Business consulting giant Accenture has decided this is a good time to raise its telecoms game and is doing so by snapping up specialist firm Northstream.

Scott Bicheno

August 5, 2019

2 Min Read
Accenture gets better at telecoms with acquisition of Northstream

Business consulting giant Accenture has decided this is a good time to raise its telecoms game and is doing so by snapping up specialist firm Northstream.

Founded by former Ericsson exec Bengt Nordström (whose surname translates to Northstream in English – see what he did there?) in 1998, Northstream focuses on the business side of telecoms. Its strengths include industry research, technology assessment and business transformation programmes. Nordström himself regularly appears in the telecoms media and occasionally on its defining podcast.

“With our common cultures of collaboration and client-centricity, Northstream and Accenture are a great fit,” said Nordström. “We’re excited to be able to bring the combined deep industry experience and scale of our two organizations to help clients generate new value and succeed in today’s increasingly competitive market.”

“With Northstream now part of Accenture, we’re in an even stronger position to provide our communications clients with the innovation led services they need to address the challenges they’re facing — including digital-driven disruption, changing customer expectations, and competition from new digital natives,” said Mattias Lewrén, Nordic CMT lead and Sweden Country Managing Director at Accenture.

Accenture seems especially excited with the boost Northstream will give its Nordic efforts. But that still didn’t earn Lewrén a place in the official acquisition photo shoot above, with Nordström on the right joined by co-MDs of Accenture’s Communications, Media & Technology group Anders Helmrich and Anna Weissmann instead.

We spoke to Nordström to get a bit more colour on the move. He confirmed that Northstream will remain a separate enitity within the Nordic comms team and that he himself will hang around for at least another three years. He noted that many of the best telecoms business opportunities lie in the overlap with other vertical industries and that Accenture, with its breadth of industry expertise, is in a great position to make the most of those. He also said he’s very happy to have secured the future for his company. Congratulations Bengt, the beers are on you next time you’re in London.

About the Author(s)

Scott Bicheno

As the Editorial Director of Telecoms.com, Scott oversees all editorial activity on the site and also manages the Telecoms.com Intelligence arm, which focuses on analysis and bespoke content.
Scott has been covering the mobile phone and broader technology industries for over ten years. Prior to Telecoms.com Scott was the primary smartphone specialist at industry analyst Strategy Analytics’. Before that Scott was a technology journalist, covering the PC and telecoms sectors from a business perspective.
Follow him @scottbicheno

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