Key Findings & Highlights:

Accenture became a public company in July 2001, having separated from Andersen Worldwide in the January of that year. Accenture provides management consulting, technology, and outsourcing services and solutions, targeting Global 2000 organizations and large public-sector agencies. While much of its activity remains focused on consulting and projects, outsourcing now contributes 46% of its total revenues.

Accenture is focusing heavily on next-generation capabilities or "The New", as Accenture calls it, which is digital, cloud, and security-related services, supported by new technology. This includes expanded use of automation capabilities internally.

Accenture initially set up a group called Accenture Marketing Sciences Group in 2001 to provide digital marketing services. In 2009, the group was renamed Accenture Interactive to offer a broad range of services around digital marketing and media management.

In 2013, Accenture acquired both Fjord and Acquity Group to form the foundation of its UX design and implementation services; adding ~800 employees across the two companies with locations across the U.S. and Europe. Since these acquisitions, Accenture Interactive has made a series of acquisitions to expand its design capabilities both geographically and functionally. These acquisitions include:

• December 2014: Accenture acquired Australian digital agency Reactive Media Pty Ltd (Reactive) to strengthen its digital marketing services capabilities in Australia and New Zealand
• June 2015: Accenture acquired Brightstep, a digital marketing consulting company with ~60 employees based in Stockholm, Sweden
• July 2015: Accenture acquired Chaotic Moon, a creative technology studio based in Austin, Texas. Chaotic Moon had ~200 people in its Austin office at the time of acquisition
• August 2015: Accenture acquired AD.Dialeto, an independent Brazilian digital agency, expanding its digital marketing in Latin America
• July 2016: Accenture acquired a majority stake in IMJ Corporation, (IMJ), a Tokyo-headquartered full-service digital agency
• November 2016: Accenture acquired U.K.-based digital agency Karmarama to strengthen its digital marketing services capabilities
• January 2017: Accenture acquired Altitude, a privately held product design and innovation firm based in Boston
• May 2017: Accenture has acquired Australian creative agency The Monkeys and design business, Maud
• October 2017: Accenture acquired Altima a digital commerce agency, headquartered in France and with offices in China, Canada, and the U.S.
• May 2018: Accenture acquired Shanghai-based HO Communication, a full-service digital marketing agency with ~200 employees and offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, and Nanjing.

Accenture Interactive has now delivered engagements across ~2k clients and possesses ~25k employees.

NelsonHall estimates that Accenture Interactive revenues for CY 2017 were ~$6.55bn. Of this, NelsonHall estimates that UX-UI design and implementation services represent ~11% of this (~$721m).

Accenture positions its UX-UI design capabilities in support of three different client focus areas:

• Design-led strategy: pivot services, products, and organizations to be design-led
• Service design: envision and shape services across multiple touchpoints impacting both customers and employees
• Product creation: shape, build and launch digital and connected physical products.

Accenture has ~25k employees in Accenture Interactive and ~50k dedicated to digital engagements. Of this, ~1.1k globally are designers spanning skills including content, visual, motion and business design

NelsonHall estimates that these designers are supported by ~3k UX-UI developers located across delivery locations in Costa Rica, India, and eastern Europe.

Accenture has been very aggressive in expanding its capabilities in support of creative, UX-UI design and development services, acquiring several focused niche firms that provide industry, geography or functional capabilities. This focus has resulted in rapid growth of Accenture Interactive. This rapid expansion has given Accenture a broad network of design studios, and breadth of skilled employees, though it continues to invest to expand both.

This active acquisition of niche capabilities, tailored to specific geographies, positions it well to understand local culture, client and user needs and provide clients value in tailoring its products to specific target markets.

While the acquisitions have broadened capabilities, it also provides Accenture with the ongoing challenge of incorporating these small, specialist firms into the broader corporate culture. As UX increasingly becomes a core component of broad digital transformation engagements, these new capabilities become increasingly important and the risk of losing key knowledge if people choose not to remain as part of a much bigger organization than the one they joined increases. However, Accenture's history of integrating new acquisitions and its ability to embed these new capabilities into the broader Accenture delivery engine, provide it with the key knowledge, processes and tools to minimize this risk.

As the UX-UI service market continues to evolve from traditional customer-facing web properties to new interaction models, such as voice interactions, AR/VR and experience tailored to machines themselves, Accenture is looking to evolve its own offerings. The globally distributed delivery model that Accenture has built will require specific attention to maintain alignment between design studios and development centers around the globe.

As its studio network reaches full geographic coverage, Accenture may pivot its acquisition eye toward investing in capabilities to drive the adoption of UX-UI in these emerging areas.