Global information technology, consulting and business process services major, Wipro has signed a pact to acquire 4C, a leading Salesforce partner in Europe and Middle East. The deal size is estimated to be around 68 million euros. The acquisition is likely to be completed by 30 September 2020. Wipro’s 4C buy is considered as a significant move for Wipro as it plans to strengthen its position as a digital transformation player across Europe and Latin America (LATAM).

Belgium-based 4C is EMEA’s largest independent Salesforce Platinum Partner, and specializes in configuring, implementing, and executing even very specific tasks to help enterprises in their digital transformation journey. 4C has over 350 employees spread across its offices in London, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, and Dubai. With this acquisition, Wipro will also leverage 4C’s 1000+ certifications and almost 20 years of Salesforce development experience. Wipro would be hoping to get more IT services opportunities as a Salesforce solutions provider in the market.

A good amount of focus will likely be on providing customized solutions to Salesforce clients in the areas of cloud, digital, cyber security and artificial intelligence (AI).

Earlier this month, Wipro had also announced to acquire Brazil-based IVIA Serviços de Informática Ltd., a company that provides IT solutions including system development, maintenance, consulting, and project management services to clients in different sectors such as financial services, transportation, retail, healthcare, consumer goods and manufacturing in Brazil. The IVIA acquisition also enables Wipro to bring the best of its global experience to the LATAM market, and set up delivery centers in the northeast of Brazil in particular.

How this matters

The Indian IT multinational already has a robust Salesforce business in the Americas, Japan, and Australia. It is now eyeing to expand into fresh markets with several new acquisitions. 4C makes an important addition to Wipro’s Salesforce portfolio that it had set up with the acquisition of US-based Appirio in 2016.

In the last couple of years, Wipro has been trying to go aggressive in its ambition to expand its horizons in the European market. Amidst the pandemic, most of the enterprises are driving themselves toward digital transformation to meet new operational challenges, and Wipro doesn’t want to stay behind in terms of cloud opportunities. The company has been making significant investments to grow its cloud applications and platforms business across geographies.

“Wipro shares the same values as we do. Their global presence, robust digital transformation consulting and delivery capabilities and significant investment in the European market, provides an excellent platform for the growth of our employees. We will now leverage this opportunity to take the next leap in building companies for the future for our customers, not just locally but across EMEA,” said Johan Van Genechten, Chief Executive Officer, 4C in a joint statement.

Under its Appirio brand, which Wipro acquired in 2006 for $500 million, the company expects to continue expanding its Salesforce business. To sharpen its focus on the Salesforce business, Wipro divested Appirio’s cloud-based HR solutions—Workday and Cornerstone OnDemand—to US-based Alight Solutions for about $110 million.

“Our partners are at the center of our growth.  4C’s strong regional focus and strength in multi-cloud implementations and Quote-to-Cash (CPQ/CLM), coupled with Wipro’s strong consulting strength provide an unassailable advantage to Salesforce customers in EMEA. Wipro had previously acquired Appirio and now with 4C, it has even further enhanced its depth and experience in Salesforce capabilities and resources,” said Angelique de Vries-Schipperijn, EVP and GM of Northern Europe, Salesforce in a statement.

Reaping dividends

As enterprises look to introduce new and innovative products and solutions in a record time, like many of its counterparts, scaling digital capabilities has become one of the major focus areas for Wipro.

Wipro’s focus in the European market has helped it gain some significant deals in the last one year. The company was recently been awarded a strategic multiyear infrastructure modernization and digital transformation services engagement by Germany-based energy company E.ON. It also won another managed services contract from a multinational European automobile manufacturer to modernize and automate its engineering operations.

Wipro’s digital product compliance lab in Hyderabad, established in 2019, enables it to provide integrated digital product testing services to ensure that all its solutions are compliant with international standards for reliability, safety, and security. It has been getting positive reviews from its customers, which could encourage it to extend similar testing capabilities to other geographies. In June this year, Wipro also announced to expand its global strategic relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the area of DevOps, fortifying its capability to drive agile development for enterprises.

Wipro, now led by Rishad Premji, is expected to make more strategic announcements in the year ahead to speed up its value proposition to meet digitization needs of enterprises in Europe and other geographies.