After two years of talks, Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and SAS will jointly establish innovation centers on three continents to develop analytical capabilities and products for a host of markets.
“We are partnering with SAS to create a new business analytics practice and develop new products, ” said Accenture CEO Pierre Nanterme. “New predictive analytics provide more useful intelligence. It’s about, ‘what can I do as a business?’ and reliable forecasting.”
The initial centers will be in Ireland and Milan and will showcase current products and develop predictive analytics for fraud and consumer retail customers, respectively. Future centers will be located in San Jose and Mumbai, where representatives from each company will collaborate to develop and sell financial services products, among other offerings.
Although SAS will continue to work with other industry firms, SAS SVP Jim Davis said the alignment will be expansive.
“We’ve had partnerships before, but this one is at another level, ” he said. “With Accenture’s expertise around management issues, business procedures and workflow and what SAS can bring to bear from a technology standpoint, we think there’s real opportunity for innovation.”
The companies have contractually arranged how much each will spend on the center program.
