NEW YORK & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Accenture (NYSE:ACN) and SOASTA, a leader in performance analytics, are forming an alliance to provide faster and more reliable digital performance management solutions to clients. In addition, Accenture has made a minority investment in SOASTA. Terms of Accenture’s investment were not disclosed.
Combining Accenture’s global testing and performance engineering capabilities with SOASTA’s advanced performance management and analytics tools will allow clients to increase end-to-end performance of their web sites and mobile applications while delivering exceptional customer experiences. This ability to monitor customer experience in real time can help predict and solve performance problems from virtually any location and on any device around the world. This approach can provide significant business visibility and drive revenue impact, such as in online retail where even momentary latency can result in significant drops in page views, shopping cart abandonment and ultimately sales conversion.
“The speed of digital and mobile is a game-changer, leading businesses to embrace agile, high velocity application development,” said Paul Daugherty, chief technology officer, Accenture. “The accelerated pace of development is driving a greater need for high quality, reliable performance testing and validation in real-time production environments. Through agreements with pioneering companies like SOASTA, we are effectively strengthening our ability to offer on-demand performance engineering and testing as-a-service, along with advanced diagnostics, service virtualization and analytics as we help our clients transform rapidly into digital enterprises.“
As part of the alliance, Accenture will draw on its extensive experience with enterprise clients to advise SOASTA on their product roadmaps. Accenture will also become a reseller for SOASTA products and will provide solution development support.
“In the hyper-competitive online marketplace where performance is critical and milliseconds can equal millions, providing a better customer experience is the only way to win,” said Tom Lounibos, CEO and Co-Founder, SOASTA. “We’re thrilled to have established an investment and alliance agreement with Accenture, enabling us to provide even more business value to our joint clients by offering actionable intelligence that can help them quickly understand what’s working, what isn’t and what to do next.”
“Businesses are increasingly dependent on software and, therefore, on software performance,” said Kishore Durg, managing director and global testing lead for Accenture. “Our alliance with SOASTA provides a step-change improvement in our performance diagnostic and monitoring capabilities, which are critical for today’s digital business. SOASTA is one example of how Accenture is advancing performance engineering and testing by incorporating the latest analytics tools and intelligent automation into our service delivery.”
Founded in 2006, SOASTA provides a cloud-based platform for monitoring, testing and optimizing the performance and function of web and mobile applications at scale. It also provides services that test the user interface and internal behavior of applications, as well as services that give administrators a visual view into how applications are performing. SOASTA was named a leader for load and performance testing in the 2014 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Integrated Software Quality Suites.
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 336,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$30.0 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2014. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
About SOASTA
SOASTA is the leader in performance analytics. The SOASTA platform enables digital business owners to gain unprecedented and continuous performance insights into their real user experience on mobile and web devices in real time and at scale. With more than 3 billion user experiences monitored, measured, tested and optimized every week, SOASTA is the digital performance expert trusted by industry‐leading brands, including 39 of the Top 100 Internet Retailers, such as Target, Nordstrom, Staples, Sears, Walmart, Etsy, Nike, Best Buy, Adobe, Intuit, Microsoft, DirectTV, Netflix and BBC. SOASTA is privately held and headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. For more information about SOASTA, visit http://www.soasta.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “likely,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” “believes,” “estimates,” “positioned,” “outlook” and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These include, without limitation, risks that: the alliance and investment might not achieve the anticipated benefits for the company; the company’s results of operations could be adversely affected by volatile, negative or uncertain economic conditions and the effects of these conditions on the company’s clients’ businesses and levels of business activity; the company’s business depends on generating and maintaining ongoing, profitable client demand for the company’s services and solutions, and a significant reduction in such demand could materially affect the company’s results of operations; if the company is unable to keep its supply of skills and resources in balance with client demand around the world and attract and retain professionals with strong leadership skills, the company’s business, the utilization rate of the company’s professionals and the company’s results of operations may be materially adversely affected; the markets in which the company competes are highly competitive, and the company might not be able to compete effectively; the company could have liability or the company’s reputation could be damaged if the company fails to protect client and/or company data or information systems as obligated by law or contract or if the company’s information systems are breached; the company’s results of operations and ability to grow could be materially negatively affected if the company cannot adapt and expand its services and solutions in response to ongoing changes in technology and offerings by new entrants; the company’s results of operations could materially suffer if the company is not able to obtain sufficient pricing to enable it to meet its profitability expectations; if the company does not accurately anticipate the cost, risk and complexity of performing its work or if the third parties upon whom it relies do not meet their commitments, then the company’s contracts could have delivery inefficiencies and be less profitable than expected or unprofitable; the company’s results of operations could be materially adversely affected by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; the company’s profitability could suffer if its cost-management strategies are unsuccessful, and the company may not be able to improve its profitability through improvements to cost-management to the degree it has done in the past; the company’s business could be materially adversely affected if the company incurs legal liability; the company’s work with government clients exposes the company to additional risks inherent in the government contracting environment; the company might not be successful at identifying, acquiring or integrating businesses or entering into joint ventures; the company’s Global Delivery Network is increasingly concentrated in India and the Philippines, which may expose it to operational risks; changes in the company’s level of taxes, as well as audits, investigations and tax proceedings, or changes in the company’s treatment as an Irish company, could have a material adverse effect on the company’s results of operations and financial condition; as a result of the company’s geographically diverse operations and its growth strategy to continue geographic expansion, the company is more susceptible to certain risks; adverse changes to the company’s relationships with key alliance partners or in the business of its key alliance partners could adversely affect the company’s results of operations; the company’s services or solutions could infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others or the company might lose its ability to utilize the intellectual property of others; if the company is unable to protect its intellectual property rights from unauthorized use or infringement by third parties, its business could be adversely affected; the company’s ability to attract and retain business and employees may depend on its reputation in the marketplace; many of the company’s contracts include payments that link some of its fees to the attainment of performance or business targets and/or require the company to meet specific service levels, which could increase the variability of the company’s revenues and impact its margins; if the company is unable to collect its receivables or unbilled services, the company’s results of operations, financial condition and cash flows could be adversely affected; if the company is unable to manage the organizational challenges associated with its size, the company might be unable to achieve its business objectives; the company’s share price and results of operations could fluctuate and be difficult to predict; the company’s results of operations and share price could be adversely affected if it is unable to maintain effective internal controls; any changes to the estimates and assumptions that the company makes in connection with the preparation of its consolidated financial statements could adversely affect its financial results; the company may be subject to criticism and negative publicity related to its incorporation in Ireland; as well as the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed under the “Risk Factors” heading in Accenture plc’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this news release speak only as of the date they were made, and Accenture undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such statements to actual results or changes in Accenture’s expectations.