Accenture Buying N3 To Augment Clients’ Sales Capabilities

Global solution provider Accenture this week said it plans to acquire N3, a provider of technology that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning, as a way to help its clients increase their business-to-business sales efficiencies.

The acquisition of Atlanta-based N3 will allow Accenture to provide its clients with a scalable, tech-enabled, and cost-efficient way to sell products into their B2B environments, said Manish Sharma, group chief executive of operations services at Dublin, Ireland-based Accenture.

N3 provides its clients with resources that do not meet with their customers in-person, Sharma told CRN.

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“N3 helps businesses reach out to their customers, conduct demonstrations, and perform other functions of their sales staff,” he said. “It has the sales acumen of outside sales reps while using AI to manage the sales process.”

N3’s technology provides a consumer cloud-like feel to the B2B sales experience, Sharma said.

“N3 puts real-time information at the fingertips of the seller while collecting real-time feedback from potential customers to provider higher and faster revenue with increased efficiencies,” he said.

Businesses using the N3 tech-driven sales and demand generation platform can realize a faster ramp to market, increased efficiency by decreasing the cost of in-house sales support by 60 percent, a higher sales close rate, accelerated time to commercialization of new products and markets, and a consistent customer experience, he said.

The N3 technology is aimed at B2B customers, Sharma said, with such target markets as software platform companies offering cloud solutions, enterprise software, and business management support; high-tech providers of enterprise networking and medical products; providers of telecom solutions, networking products and services, and IoT; sellers of industrial equipment and connected devices; and smart consumption products for utilities.

Sharma declined to say how much Accenture will pay for N3, but said the deal is expected to close in the coming months. N3 is owned by RedBird Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity company.

Accenture currently has its own human-machine operating engine, SynOps, that combines data, applied intelligence, and digital technologies with talent to help organizations improve business operations and user experiences. When the deal for N3 closes, it will be integrated with the SynOps platform, he said.

N3 will be offered to Accenture’s customers as a service, Sharma said. Accenture will also use the technology in its own sales efforts but in a limited fashion because the solution provider is focused on selling services, not products, he said.

N3 was founded in 2004, and its customer list currently includes such leading vendors as Microsoft, Cisco, and SAP. The company has over 2,200 employees and locations across five continents.