Wipfli merges in Solve100 and Waypoint
Wipfli, a Top 20 firm based in Milwaukee, has added two data analytics and application development companies, Solve100 and Waypoint Consulting, while expanding its footprint to Arkansas.
Solve100, based in Chicago, offers business intelligence, data analytics, machine learning and predictive analytics technology to the health care, manufacturing, financial services, food service/manufacturing and distribution/logistics industries. DecisionPoint Advisors, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, which offers merger and acquisition consulting for middle-market technology companies, represented Solve100 in the deal.
Waypoint, based in West Chester, Pennsylvania, provides enterprise data management (data warehousing, integration and governance), analytics and enterprise performance management services across various industries, especially the health care and financial service industries. Solganick & Co., an independent technology investment bank with M&A advisory expertise, represented Waypoint on the transaction.
Solve100 and Waypoint have a combined 25 years of experience in data analytics and app development.
“They are providing strategic advisory services to assist organizations in understanding how they can better analyze their corporate data to make strategic business decisions,” Ken Kortas, technology consulting practice leader at Wipfli, told Accounting Today. “That sounds easier than it is because data can be messy. Data can be inaccurate. There may not be good governance around data. There may not even be good storage of data. So there’s a lot of work that’s done to organize a company’s data infrastructure and then be able to effectively report on it through visualization tools, such as Microsoft Power BI, Qlik and Tableau. Both of these organizations work with those technologies, but the real work is in the consulting around the data management. Within organizations, there’s never enough data, but we can’t necessarily get to the information we need.”
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Wipfli ranked No. 19 on Accounting Today’s 2021 list of the Top 100 Firms. The firm earned $430.6 million in annual revenue in 2021, and had approximately 320 partners and principals. The combined deals add more than 50 associates to Wipfli, which now counts over 3,100 associates in the U.S., India and the Philippines. Wipfli will be gaining two principals and 23 employees from Solve100, along with an office in Arkansas, where the firm previously didn’t have a footprint. The firm will also be getting six partners and 23 employees from Waypoint.
“Our consulting practice has been operating on a national scale for many years now, so the addition of these organizations simply complements what we’re already pursuing on a national go-to-market standpoint,” said Kortas. “They bring expertise in critical industries that we work in, specifically health care, financial services and manufacturing. Both organizations have people that are either close in the Chicago market, or close in the Philadelphia market, but the reality is they also have people that are remotely based. When we do work, we don’t think of it as the local people working with the local businesses. We bring the right consultants to the right client that they can serve best regardless of where they’re at.”
Wipfli already had some of the same data analytics capabilities in-house, but Solve100 and Waypoint will add more resources to help the firm with its clients, and Wipfli will be able to help their clients with additional services.
“We offer a better way to aggregate disparate information, and report, analyze and visualize complex data through business intelligence, or data analytics,” said Greg Woodard, principal at Solve100, in a statement. “Together with Wipfli, we offer development expertise to build governance around clients’ data. This enables us to build solutions informing data-driven decisions, and offer integrations, connections and customizations that address unique needs.”
Accounting firms are investing more in data analytics technology services for clients. “Data is more abundant than ever before, but organizations struggle with planning, managing and visualizing that data in a way that provides insights,” said Waypoint Consulting managing partner Brendan McGuire in a statement. “We help all types of clients discover, develop, and deploy data and analytics solutions in ways that improve operations, reduce risks and drive profitability.”
These are the 11th and 12th firms to join Wipfli in the past three years. Last June, Wipfli merged in Mueller Prost, a Regional Leader headquartered in St. Louis. In January of last year, it added Hughes & Co. in Denver.