San Antonio—[Corrected 4/22/19, 2:22 p.m. See below.] Global technology and consulting services company Accenture is building out a facility in San Antonio that will focus on cybersecurity in government operations.
Accenture (NYSE: [[ticker:CAN]]) says its Accenture Federal Services subsidiary plans to invest $5 million in the center and its other operations in San Antonio. The center will focus on managing, detecting, and responding to cyber threats that target government networks, the company said in a news release. Accenture is based in Dublin, Ireland and Accenture Federal Services is based in Arlington, VA. [Corrected to clarify that the investment is going into all of the subsidiary’s San Antonio operations.]
Accenture Federal Services already has two offices in San Antonio with more than 1,300 employees, the company said. It expects to hire another 500 employees for this cybersecurity facility and its two other locations within the next four years. The company is getting a $500,000 grant from the city of San Antonio for making those hires and for workforce training. It may also see some money from the county government, too: Local officials are drafting a proposal to give the business $100,000 in grants for making new hires, which still must be approved by the county government, the Commissioner’s Court. City officials also nominated Accenture for tax breaks at the state level.
Accenture sells government agencies various advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence-based cyber programs, the company said in a news release. Its interest in San Antonio is driven by its growing importance nationally as a tech hub, Accenture said. The city has other government-focused cybersecurity operators, from local firms like IPSecure to national ones like Lockheed Martin (NYSE: [[ticker:LMT]]), at Port San Antonio. It also has a rising startup presence downtown surrounding the Geekdom co-working space and at investment firms like Scaleworks.
Accenture has other technology focuses in Texas. It opened an innovation center in downtown Houston in 2017, a part of a $1.4 billion investment in 10 hubs around the nation. The aim was to connect the firm’s corporate and industrial clients with new, innovative technology, Xconomy reported at the time. The company has also made investments in startups, such as its 2017 acquisition of Austin-based Clearhead, which helped companies “personalize” digital tools used by their customers.
