquired]

"We're looking to really expand our global footprint," Talluto told CRN. "We want to go very strong into the European market."

Terms of the deal, which is expected to close June 30, were not disclosed. The combined business will have nearly 500 people with expertise in ServiceNow cloud development and service management consulting.

Fruition's European presence is currently confined to the United Kingdom, Talluto said, meaning that multinational companies looking to deploy ServiceNow in both the United States and mainland Europe would have had to use two solution providers.

The geographies in which Aspediens operates -- Switzerland, France, Germany and Spain -- are expected to see dramatic growth in ServiceNow adoption in the coming years, according to Fruition. Few existing European ServiceNow partners have advanced offerings around application outsourcing, cybersecurity and vertical solutions, making it easier for Fruition to differentiate itself in the region, Talluto said.

Aspediens' reputation for consistent and market-leading services, coupled with extremely high customer satisfaction scores, made them an appealing acquisition target, according to Fruition. Aspediens also has experience building software companies and has a disciplined product management strategy in place, Talluto said.

"We've heard good things from ServiceNow about them," Talluto said.

Fruition also expects to continue its geographic expansion both organically and via acquisition. The company would be most interested in gaining a foothold in Latin America, Asia-Pacific and the Nordics, Talluto said.

Although end users shouldn't expect any changes in the short term, Fruition said customers will benefit from shared research and development, training capabilities and implementation resources over the long run.

Some of CSC's competitors have focused on building a ServiceNow practice, including KPMG and the Indian outsourcing firms. But Talluto said virtually all of the other players can either serve only a particular region or have only mastered a particular competency around ServiceNow such as application outsourcing.

"We're really a more comprehensive global offering to customers than they could get from another partner," Talluto said.