Design studio Intuitive Company joins EY family in US
Professional services firm EY has acquired design studio Intuitive Company, which is the firm’s second design deal in the US in one month’s time. The transaction boosts EY’s design capabilities and allows it to better serve its clients in enhancing their digital user experiences.
To meet the growing demand for engaging and efficient user experiences in an increasingly digital world, EY has of late been on an expansion path to boost its digital expertise and capabilities. One method applied to enhance its offering is by purchasing successful (digital) design companies, buying its way to knowledge, scale and a client base. Examples of recent deals include the purchase of London-based digital design firm Seren in August, and the acquisition of New York-based design and digital solutions agency NorthPoint Digital in November. The purchase of Intuitive Company is EY’s second big design deal for EY in the US in a matter of weeks.
The addition of Intuitive, a Philadelphia-based design studio specialised in user-focused apps, websites, and software, will allow EY to better serve clients in their quest to produce appealing user experiences, geared to better compete in the fast and ever-changing marketplace. “User experience is the new battleground for companies working to capture share of mind and wallet, so this deal is coming at the right time for us and our clients,” explains Roger Park, Principal at EY. “With Intuitive’s strong research, design and front-end development capabilities, we can demonstrate to clients the impact of a superior user experience on their bottom lines.”
EY-Intuitive
The company will be incorporated into the EY family and continue its services under the name ‘EY-Intuitive’, in a similar approach to EY Parthenon, following the acquisition of the strategy consultancy back in July 2014. The combined firm will focus on user-centric processes, and help its clients to understand its customers and the best way to reach those customers through improved experiences.
Explaining the benefits for Intuitive, Founder Greg Picarelli says: “This deal is an exciting one for Intuitive because it means we have the chance to collaborate with some of the world’s most important brands and offer them new creative approaches to really tough business challenges.” He goes on to say that “EY and Intuitive will make a great pair for the long term. I think there’s a lot we can learn from each other going forward, but it’s clear we're already coming from the same place because we both encourage entrepreneurship, collaboration and an employee-centric culture.”
Digital competition
EY is one of the many consutancies highly active in digital design M&A space. Other examples of deals concluded in the past months include Deloitte Digital’s acquisition of Digital One (Poland), Accenture’s purchase of Cloud Sherpas (US), Chaotic Moon (US) and PacificLink (Hong Kong), and Synechron’s purchase of Usable (US).
