Monday Morning Impact – May 23

Accenture Expands Machine Learning Capabilities through Acquisition

Accenture has announced the pending acquisition of Waltham, Mass-based OPS Rules, a boutique analytics consulting company that specializes in the application of data science to create supply chain and operations analytics solutions.

OPS Rules provides multi-echelon inventory optimization, custom supply chain analytics, supply chain risk management and dynamic pricing services to help companies improve operations and enhance business results.

When the acquisition is complete, Accenture will add new operations analytics professionals to its team that apply machine learning and optimization techniques to analytics development.

“Our mission is in total alignment with Accenture Analytics – meaning every day we are focused on helping clients identify and capture hidden opportunities in their data,” said David Simchi-Levi, chairman of OPS Rules. “By joining Accenture, we will be able to tap into its global footprint, ability to deliver at scale, and deep industry knowledge to collaborate on advanced and operational analytics strategies that can empower even greater change. Together, we can help clients to innovate through advanced data science and transform into insight-driven enterprises.”

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Completion of the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions.

Channel Impact^®
Simchi-Levi is a well-known practitioner in his field. His addition to the fold within Accenture is likely to pay dividends over time.

ZeroStack Launches Global Partner Program to Support “Ultra-Converged” Cloud Solution

ZeroStack, a Mountain View, Calif.-based cloud platform company has launched a new global partner program enabling partners to deliver an OpenStack “cloud-in-a-box” solution to their customers.

Based on OpenStack, the ZeroStack Cloud Platform provides a software-driven private cloud delivered through a number of components that integrate compute, clustered storage, software-defined networking (SDN) and management software running as part of a control plane. This on-premises infrastructure is consumed and managed by the ZeroStack Cloud Portal, which provides analytics-based insights and optimizations for application deployment.

“Businesses today are looking for more than just a converged hardware platform,” said Sean Cardenas, vice president of sales and operations. “They need a full stack solution emulating the ease of public cloud consumption, with the security and predictability of private clouds,”

Channel Impact^®
This move can be beneficial for partners looking for new vendors with which to extend their position in the private cloud space.

RingCentral Professional Services Scales Globally with New Enterprise Partner Program

RingCentral, a Belmont, Calif.-based provider of cloud business communication and collaboration solutions, has added a Certified Delivery Partner Program designed to support global enterprise customers. Through the program, partners based around the world to provide hands-on support and fulfill enterprise service requests – including technical design, implementation, network configuration, integration, and monitoring services. Developed to scale, the program is expected to be customizable according to the level of professional services capabilities and geographic reach an enterprise may need.

“As enterprises continue to undergo their migration to the cloud, having a scalable, enterprise-grade business communications solution with extensive professional services capabilities is essential to achieve success,” said Walt Weisner, senior vice president of Global Customer Care at RingCentral. “Our certified delivery partners are an extension of our internal Professional Services team, ensuring our customers get what they need to fully leverage their business communications solution so they operate efficiently and effectively engage with their customers.”

The company reports that multiple national and regional certified delivery partners have already signed up for the program.

Channel Impact^®
Delivering customer support across a worldwide footprint is a challenge shared by the vast majority of vendors and service providers. Programs like these can go a long way towards accomplishing that objective in a scalable fashion.