Accenture M&As Broaden Supply Chain & Procurement Know-how

News that Accenture has acquired Insight Sourcing to enhance its procurement offerings brings into focus the importance of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for professional services businesses who seek to widen and deepen their areas of expertise. 

Accenture’s deal to acquire Insight Sourcing, will expand its reach into sectors including private equity, consumer goods, retail, technology and industry.

Insight Sourcing helps organisations optimise costs through strategic sourcing and negotiation across categories including:

• Direct procurement – the purchasing of raw materials, resources, and goods and services that are vital to the core operations of a business.
• Indirect procurement – the sourcing of goods and services not related to manufacturing for a business to enable it to maintain and develop its operations – office equipment, for example.
• Capital expenditures services
• Energy procurement management

Accenture will benefit from Insight Sourcing's 220-strong team of sourcing consultants, and its suite of 40 procurement tools designed to value capture for clients.

Rob Fuhrmann, Global Lead for Sourcing and Procurement at Accenture, said, “With Insight Sourcing, we are taking another important step to position Accenture as a leading provider in sourcing and procurement advisory and execution services for corporate and private equity clients.”

In the wake of the Insight Sourcing acquisition, we look at Accenture’s other supply chain-related M&As in recent times.

Accenture supply chain M&As: Impendi 

Acquired in January, New York-based advisory firm Impendi is a sourcing and procurement services provider with a focus on private equity clients. Impendi helps private equity companies make sourcing and procurement decisions that increase their profitability and improve the bottom line of their portfolio companies.

Accenture supply chain M&As: The Shelby Group

Acquired in November 2023, The Shelby Group provides digital procurement and optimisation services. It has deep experience in Coupa and Ivalua solutions, and helps clients in the manufacturing, financial services, consumer, healthcare and technology industries transform procurement operations by increasing spend visibility and task automation and decreasing cost and risk. 

Accenture supply chain M&As: OnProcess Technology

OnProcess Technology provides supply chain managed services to help organisations refine processes, improve the way inventory is managed and solve complex service challenges. It specialises in reverse logistics for every step of the after-sales process – leveraging automation, AI and data-led decision-making to maintain visibility from planning to asset recovery.

Accenture supply chain M&As: Einr AS

Norwegian startup Einr AS is a consulting company offering high-volume logistics solutions using SAP technologies. The acquisition enhances Accenture’s SAP capabilities, helping it “accelerate supply chain reinvention for organisations within the retail and consumer electronics industries”, it says.