Accenture has announced plans to acquire umlaut, an engineering consulting and services firm headquartered in Aachen, Germany, for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition will scale Accenture’s deep engineering capabilities to help companies use digital technologies like cloud, artificial intelligence and 5G to transform how they design, engineer and manufacture their products as well as embed sustainability.
The move will add over 4,200 industry-leading engineers and consultants across 17 countries to Accenture’s Industry X services and expand the company’s capabilities across a range of industries, including automotive, aerospace and defence, telecommunications, energy and utilities.
Julie Sweet, Accenture CEO said: “We predicted that digital would ultimately be applied at scale to the core of a company’s business – the design, engineering and manufacturing of their products. And, for nearly a decade Accenture has been building the unique capabilities and ecosystem partnerships to combine the power of digital with traditional engineering services. COVID-19 has accelerated the need for companies to transform these core operations, and umlaut’s leading and highly-specialised engineering services will enhance our ability to meet the accelerating demand and also continue innovating for our clients.”
Marc Peter Althoff, chief technology officer at umlaut said: “Business leaders across many industries who face the convergence of the digital and the product world are looking for a trusted partner that understands their language and can really help navigate each step of the journey to bring tangible outcomes in engineering and manufacturing. We are excited to bring our unique engineering and consulting culture, deep industry know-how and subject matter expertise to Accenture Industry X and jointly create the capabilities and scale to help clients successfully transform.”
The acquisition of umlaut will be the next in a series of 22 acquisitions made by Accenture since 2017 to build its Industry X capabilities.
