Analyst sees Accenture-Procurian deal setting off chain reaction

   Accenture last week closed its acquisition of procurement business process outsourcing provider Procurian, a $375 million deal announced in October.
   The acquisition prompted one analyst to speculate that other providers could be forced to partner up to keep pace. Accenture and Procurian were considered to be two of the top three procurement BPO firms globally. Procurian’s portfolio included an extensive logistics and transportation practice.
   “We think the newly closed Accenture and Procurian deal is going to set off a Hunger Games, M&A death match of sorts in the Procurement BPO world — a sector where scale can matter, and always does, among the larger providers,” wrote Jason Busch on the Spend Matters blog. “Granted there will be room for niche providers, but when it comes to the true biggies (Infosys, Genpact, IBM, Capgemini, etc.), it will become increasingly difficult to play on the same big-game turf against Accenture now that they have the Procurian asset.”
   Busch again commended Accenture for “a move that is more clever than even Anatoly Karpov could have thought of on a chessboard. Even if Accenture does not realize the synergies expected from the deal (which is highly unlikely), they will drive their larger competitors in 2014 to move in ways unlikely to make the ultimate Thunderdome or Hunger Games competitive, multi-tower death matches against the procurement BPO giant anything but a slaughter.”