Telus International’s acquisition of WillowTree will mean digital changes for telecom customers

Telus International (TI) has added WillowTree to its roster of companies.

WillowTree, a U.S.-based organization that helps companies with their digital strategy, including building and designing apps, websites, and voice experiences, has been renamed to WillowTree, a Telus International Company.

Now under the TI banner, it will change the way TI serves its 600 clients. The tech company provides IT and business services while serving as the global arm of the Telus Corporation, one of the Big Three telecom companies in Canada.

Tobias Dengel, president of WillowTree, told MobileSyrup that the capabilities of the two companies are “extraordinarily complementary to each other.” With WillowTree primarily focusing on the design aspects and TI on supporting technology, the future will allow the companies to tie various experiences together, creating an “omnichannel customer and user experience,” Dengel said.

From the perspective of TI, the $1.2 billion US (about $1.6 billion CAD) acquisition will also serve its existing client base.

“The combination of WillowTree with TI, for me, is like peanut butter and jelly,” Jeffrey Puritt, TI’s president and CEO, told MobileSyrup. “We’re both in the technology services sector. But we have the competency set that’s quite complimentary, quite synergistic.”

Design and build capabilities are aspects TI lacked, Puritt said. It cost TI “four monster opportunities” alone.

Telus Corporation is TI’s biggest client, and the corporation will utilize WillowTree’s services.

“We’ve already identified a multitude of areas of opportunity for WillowTree’s capabilities to be leveraged in order to help progress Telus’ digital transformation ambitions,” Puritt said.

He didn’t share specifics but did say there is some work WillowTree did for providers in the U.S. that could be leveraged for Telus’ mobile platform in Canada.

One of WillowTree’s many American clients is telecom company Verizon. A 2018 press release from Petsky Prunier Invest Bankers outlining WillowTree’s work stated the company launched mobile, over-the-top (OTT) and IoT services, along with websites and chatbots for several companies, including Verizon.

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