Cognizant acquires Idea Couture, aims to boost digital offerings
American IT firm, Cognizant that provides information technology, business consulting, enterprise applications and business process services, in a bid to extend its digital offerings has acquired Canadian design firm, Idea Couture for an undisclosed sum. Post acquisition, Toronto based Idea Couture will fold into Cognizant’s Digital Works and combine forces to design, prototype, and leverage Cognizant’s enterprise offerings.
The joint offering will reportedly bring together human insight, strategy, design, technology, and industry expertise to create innovative solutions at enterprise scale. Cognizant Digital Works that pledges to help enterprises, streamline existing processes and augment current operations, believes it can “be that partner, gathering digital technologists, business strategists, data scientists, experience designers, architects, programmers and coders into a single, interdisciplinary team to develop and deliver rapidly.”
According to the company website, Cognizant’s technology experts collaborate with clients and partners to build enterprise-level digital strategies, enhance customer experiences and bring in new innovation. And the buyout will potentially aid Cognizant accelerate the same.
Gajen Kandiah, Executive Vice President, Cognizant Digital Works, said:
The company was founded in the year 2007 and claims to house a team of 170 social scientists, strategists, anthropologists, user experience experts, designers, and connected product developers to cater to businesses including Samsung, PepsiCo, Cox, Citi and ConAgra Foods. In today’s date, other market providers that specialize in designing and product prototyping are IDEO, Continuum and ThoughtWorks.
The purchase comes after Cognizant’s latest acquisition of KBACE in January 2016 for an undisclosed sum. At the time, Cognizant said that acquisition strengthened its digital capabilities as clients wanted to move their applications to cloud-based information technology infrastructures.
Idea Couture has a track record of success in managed innovation including rapidly envisioning, designing and prototyping digital solutions to help companies create connected products, engage customers, and deploy new business models for growth and competitive advantage. The Idea Couture team’s capabilities accelerate our ability to help clients transform their customer experiences, core business processes, partner relationships, and supporting systems.“Building on our recently announced partnership with ReD Associates, this acquisition further advances our strategy to bring together world-class capabilities in behavioral insight, strategy, design, and technology to deliver innovative and impactful solutions for our clients in banking, insurance, life sciences, and our other key industries,” added Kandiah. According to a company blog, this acquisition by Cognizant reflects a new reality that Fortune 500s need to find consumer relevance, frictionless user experience, capital-light business models, industry crossovers, artificial intelligence, and scalable platforms to power them into the future. Idea Couture’s current and new clients will benefit from end-to-end innovation offerings that integrate applied design thinking in the fuzzy customer-facing front end, as well as middle office business processes and back office IT applications. Idris Mootee, CEO, Idea Couture also commented:
We are excited to build on our vision of a new kind of company that can conceive and build new products and experiences and bring transformation to our clients. As part of Cognizant Digital Works, we will be able to do even more exciting things with design and technology. By connecting with Cognizant’s proven technical abilities, global scale, and domain expertise, we can help our clients realize the value of their innovation efforts.
The company was founded in the year 2007 and claims to house a team of 170 social scientists, strategists, anthropologists, user experience experts, designers, and connected product developers to cater to businesses including Samsung, PepsiCo, Cox, Citi and ConAgra Foods. In today’s date, other market providers that specialize in designing and product prototyping are IDEO, Continuum and ThoughtWorks.
The purchase comes after Cognizant’s latest acquisition of KBACE in January 2016 for an undisclosed sum. At the time, Cognizant said that acquisition strengthened its digital capabilities as clients wanted to move their applications to cloud-based information technology infrastructures.