The time is NOW!

If you haven't heard, Acquity Group was acquired by accenture over the weekend.  http://www.acquitygroup.com/News-And-Ideas/News/Accenture-to-Strengthen-Digital-Marketing-and-eCom.  The time is now to move in and attack!

Over the last 6 months you've heard many references to Acquity at Crown.  We've even set a thematic goal to "Compete and Win Against Acquity" as the ONE thing we need to do in 2013.  Well, they've served up our opportunity on a silver platter!

My thoughts in no particular order about their acquisition.

1. Customer Experience and Experience Driven Creative is a winning competitive advantage in the eBusiness space.  While Acquity had good capability here, they will lose sight of this by selling to a monster systems integrator.  This will open up the door for Crown NYC and our Creative/Customer Experience group to truly make a difference for Crown and help us win in the marketplace.
2. Acquity will be reeling for up to a year (6 months if they really focus on it) in the swallowing of their firm (minnow) by accenture (whale).  It will take them some time to work through plans, communications, and eventually settle in.  We need to go on the offensive and take advantage of this NOW.  Let's double down on our relationships with Adobe, Exacttarget and hybris.  Let's double up on our recruiting of top notch talent, and let's take market share from them as they take their eye off the ball.
3. Experience Driven Content and Commerce (eBusiness that makes a difference) is where everybody wants to be.  System Integrators are moving in this direction (accenture acquires Acquity).  Agencies are moving in this direction (WPP acquires Salmon).  WE ARE ALREADY THERE.  Let's not look back as these firms try to catch up.  Let's defend our position by increasing our lead!
4. Offshore capability is a must.  Accenture will leverage their huge offshore capabilities to compete in the eBusiness space.  Our trip to China to strengthen our relationship with Objectiva couldn't have come at a better time.  This is a scale play more than anything.  We need to be able to bring enough resources to the table to support our growing sales pipeline.  And, they need to be top notch.  Objectiva is a Software Development company.  They are much more than the typical systems integration / professional services outsourcer.  They build software for software companies.  We need to take advantage of this relationship to provide a higher quality solution for our customers as Acquity tries to use accenture's outsourcing in a lesser quality professional services model.

Take a moment and write three things down that we can do to take advantage of this news.  Please share them below for the organization to see and act upon.

OFOF.  One Firm, One Future.  We have this benefit over our competitors that are combining to be in the eBusiness space.  Let's capitalize on it!

Richard