EY strengthens transformation, growth with Blackdot acquisition
EY has announced the acquisition of consultancy firm Blackdot, as it looks to strengthen its customer transformation and growth capabilities.
Blackdot is an experienced customer consultancy that provides customer strategy, design and implementation services to assist clients to achieve long lasting customer-centered growth. Founded in Sydney, Australia in 2001 by Marty Nicholas, Blackdot has served clients globally through a network covering Australia, the UK, Singapore and Canada.
The acquisition will assist EY teams in serving clients develop and implement customer-centric growth strategies, including design, user experience, digitisation, omni-channel, go-to-market and commercialisation.
Founder and CEO Marty Nicholas will join the EY partnership in Australia and be based in Sydney. Sixty-four Blackdot staff will join EY globally, of which a team will join Consulting services in Singapore. Mark Taylor, managing director Blackdot EMEA will join the EY partnership in the UK.
"We are very excited to have the team from Blackdot join EY. The customer transformation capability that they bring complements our world class EY Port Jackson Partners strategy team, bringing deep growth, omni-channel, sales and marketing skills and linking perfectly with our customer research, experience, digital and data analytics capabilities," says Justin Greig, EY regional consulting managing partner, Oceania.
"As a result, EY Australia now offers clients a market-leading set of customer and growth services spanning innovation through to successful commercial execution and further strengthens EY transformation leadership momentum," he says.
Marty Nicholas, chief executive of Blackdot, adds, "I am genuinely excited about what joining EY will bring to our clients and people.
"Combining EY;s complementary strategy, technology, data, digital and people advisory capabilities with our customer and growth expertise sets us up to unlock more value faster for clients looking to transform how they go to market," he says.
"Critically, the cultural fit with EY across all our centres has been unforced and energising from the outset. Watching the team get behind the opportunity to help EY fulfil their ambition of building a world class customer and growth capability has been exciting," Nicholas says.
"The personal and professional growth opportunities this enables for us all was unrivalled.
"While this is a huge milestone for everyone who has contributed to the growth of Blackdot over many years, it really does feel like the end of one great chapter and the beginning of another," he says.
David Larocca, EY regional managing partner and CEO, Oceania, says Blackdot is a great fit for EY.
"We share an ambition of delivering long-term value for our clients by helping them solve complex challenges, and everything we do has people at the centre," he says.
"They are a great addition to our already strong customer team, and we look forward to working with them, both here in Australia and around the world."
