Though Accenture management would not put a figure on precisely how much the recent acquisitions of US-based insurance software firm Duck Creek and mortgage processing services firm, Zenta, helped the business along, they apparently made a ‘good contribution’ to the quarter’s numbers.
And the quarter’s numbers were good. Revenues for the 3 months to 29 Feb. rose by 13% yoy (at constant exchange rate – CER) to $6.8b and operating margins expanded by over 30 bps to 13.1%. And yet again, all of Accenture’s (vertical) operating groups and geo regions (yes, including EMEA) grew double digits (CER). The only element of the business that grew single digits was Consulting (+8% CER) whereas Outsourcing revenues grew by 20% CER. And there’s more. Accenture lifted its guidance for FY revenue growth from 7-10% to 10-12% (CER). How confident is that?
It really seems like Accenture can hardly put a foot wrong. CEO Pierre Nanterme made the observation on last night’s concall that “We know how to hire, train, develop, deploy, and that's part of something we will do and we will continue to do”. I think that’s called ‘execution’!