Accenture announces acquisition of umlaut

Accenture is acquiring engineering consulting and services firm umlaut to expand its Industry X services (CNW Group/Accenture)

TORONTO — Accenture has agreed to acquire umlaut, an engineering consulting and services firm headquartered in Aachen, Germany. The move will scale Accenture’s 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 acquisition of umlaut will add more than 4,200 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 & defense, telecommunications, energy and utilities. Industry X combines Accenture’s data and digital capabilities with engineering experience to offer clients services for digitizing their engineering functions, factory floors and plant operations.

“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,” said Julie Sweet, chief executive officer, Accenture. “COVID-19 has accelerated the need for companies to transform these core operations, and umlaut’s leading and highly-specialized engineering services will enhance our ability to meet the accelerating demand and also continue innovating for our clients.”

Accenture is expanding Industry X at a time when software increasingly determines the market success of platforms, products and services across industries that require intelligence to be embedded.

“Bringing world-class digital engineering and manufacturing expertise to our clients helps them rapidly scale, accelerate growth, improve productivity and safety, and embed sustainability across their operations,” said Nigel Stacey, global lead of Accenture Industry X. “From consumers to R&D to the supply chain and factory floor, and back again, companies that use the power of data and digital to build value will become—and remain—relevant, resilient and responsible.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that most companies’ operations and supply chains are far from resilient or flexible enough to respond to crises. Digital technologies can help mitigate disruptions by, for example, enabling a fast switch to operate factories remotely or providing near real-time insights about changing market demands. In addition, companies are increasingly expected to operate more responsibly and contribute to a circular economy through the development of more sustainable products.