San Francisco, Sep 23 (IANS): Global professional services company Accenture will acquire N3, a tech-driven sales and demand-generation firm that helps clients drive sales growth in an increasingly virtual environment, the company said, without disclosing the financial terms of the acquisition.

The acquisition adds approximately 2,200 employees to Accenture globally, along with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities, Accenture said on Tuesday.

Founded in 2004, N3 serves many of the world's leading brands, such as Microsoft, Cisco and SAP.

The company is headquartered in Atlanta, US with additional locations including Brazil, Costa Rica, Ireland, Germany, Japan, Singapore and the UK.

"Increasingly, B2B buyers expect the same ‘Amazon-like' interactions they experience as consumers when purchasing far more complex services -- a trend that's only accelerated in the current pandemic," Manish Sharma, Group Chief Executive of Accenture Operations, said in a statement.

"N3 provides the perfect combination of skilled talent and technology to remove barriers and better influence purchasing decisions at critical stages."

N3's model of specialised sales talent -- across complex areas like cloud, software platforms and 5G networks -- is supported by Cloud-based, AI /ML technology that enables smarter, more efficient customer interactions and sales conversions.

With Accenture's SynOps platform, these combined capabilities could offer a client the ability to aggregate millions of interaction points into actionable insights that drive sales growth.

"We were drawn to Accenture, in large part, due to the growth opportunity– as far as developing talent, advancing capabilities and joining a company with strengths and values that complement our own," said Jeff Laue, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of N3.

"Together, our capabilities provide a differentiated, data-driven approach that companies can use to sharpen their sales focus and deliver on the ambition of sustainable growth."