Accenture is acquiring Soben, an East Kilbride based provider of construction consultancy services.

Soben operates in data centre development and the pharmaceutical and energy industries which will boost Accenture’s capital projects capabilities in advisory as well as project, cost and commercial management for clients.

Soben’s team of 250 serves clients in Western Europe (UK, Germany, Scandinavia, Netherlands), the US, Mexico, Brazil, India and Australia. They will join Accenture’s infrastructure and capital projects practice within Industry X.

Organisations developing capital projects are facing a long list of challenges, new research from Accenture shows, ranging from increased scrutiny from stakeholders to supply chain issues to staffing shortages to cybersecurity risks.

As a result, only 6% of the 700 organisations surveyed deliver projects on or ahead of schedule. Two-thirds miss their targets, adding an average of 29% in labor costs and penalty fees to the bill.

These challenges are particularly affecting companies looking to expand existing or to build new data centres.

Strong growth, particularly in the US, Europe and the Middle East, is now evident and Accenture estimates an annual spend of more than $200 billion for the next 3-5 years.

It says Soben will strengthen its capabilities for clients to address challenges when planning and executing data centre development and modernisation projects.

“The market for capital projects and especially data centres is growing rapidly, driven by ever-higher demand for cloud computing and AI and exponential data growth,” said Steve Roberts, senior managing director, Accenture Industry X.

“Hyperscalers and co-location companies are under tremendous pressure to deliver on this demand.”

Scott Smyth, CEO at Soben, said: “When we started Soben in 2011, our vision was to disrupt the construction consultancy marketplace, and we have now established Soben as one of the key players for capital projects in Europe and North America.

“By joining Accenture, we can realise that vision and offer fantastic opportunities for our people to grow their careers. We’re looking forward to bringing Accenture’s global reach and digital capabilities to our clients to help them scale their business fast and deliver exceptional outcomes for their capital projects.”

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