BrazilCognizant boosts business consultancy arm with Hedera Consulting deal
Cognizant has acquired Hedera Consulting, an advisory and analysis company. The deal strengthens the firm’s consulting arm, with a focus on management consultancy and digital transformation, across four European countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland.
“Companies are re-designing their business and IT operating models for the digital era,” said Santosh Thomas, President, Global Growth Markets at Cognizant. “Hedera Consulting expands our ability to help these European clients create agile and digitally transformed enterprises that can act and react to the oceans of data for deeper customer insight, new product development, and to innovate and exploit new business opportunities.”
With the acquisition of Hedera Consulting – which is headquartered in in Kontich, Belgium – Cognizant adds a specialist in business consultancy and data analysis in various sectors – including financial services and utilities – to its portfolio. With around 220,000 employees worldwide, Cognizant is one of the largest IT consultancy firms in the world and a specialist in supporting clients with the (digital) transformation, operations redesign, technology and outsourcing.
M&A-driven consulting expansion
The bolt-on of Hedera Consulting builds on several deals Cognizant in the consultancy space Cognizant has closed in recent years. Last year the firm for instance acquired Australia-based Adaptra, a firm with about 100 professionals. In 2016, KBACE Technologies was picked up, a consulting and technology service provider specialised in Oracle implementation and integration services, while in the same year the firm entered the marketing/branding landscape with the addition of Denmark-headquartered ReD Associates and Netherlands-based Mirabeau. Earlier transactions include the purchase of Cadient Group (2014) and Equinox Consulting (2013), a French financial consultancy firm.
With the takeover of Hedera Consulting, Cognizant will, according to Santosh Thomas, be able to bolster its pan-European consultancy and data analytics offerings. Hedera has over 70 consultants, the majority of which are located in the Benelux, operating from offices in Kontich and in Zeist. The clients of Hedera Consulting are international: the firm’s consultants and data analysts serve organisations across Europe, spanning Italy, Switzerland, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, but also work in the Middle East. The services portfolio spans advisory and implementation support for issues relating to growth strategy, innovation, marketing, sales and customer service.
Leveraging the expertise and scale of Cognizant – Hedera Consulting will be integrated into Cognizant's consulting arm – the Belgian-origin firm will be better equipped to serve its customers, explained Philip Lahey, Partner at Hedera Consulting. “The most successful companies are the ones that reduce the time from informed insight to action. By joining forces with Cognizant, we are even better positioned to help clients define their strategy, transform their businesses and gain insight and competitive advantage in their fast-changing, highly competitive marketplaces.”
Philip Lahey is one of the four partners of the privately-held firm – the others are Patrick Fransen, Dimitri Leemans and Wim Moons. Lahey, Fransen and Leemans previouly worked for Accenture, while Moons served RealDolmen.
Lahey further points to the complementary knowledge and experience of both consultancies: “Our combined industry and local knowledge and experience, as well as our strong joint team, will better enable our customers in the Belgian and Dutch markets to extract meaning from their data and use it to effectively shape their products, services and experiences.”
Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. Globally, Cognizant generates revenues of $14.8 billion.
Consulting M&A
In another consulting deal in Belgium’s consulting market, BDO last month acquired Ideas at Work and Crossroad – both digital consultancy companies. Meanwhile, the merger between France’s Argon Consulting and UK’s Crimson & Co announced earlier this week, created one of the larger consulting firms in Europe specialised in operations, procurement and supply chain.
