Accenture acquires Malaysian data management and analytics firm BIIT Consulting

  • Around 55 staff to join Accenture Malaysia’s Applied Intelligence team
  • Recent study highlights that AI has become a high-stakes business priority

Accenture acquires Malaysian data management and analytics firm BIIT Consulting

Announcing its second acquisition of the year for Malaysia, Accenture has acquired, for an undisclosed sum, Malaysian data management and analytics firm BIIT Consulting. Accenture sees the move as complementing its efforts to drive greater AI and data transformation within the Southeast Asian region and further solidify its position in the market for providing AI and data-led transformation services.

Read Also: Accenture Interactive expands presence in Southeast Asia with acquisition of Malaysian ad-agency, Entropia

For the founders of BIIT Consulting, Veleswaran Nallaiah and Samuel Lee, it is a sort of homecoming as they were with Accenture before leaving in 2013 to form BIIT Consulting to help firms across the region manage, analyse, and extract actionable insights from data. The company boasts a strong track record of serving clients across various sectors, including financial services, retail, telecommunications, and manufacturing verticals. 

Approximately 55 executives will join Accenture Malaysia’s Applied Intelligence team, strengthening its ability to offer value to clients in the areas of data management, analytics, and AI. This will also create more learning and growth opportunities for people across both organisations, helping to plug the wide AI talent skill gap the market is experiencing.

There is a global shortage as according to Accenture’s research, 84% of C-suite executives believe they must leverage artificial intelligence to achieve their growth objectives, yet 76% report they struggle with how to scale.

Commenting on the announcement, Lee Joon Seong, managing director, Applied Intelligence, Southeast Asia, Accenture said: “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. 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.”

Sharing their excitement to come on board as part of Accenture Malaysia’s Applied Intelligence team, Veleswaran and Samuel said: “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.”

A recent Accenture study highlighted that AI has become a high-stakes business priority with the total investment spent on AI estimated to be about US$300 billion in the last three years alone. Accenture is also seeing companies that were able to scale AI successfully enjoy returns on investments of up to three times more than those that are unable to do so.

 
 
Keyword(s) :
 
Author Name :
 
Download Digerati50 2020-2021 PDF

Digerati50 2020-2021

Get and download a digital copy of Digerati50 2020-2021