Accenture Continues On Salesforce Solution Provider Acquisition Path With Deal For New Energy Group

Accenture has struck a deal to acquire a 400-person Salesforce solution provider, Italy-based New Energy Group, further expanding its Salesforce capabilities.

The acquisition, which is anticipated to close within the next two months, builds on progress the company has made through its four previous Salesforce partner acquisitions within the past two years.

’I am so excited for this acquisition,’ said Saideep Raj, managing director of Accenture Global’s Cloud First Applications team. ’The reason that we are doing these acquisitions is that even though we are [a leading partner] with Salesforce and have organic strength, the demand is so great that we have to make acquisitions like this to continue to extend our leadership position. It’s a really great signal to show that the growth is continuing in this space.’

[Related: Blockbuster Buy: Accenture Snaps Up Cloud Sherpas, Sets Its Sights On Cloud Growth ]

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

As part of the deal, Accenture will acquire all New Energy-branded organizations as well as Bit2win, New Energy’s Salesforce-based product suite that assists companies in transforming their front office with simple, agile and digitally enabled sales solutions.

Following the acquisition, Raj said New Energy will join the Accenture Cloud First Applications team, which delivers cloud services for Salesforce, Workday, ServiceNow, Google, Pegasystems and other ’pure-play’ cloud technologies.

New Energy’s leadership will be integrated into Accenture’s regional leadership positions within that organization, he said.

Raj said that although Accenture is currently the Salesforce partner with the most certified professionals, the New Energy acquisition will help the company keep its global lead on the competition, and will boost the number of Salesforce-certified consultants that the company has.

Currently, according to a release from Accenture, the Dublin-based company – No. 2 on the 2016 CRN Solution Provider 500 - has more than 3,700 unique certified professionals.

However, following its acquisition of New Energy, Accenture will gain 200 new certified professionals that together hold 300 Salesforce certifications.

’In certain geographies, we have double, sometimes even triple the number of certified consultants of any other partner. It’s a measure of the scale we have in terms of the depth of skills that we have around Salesforce,’ Raj said.

This acquisition, Accenture’s 10th in 2016, is the company’s fifth Salesforce-driven acquisition since 2014.

In February 2015, Accenture acquired German solution provider ClientHouse, which was followed by the company’s acquisition of U.K.-based Tquila UK in May of 2015.

However, the company’s largest Salesforce acquisition was made in October 2015 when the company folded 1,100-person strong CloudSherpas into its Cloud First Applications team.