Celonis vs IBM

Ahron Raises €2.2M for AI-Driven HR Automation

Munich-based HR tech startup Ahron has raised €2.2 million in a funding round led by Cusp Capital, with participation from angel investors including Sabine Kohleisen, former HR board member at Mercedes-Benz Group. Founded in late 2025 by Carl Hoffmann and Rado Pavlov, Ahron is developing an AI agent-based platform that automates HR processes across existing enterprise systems, addressing the fragmentation of HR software. The platform leverages Celonis's Process Intelligence to create digital twins of HR processes and includes a central control layer for defining policies and guardrails. Since the start of the year, Ahron has generated over €1 million in annual recurring revenue and secured customers in the US and Europe. The new funding will support product development, particularly the central control layer, and international expansion.

• Ahron raised €2.2 million in a funding round led by Cusp Capital.
• The funding round included participation from superangels and HR-sector business angels, including Sabine Kohleisen.
• Ahron was founded in late 2025 by Carl Hoffmann and Rado Pavlov.

Schwarz Digits Adds Celonis, Snowflake to STACKIT Cloud

Schwarz Digits is expanding its STACKIT cloud platform by integrating Celonis and Snowflake to create an open data and AI ecosystem for enterprises and public institutions. Celonis will run as a single-tenant solution on STACKIT, offering process intelligence and the Celonis Context Model on sovereign infrastructure. Snowflake will be integrated in phases, starting with customer data stored in the open Apache Iceberg format and integration with STACKIT's key management system. The long-term goal is to operate the AI Data Platform natively on STACKIT, ensuring data storage and processing remain on European infrastructure, addressing data protection, compliance, and sovereignty requirements. This move positions STACKIT as a counter-model to closed platform ecosystems, allowing customers to combine various AI and data services.

• Schwarz Digits integrates Celonis and Snowflake into its STACKIT cloud platform.
• Celonis will operate as a single-tenant solution on STACKIT.
• Snowflake integration initially stores customer data in Apache Iceberg format on STACKIT.

Accenture Beats Expectations, Stock Jumps Up to 22%

Accenture reported strong fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 results, beating analyst expectations for revenue and bookings, and raised its outlook for fiscal 2027. The company's stock surged up to 22% in New York trading, the largest one-day gain since its listing. Total quarterly revenue reached $18.7 billion, a 7% increase year-over-year, exceeding the $18.04 billion consensus. New bookings totaled $22.2 billion, above the expected $20 billion. Revenue in the Communications, Media, and Technology segment grew 11% to $3.26 billion. Accenture also announced separate contracts with Google Cloud, AI firm Anthropic, and Amazon Web Services. CEO Julie Sweet highlighted broad-based growth and noted that the results challenge the narrative that IT services firms are losers in the AI boom. For fiscal 2027, Accenture expects revenue between $18.95 billion and $19.6 billion.

• Accenture's Q4 FY2026 revenue reached $18.7 billion, a 7% increase year-over-year.
• New bookings totaled $22.2 billion, exceeding analyst expectations of $20 billion.
• Accenture raised its fiscal 2027 revenue outlook to between $18.95 billion and $19.6 billion.

IBM Launches Self-Hosted Deployment for Bob AI Development

IBM announced self-hosted deployment for IBM Bob, its agentic software development platform, allowing enterprises to run AI-powered software development and modernization in on-premises, private cloud, sovereign cloud, and air-gapped environments. This addresses the need for data sovereignty, security, and governance, especially in regulated industries. The move responds to research indicating that hybrid and edge deployments will capture 44% of the AI infrastructure market by 2030. IBM Bob's self-hosted option allows organizations to bring AI to their data rather than moving sensitive code to external services. According to IBM's Institute for Business Value, 68% of executives find meeting data residency and sovereignty requirements challenging. The platform supports running licensed models on-premises and connecting to external model services via hybrid configurations.

• IBM launched self-hosted deployment for IBM Bob, its agentic software development platform.
• Self-hosted deployment supports on-premises, private cloud, sovereign cloud, and air-gapped environments.
• A Futurum Research report projects hybrid and edge deployments will capture 44% of the AI infrastructure market by 2030.

IBM Acquires Logiq Consulting to Expand Secure Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity Capabilities in the UK

IBM announced the acquisition of Logiq Consulting, a UK-based cybersecurity firm, to enhance its secure digital transformation and cybersecurity offerings in the UK.