KPMG acquires Safira

KPMG has agreed to acquire Safira, an independent IT consultancy, the provider of IBM's Business Process Management (BPM) solutions.  Established 17 years ago, Safira is based in Portugal and recently posted annual revenues of €10.9 million – 75 percent of which came from international markets.

The acquisition of Safira enables KPMG to offer a full business transformation service to its clients, from strategy development through to implementation of technology and business change.  Safira brings 180 world-class technology professionals specialising in application strategy, design, development and post-production support. They will be based in Portugal, but working in tandem with the UK and US firms on client engagements.

By bringing the two firms together KPMG is able to continue its strategy of bringing technology into the heart of business operations, to drive greater value for clients.  It follows last month's acquisition of Cynergy Systems, a leading mobility services business company in the US and the expansion of the firm's data and analytics capability through the acquisition of Link Analytics.

Commenting on the transaction, Michael Robinson, Partner, Head of Management Consulting at KPMG, said:
"Today's deal is strategically very important. For one thing, the pace of change in business today means that there is a real need for technologies which can accelerate business benefits.  That's why, over the past two years KPMG UK's BPM Centre of Excellence have created  a new patent pending software called BPM-O which Safira have helped to deliver on KPMG's IBM BPM private cloud platform. It's a move which means our clients can speed up the processes behind their business, with evidence suggesting they are able to reduce development effort by up to 75 percent."

"With our combined skills and experience, KPMG will now become one of the top BPM services providers globally, with the ability to deploy deep subject matter expertise and technology implementation capability that delivers genuine business outcomes."

The deal is expected to be completed by early July.