Publicis Sapient named a leader in digital transformation

A recent analysis and ranking from Forrester on digital transformation firms has placed Publicis Sapient in the leader category, alongside other top performers including McKinsey and Accenture.

Paris-based advertising and PR giant Publicis purchased digital marketing firm Razorfish from Microsoft for more than $500 million in 2009. In 2015, it put down $4 billion to buy Boston-based digital transformation firm Sapient. In 2016, Publicis fused Sapient’s advertising and marketing arm SapientNitro with Razorfish to create SapientRazorfish. Earlier this year, Publicis merged the latter entity with Sapient Consulting to create Publicis Sapient, an end-to-end digital transformer that combines strategy, consulting, and customer experience to drive successful digital change.

The unified brand has now been recognized as a leader in market research firm Forrester’s Q1 analysis of digital transformation accelerators. The other firms recognized as leaders were Accenture, EY, McKinsey & Company, PwC, and IBM.

Forrester’s report helps executives select the right consultancy for their needs. According to the market researcher, many digital transformations stall when they target short-term gains in customer experience and operational efficiency without tying the effort to true market understanding and a broader business strategy. The digital leaders on Forrester’s list are more likely to deliver the full package needed for success.

The top firms are also more likely to provide the “speed of design and execution” vital to digital success. According to the Forrester analysis, the leaders “blend strategy and execution chops and couple them with the soft skills for inspiring leadership and training teams. CIOs and digital executives should look for providers that: have the capabilities to design business for change [and] can seamlessly integrate emerging technologies to design new experiences.”

Publicis Sapient was lauded for its effective customer research in support of digital transformations, its world-class digital experience design capabilities, and its performance-driving outcome-based contracts. The analysis did, however, find room for improvement in the company’s ability to advise on strategy at the CEO level.

With the creative and marketing roots of SapientNitro and Razorfish – and the resources of Publicis – the firm is a top consultancy on the customer experience front. “Publicis Sapient is an especially strong partner where the transformation emphasis is on creating world-class digital customer and employee experiences,” the report states.

"We are honored to be recognized as a Leader in this space and believe that it is a proof point of the success of our unique approach to helping clients on their constantly evolving digital transformation journeys," Nigel Vaz, Public Sapient CEO, said.The integration of our capabilities across strategy and consulting, experience and engineering, along with creative problem-solving, provides us with a unique view of both the company and the customer to enable end-to-end transformation."

Among those placed in the “Strong Performers” category were Deloitte, KPMG, Capgemini, Cognizant, Wipro, and Atos. TCS, Infosys, and DXC Technology ranked in the “Contenders” category.