HITS

The latest company Cognizant is acquiring this year is Overland Park, Kansas-based Advanced Technology Group (ATG), a privately-held provider of customer and revenue management consulting and implementation services focused on the Salesforce Platform, Cognizant announced Sept. 18.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed and Cognizant said only that the purchase is “expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018 subject to customary reviews.”

The acquisition comes less than a month after Cognizant said it was buying SaaSfocus to expand its end-to-end digital transformation services and Salesforce cloud capabilities in the growing markets of Australia and India. That deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter this year as well.

Earlier this year, Cognizant announced it was buying privately-held Hedera Consulting, a company specializing in business advisory and data analytics services, as well as Bolder Healthcare Solutions, in a move it said was designed to expand revenue cycle management services for providers.

ATG helps companies effectively plan, implement and optimize automated cloud-based Quote-to-Cash (Q2C) business processes and technologies. Streamlined and automated Q2C enables more efficiency and accuracy, as well as better business visibility from initial customer contact to final payment, according to Cognizant.

ATG will become part of Cognizant’s Enterprise Application Services practice, which it said has among the largest number of Salesforce-trained experts globally.

An effective and integrated Salesforce Q2C implementation will improve the core business processes used to acquire new customers, maintain and cross-sell existing customers and provide a superior customer experience, Cognizant said.  

Founded in 2000, ATG has delivery centers in Kansas, Missouri, Ohio and Montana, with the largest team of specialized Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ), Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) and billing practitioners for multiple technology platforms anywhere, according to Cognizant.

ATG’s clients include major financial services, healthcare, communications and technology organizations ranging from well-funded startups to fast growing mid-market and large global enterprises, Cognizant said.

“Managing quote-to-cash effectively is a key part of a successful digital business model, providing a solid foundation for accelerating revenue growth, to rapidly introduce new products, and implement dynamic digital marketing strategies,” Rajesh Balaji, global delivery head of Enterprise Application Services at Cognizant, said in a news release. 

He added: “Cognizant has broad expertise helping clients around the world design, implement and manage their digital business strategies on the Salesforce platform. ATG’s deep Q2C domain expertise and extensive Salesforce CPQ and Billing implementation offerings strengthen Cognizant’s cloud solutions portfolio as clients increasingly shift to business models that are based on recurring revenue streams, subscriptions, consumption,” Internet of Things (IoT) and as-a-service offerings.

“By joining forces with Cognizant, we are better able to expand our capabilities to help global clients be more responsive to market changes and succeed with digital monetization ecosystems encompassing people, processes and technology,” ATG CEO Michael Walsh said in the announcement.