Dive Brief:
- Consulting giant Accenture has agreed to acquire procurement services firm Insight Sourcing, the company announced Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
- The acquisition will add 220 sourcing consultants to Accenture’s supply chain and operations unit as well as Insight Sourcing’s suite of 40 technological tools for procurement.
- The deal expands Accenture’s sourcing and procurement services for private equity companies in the consumer goods, retail, technology and industrial industries. Insight Sourcing currently serves more than 60 companies in the private equity space.
Dive Insight:
Insight Sourcing adds to Accenture’s recent spate of acquisitions in the procurement space. It also picked up advisory firm Impendi in January and consultancy The Shelby Group in November, both of which also specialize in servicing private equity-owned companies.
Accenture currently offers end-to-end procurement services, including through its digital operations platform SynOps. It also hosts a sourcing center that can help companies with rapid sourcing and partners with the procurement tech providers SAP Ariba and Coupa.
Accenture sees a growing demand from private equity investors for “tailored and repeatable solutions that drive value,” according to Muqsit Ashraf, global lead for Accenture Strategy. Ashraf said in the release that “Insight Sourcing will provide critical spend and sourcing capabilities to our private equity clients and their portfolio companies.”
Along with private equity companies, Insight Sourcing has provided procurement consulting to Under Armour, Lululemon, JLL, Post and Williams Sonoma, among others, according to its website. Its services include spend assessment and analytics, strategic sourcing analysis, procurement transformation consulting and category management, among others.
For private equity players, the firm bills itself as being able to help them manage procurement spend and costs across an investment firm’s portfolio of owned companies.
Atlanta-based Insight Sourcing was founded in 2002. Its acquisition by Accenture includes Insight Sourcing’s energy procurement and management business, Insight Energy. The deal is subject to closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
