IBM moves into digital product engineering with Dialexa deal

IBM has announced plans to acquire digital product engineering services firm Dialexa in a move which it says will help companies drive innovation and achieve their digital growth agendas. 

Dialexa will be the sixth acquisition IBM has made in 2022, further bolstering the company's hybrid cloud and AI skills and capabilities. Since Arvind Krishna became CEO in April 2020, IBM has acquired more than 25 companies, including Neudesic, Sentaca, Nordcloud and Taos.

Deal represents IBM’s first acquisition in digital product engineering services market

The acquisition of Dialexa will be IBM Consulting's first in the fast-growing digital product engineering services market, which according to research by IDC is estimated to reach US$700bn by 2026. Upon close, Dialexa will join IBM Consulting, spearheading IBM's digital product engineering services presence in the Americas.

The acquisition is expected to deepen IBM's product engineering expertise and provide end-to-end digital transformation services for clients.

"In this digital era, clients are looking for the right mix of high-quality products to build new revenue streams and improve topline growth," said John Granger, Senior Vice President, IBM Consulting. "Dialexa's product engineering expertise, combined with IBM's hybrid cloud and business transformation offerings, will help our clients turn concepts into differentiated product portfolios that accelerate growth."

Founded in 2010, Dialexa delivers a suite of digital product engineering services, helping organisations create transformative products to drive business outcomes. Its multi-disciplinary and highly skilled team of 300 product managers, designers, full-stack engineers and data scientists, based in Dallas and Chicago, advise and create custom, commercial-grade digital products for clients such as Deere & Company, Pizza Hut US, and Toyota Motor North America. Dialexa has deep experience delivering end-to-end digital product engineering services consisting of strategy, design, build, launch, and optimization services across cloud platforms including AWS and Microsoft Azure.

Shared vision ‘could be a game changer’

"Digital product engineering represents the tip of the spear for competitive advantage," said Scott Harper, CEO and Co-Founder, Dialexa. "IBM and Dialexa's shared vision for delivering industry-defining digital products could be a game changer. We are thrilled to become part of one of the world's most iconic companies to continue to scale and grow our global client relationships in this rapidly growing market."

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year and is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory clearances. Financial details were not disclosed.

In July IBM announced it had acquired Databand.ai, strengthening its software portfolio across data, AI and automation to address the full spectrum of observability and helping businesses ensure that trustworthy data is being put into the right hands of the right users at the right time.

And in January, IBM acquired Envizi, a leading data and analytics software provider for environmental performance management.