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Global consulting form Accenture is hoping to bolster its artificial intelligence (AI) and data transformation prowess in Southeast Asia thanks to the acquisition of Malaysian data management and analytics firm BIIT Consulting.
Founded in 2013 by two former Accenture employees, Veleswaran Nallaiah and Samuel Lee, BIIT Consulting provides services to help organisations across the region manage, analyse and extract insights from their data.
The Kuala Lumpur based firm claims a track record of serving clients across various sectors, including the financial services, retail, telecommunications and manufacturing verticals.
As part of the agreement, BIIT Consulting’s team of approximately 55 professionals will join Accenture Malaysia’s Applied Intelligence team, a move thought to strengthen the global firm's ability to offer additional value to clients in the areas of data management, analytics and AI.
The integration of BIIT Consulting’s team is also expected to create greater learning and growth opportunities for employees across both organisations, helping to plug a pre-existing AI talent skills gap in the market.
“We are excited to come on board as part of Accenture Malaysia’s Applied Intelligence team,” said Nallaiah and Lee in a joint statement. “They will provide new growth opportunities for our people and enable expanded capabilities to a larger client base.
“We look forward in bringing and implementing AI for the success of the clients both in Malaysia and regionally together with Accenture,” the pair added.
Accenture claims the move further solidifies its position in the market as a leading provider of AI and data-led transformation services.
The deal comes at a time when, from Accenture’s perspective at least, there is a need for sophisticated data and technology infrastructure to support AI at scale.
“The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation and firms are realising that data analytics and AI are the way forward, but they continue to struggle to capitalise on their data fully,” said Lee Joon Seong, Accenture Southeast Asia Applied Intelligence managing director.
“The addition of BIIT Consulting’s talent will help bolster our capabilities as we address the growing demand for AI services within the region, and help our clients unlock greater value from their data.
"We look forward to welcoming them to our Applied Intelligence family,” he added.
In May, Accenture acquired digital transformation and technology services company Industrie&Co in a move that expands the global provider’s cloud prowess. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Sydney, Australia, Industrie&Co also has a presence in Southeast Asia, with offices in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Accenture said at the time that Industrie&Co brought a deep heritage in cloud infrastructure engineering to its business in the local market.
More recently, in August, the consulting firm opened a new cloud innovation centre in Indonesia amid an effort by the company to outpace the predicted growth rate of the cloud market in Southeast Asia.
The new Accenture Innovation Centre for Cloud Indonesia (AICCI), as it is called, is working to underscore the firm’s aim of advancing the growth and digital transformation of the country’s fast-growing start-up ecosystem, enterprises and government agencies.
