Dive Brief:
- Accenture agreed to buy Enterprise System Partners, an Irish consulting and manufacturing services firm with clients across the medtech and pharmaceutical industries.
- ESP will become part of Accenture Industry X.0, which helps companies maximize the use of digital technologies.
- The consulting company did not disclose terms of the transaction in its statement Tuesday.
Dive Insight:
The purchase is part of Accenture's larger acquisition strategy and goal of capitalizing on the changing needs of the life sciences industry. In 2017, the company bought LabAnswer, which focuses on the management and analysis of data.
"There is significant opportunity for us to help clients drive greater efficiencies in how they manufacture essential medicines for patients around the world with the combination of ESP's and our life sciences expertise," Anne Marie O'Halloran, managing director and lead of Accenture's Life Sciences Industry X.0 group, said in a statement.
Founded in 2003, ESP touts "niche expertise" in manufacturing execution systems and serialization, Accenture said. That is critical as the pharmaceutical industry moves to meet the demands of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act by 2023.
The law seeks to make medicines traceable through each step of the supply chain down to the consumer. Part of that work requires serialization, placing unit-level product identifiers on lots, cases and packages so they can be used to digitally track a product.
ESP will join Accenture with 200 employees and clients that include 17 of the 20 top global pharmaceutical and biopharma companies, according to Accenture. ESP's client list also includes medtech firms Stryker and Boston Scientific.
The acquisition adds to others that have recently bolstered Accenture Industry X.0's presence in Europe and North America, the company said. It highlighted the purchases of embedded software firm Pillar Technology, hardware engineering company Mindtribe and designaffairs, which focuses on consulting for strategic design.
