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EY has acquired Malaysian organisation Xynapse for an undisclosed amount, expanding the advisory firm’s identity and access management business across the region.
The acquisition includes the entities Xynapse and Xynapse Asia who are in the identity and access management implementation and managed services business, which will complement the service offerings of EY Identity in Australia.
Furthermore, as a result of this acquisition an identity and access management delivery and managed services hub will now be established in ASEAN as part of the expanded offerings afforded to EY.
Specifically, this hub will provide clients with both insights and end-to-end advice to support the delivery of their strategic digital goals.
“Cyber security is a key growth driver for EY,” said Iain Burnet, advisory leader of Asia Pacific at EY. "The acquisition of Xynapse will enhance the strong EY capabilities in cyber security and digital transformation.
"It will also contribute towards accelerating the growth of EY cyber security services across ASEAN and the Asia Pacific region and achieving our goal of being number one in cyber security consulting services in Asia Pacific by 2020.
"With this acquisition, EY will be well-positioned to establish an identity and access management services hub in ASEAN, offering expanded identity services and approaches, and to take on large and complex identity management implementations in ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific region."
Xynapse will adopt the EY brand with all of its current employees taking on advisory roles across the region, providing identity and access management services to businesses and governments.
Furthermore, Joseph Chan - the current CEO of Xynapse - will join EY Identity in Malaysia as a partner and will be tasked with leading the EY ASEAN Identity Delivery Hub.
“I am excited about this opportunity to be part of the Cybersecurity practices in EY,” said Chan. “Xynapse has worked closely with EY in a number of client engagements previously and there is a good cultural fit between both organisations.
"The EY footprint and network across the globe provide tremendous opportunities for the people of Xynapse to replicate our success on a broader scale. "We look forward to bringing a number of exciting new services to the market in the coming months.”
Rising demand
"There is a rising demand from clients in Malaysia and the region for identity and access management services, and EY is committed to continuously grow and develop the EY identity management and advisory capabilities to better respond to this demand,” added Richard Watson, cyber security leader of Asia Pacific at EY.
"Xynapse’s identity and access management services platform will be integrated into EY’s proven platform, allowing EY to continue to offer end-to-end identity and access management capabilities to clients.
"With the addition of Xynapse’s executional and technical identity management abilities to the EY suite of cybersecurity advisory services, we can better help EY clients with trusted advice and the capability to navigate the cybersecurity risks in their respective industries."
Furthermore, Chow Sang Hoe - advisory leader of ASEAN at EY - said the business has "impressed" with the people, solutions and clients of Xynapse.
"Xynapse has an excellent reputation among clients and vendors for identity and access management services, and its people possess skillsets to deliver capabilities across a range of software vendors’ products," Chow added. "Their unique skills, dynamic leadership and strong team fit well with the EY culture.
"In addition, the combination of the EY footprint and consulting capability with Xynapse’s depth in identity and access management will enable us to continue to bring a compelling and powerful value proposition to the market and to clients.
"We are excited about the impact we will have in continuing to help EY clients solve their most complex cyber security issues."
