Infosys To Acquire Simplus In Salesforce Channel Play

With its planned $250-million acquisition of Simplus, India-based Infosys gets an experienced Salesforce partner with solid Salesforce credentials and a huge presence across the U.S. and Australia markets.

India-based global solution provider and IT consultant Infosys is making a big Salesforce channel play with a planned $250-million acquisition of Salt Lake City-based Salesforce platinum partner Simplus.

Infosys on Monday said it plans to acquire Simplus as a way to quickly expand its enterprise cloud capabilities and presence across the U.S. and Australian markets.

Simplus brings Infosys a wide presence in the U.S., with operations in Salt Lake City; San Francisco; San Clemente, Calif.; Chicago; Boston, Mass.; and Atlanta. It also has Australian offices in Sydney and Melbourne, and an office in Manila, Philippines.

[Related: Whistleblowers Accuse Infosys Execs Of Hiding Damaging Figures: Report]

Simplus has a long history with Salesforce, and was the first to partner with SteelBrick, which is now known as Salesforce CPQ. In addition, Salesforce Ventures invested in Simplus four times, including its series B and C rounds.

Simplus itself has a long history of making its own acquisitions, and since the third quarter of 2016 as acquired BaldPeak Consulting, EDL Consulting, Basati, CRM manager, CirrusOne, and Sqware Peg.

According to Simplus, it has completed over 2,000 successful projects, and is in the top 1-percent of all implementation partners based on customer service rating.

For Infosys, the planned acquisition of Simplus follows the late-2018 acquisition Fluido, an Espoo, Finland-based Salesforce advisor and consulting partner which gave Infosys a Salesforce presence across Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Slovakia.

Executives of both Infosys and Simplus were unable to respond to CRN enquiries for further information by press time.

However, a Simplus spokesperson told CRN via email CRN that Infosys is paying $250 million to acquire Simplus, and that Simplus CEO Ryan Westwood and the rest of the current executive team will remain with the company once the deal closes, which is expected to happen within the next 30 days.

Ravi Kumar, president of Bengaluru, India-based Infosys, said in a statement that Simplus will be a valuable addition to Infosys.

"Complementing our industry knowledge and existing Salesforce footprint with their strong presence in key markets, deep Salesforce consulting and advisory expertise will help accelerate the transformation journey of incumbent companies. With this strong addition to our portfolio, we look forward to unlocking additional value for our clients," Kumar said in the statement.

Ryan Westwood, Simplus CEO and co-founder, said in a statement that the company is thrilled to be partnering with Infosys.

"We have viewed this partnership from a culture-first lens from the beginning, and we believe that the alignment of our company values, and the preservation of our company DNA will allow us to accelerate growth and together become the strongest and most respected partner in the Salesforce ecosystem," Westwood said in the statement.