Cognizant Acquires Smart Factories Consulting Firm TQS Integration -

Global IT consulting firm Cognizant has acquired TQS Integration, a privately owned global industrial data and intelligence company that offers smart factory consulting services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This is technology M&A deal number 439 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2021. See all technology M&A deals for 2021 and 2020 listed here.

TQS -- founded in 1998 and based in Lismore, Ireland -- provides manufacturing data intelligence, global technology consulting and digital systems integration to clients in the life sciences, food and beverage, and energy and renewables industries.

TQS, which has 157 employees listed on LinkedIn, is a premier partner of OSIsoft, which AVEVA acquired in 2020.

Cognizant has life sciences expertise in Ireland, having acquired Zenith Technologies in 2019.

Cognizant Acquires TQS: Enhancing Smart Factory Capabilities

Srinivas Shankar, senior vice president and global markets lead, Life Sciences, Cognizant

Kerry Grimes, senior vice president, AVEVA

In a prepared statement about the deal, Srinivas Shankar, senior VP and global markets lead, Life Sciences, Cognizant, commented:

"TQS enhances Cognizant's end-to-end smart factory capabilities, helping clients realize information and operational technology convergence and drive digital transformation in their manufacturing operations. With TQS, Cognizant not only becomes one of the industry's most comprehensive solutions for Manufacturing 4.0 for life sciences. We also strengthen our data historian and analytics capabilities to help all our manufacturing clients harness the power of data intelligence to compete in new ways."

Máire Quilty, corporate managing director, TQS, added:

"Our world-class team of data intelligence and technology consultants have built a tremendous track record in helping our life sciences manufacturing clients transform their businesses. Together with Cognizant, we look forward to broadening our impact to manufacturing clients in other industries who are looking to embrace Industry 4.0."

Kerry Grimes, senior vice president and head of global partners, AVEVA, concluded:

"The addition of TQS will further strengthen and accelerate the collaboration we have with Cognizant. This acquisition combines Cognizant's rich AVEVA experience with TQS's knowledge of OSIsoft. Similar to our recent acquisition of OSIsoft, this addresses the joint capabilities our clients need to drive their digital transformation journey. We look forward to the unique market opportunities that we can present together to our customers and partners."

Cognizant’s M&A Plays

TQS is Cognizant's fifth acquisition in 2021, though the firm has been active on the M&A front for years. Typical acquisitions involve such sectors as internet of things (IoT), cloud, artificial intelligence and analytics, and software product engineering.

Cognizant typically focuses on platforms like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Salesforce, ServiceNow and Workday.

Recent deals include: