Acora Customers See Rapid Returns from AI Momentum

9 months on from the acquisition of Elastacloud, a trailblazer in data science and artificial intelligence, Acora customers have been experiencing the power of the expanded Acora Group capability. Since the acquisition, Acora have developed a ground-breaking AI Readiness Acceleration Service, which fast-tracks business transformation and continually prioritises and executes work directly linked to business objectives.

Mid-sized businesses in particular are challenged to transform as quickly as both their larger and smaller competitors, with BDO calling out in February the rise in “Zombie” UK mid-market companies. Hit by a tsunami of challenges and opportunities, they are quickly needing to remodel their whole approach to technology adoption and continuous innovation.

Acora are showing a new way forward, giving customers access to unique acceleration capabilities in a pay-monthly service. The service gives access to the “Acora AI Treasure Trove” of what amounts to 70 years’ worth of resource days development in proprietary AI tooling, combined with Data Science and AI delivery expertise.

This means customers become quickly confident to exploit the opportunities that AI offers, not restricted by their current state. With this full-stack, full-service approach, Acora customers are overcoming tech skills shortages, legacy infrastructure constraints, technical debt, cyber security concerns, IT cost challenges and getting what they always wanted – investment in technology directly linked to business outcomes, all together through a single relationship.

Two examples of recent Acora work highlight the speed and breadth of the “Road to Value” for customers.

First, a global leader in animal nutrition, research and development, and quality control. The engagement started two years ago, when the immediate requirement was to strengthen their security posture. With the relationship growing after the initial interaction, the customer quickly realised that they needed to explore the art of the possible by carrying out an IT Maturity Assessment to evaluate their readiness for growth. This included a review across their technology stack – Cyber Security, Operations, Data & AI, with detailed recommendations for next steps.

Working closely with the senior leadership team, the assessment demonstrated the necessity for transformation. Central to our “Road to Value” approach, we carried out a full end-to-end modernisation project focusing on their infrastructure, consolidating multiple ERP systems, CRM upgrade and introducing a data platform with a clear purpose to enhance efficiency – Setting them up to leverage AI & Data effectively to fuel future growth. Now supporting the businesses’ day-to-day operations, we hope for the business to gain real value from the changes made and be ready for the next phase of their journey.

Continuing to drive transformation in the legal sector, Acora’s customer, a Top 50 Global Law Firm, has also experienced the opportunities the “Road to value” approach offers. Over 2 months, the Acora team simultaneously embedded itself within the customer team in the UK and Australia, operating across time zones. Working in tandem, they jointly developed a transformational approach to cloud infrastructure acceleration, centralised data management & governance and initiated a long-term AI as a Service model.

Taking a wider field of vision and embedding heavily has allowed Acora to become both a trusted strategic advisor and a skilled extension to live operations, with the target of releasing technical debt in readiness for the rapid delivery of a revised AI Strategy and AI Solutions.

The customer is already benefiting from the AI Treasure Trove to shortcut traditional challenges, taking weeks and months to remove hurdles that were planned to take years.

The AI as a Service model has been enacted to benefit from the other works undertaken and build an end-to-end accelerated delivery pipeline – operating from ideation, through proof of concept, value mapping, to solution delivery and end user adoption.

These transformational solutions opened our eyes to the appetite, importance and urgency that mid-sized businesses are placing on fundamentally changing their IT delivery model to support the advancement of strategic drivers.

AI and the multiplier effect of partnership

Acora’s investment in Elastacloud’s Data Science and AI expertise, combined with the Acora approach to developing close customer partnerships, is having a multiplier effect that benefits both Acora customers and Acora. The commitment to continually grow and innovate was further evidenced in April 2025, when Acora acquired Hydras, an AWS Cloud Transformation and Security Consultancy, by expanding capabilities with their expertise.

With Acora’s Transformation Accelerator in place, and leveraging the Acora Treasure Trove, Acora have quickly been able to bring innovation to customers. In contrast, customers can influence development back into Acora for their benefit. Acora continues to embed AI into all areas of the business through hackathons, a central “think tank”, AI training and personal development.

New London location further fuels close collaboration

In June, we saw the opening of the new Acora City of London office in the Square Mile. This was the next essential step in the full integration of Elastacloud and Hydras into the Acora Group. The newly refurbished Ten Old Bailey will bring together technical, pre-sales, sales and marketing teams in a single central location to further fuel close collaboration between Acora teams, customers and partners. The combined group has built a reputation for building valuable communities of technical and business users, and the new space will continue to enable the Microsoft Azure, Data Science, AWS user groups and growing Accomplish More CXO community to thrive.

Celebrating inclusion in the 2025 E2E Tech 100

The announcement of the E2E listing in June 2025 was a significant milestone that demonstrates Acora’s commitment to its people, strategic partnerships and developing end-to-end capabilities to provide a full-stack, full-service model as a progressing Business Technology Services Partner.

Acknowledging partners that are paving the way for transformative business strategies, driving innovation and making a significant impact at scale globally, this was an excellent way for the team to celebrate the recognition and to end H1.

Bringing H1 to a close

As we look back on a pivotal first half of the year for Acora, it’s clear that each milestone has played a vital role in shaping the way customers move faster and achieve more. From industry recognitions that validate the vision, to strategic acquisitions and the opening of new offices, every step has sharpened the ability to unite teams to continue driving innovation at pace and deliver rapid, tangible outcomes – Fast-tracking business transformation internally for the Acora Group and for its customers far sooner than many thought possible.

Stay closer to the AI Journey by watching Simon Cumplin, Acora’s Director of Data Strategy & AI, explore the key considerations for building a future-ready data and AI strategy.