- KPMG recently announced that it has earmarked $5 billion to accelerate its digital transformation for the company and its clients
KPMG announced it is investing $5 billion to accelerate its digital transformation for the company and its clients — who will benefit from the latest technological advancements across Audit, Tax, and Advisory along with the expertise of highly-skilled KPMG professionals to help them transform their businesses.
The investment will be prioritized in 3 key areas for strengthening client relationships and capitalizing on growth opportunities in a time of transformative change. This includes technology (global cloud-based platforms to drive the quality of service delivery and new client-facing business solutions and managed services), people (augmenting the digital skills of KPMG’s global workforce and expanding talent in areas like data science and digital architecture), and innovation (extending the range of digital offerings and winning work through a diversified ecosystem of strategic alliances and a global innovation network).
“Technology is disrupting organizations across the globe,” said KPMG Global Chairman and CEO Bill Thomas. “Clients are turning to us like never before and trust KPMG professionals to help them implement, manage and optimize the digital transformation of their organizations. Our investment places KPMG firmly at the forefront of this digital shift and enhances our position as a digital leader in professional services.”
Five-Year Agreement With Microsoft
KPMG also entered a five-year agreement with Microsoft to invest in cloud-based technologies. This deal enables KPMG member firms and mutual clients to benefit from Microsoft technology, innovation, and advancements in Microsoft’s cloud platforms. And KPMG is utilizing Microsoft technology – including Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 – to create a consistent cloud-based platform and extend its range of digital offerings.
Cloud-Based Audit Goals
A couple of years ago, KPMG launched its smart audit platform based on Microsoft Azure called KPMG Clara. By doing so, KPMG became the first of the Big Four professional services firms to move to a cloud-based audit and is on track to full deployment across the globe. And KPMG Clara enables professionals to apply industry knowledge to deliver high-quality audits that consistently meet applicable professional standards, build trust with clients, and sustain their public confidence.
The platform houses advanced and predictive analytics capabilities within a single, cloud-based source, and seamlessly adopt the latest cognitive and Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions. This enables KPMG professionals to tap into advanced technologies that bring clients a greater range and depth of insights into risks and anomalies.
Investing In Tax Technologies
KPMG is also continuing to invest heavily in tax technologies to help tax and legal leaders tackle regulatory change, streamline processes and data management, and facilitate enhanced reporting and enable effective collaboration across departments. Plus KPMG will invest more in cognitive, AI, and machine learning capabilities to transform tax and legal functions.
KPMG’s digital transformation approach is known for helping its clients align operations across the enterprise and the company has enabled an integrated customer journey by leveraging KPMG’s Connected Enterprise and Powered Enterprise solutions.
The additional leading capabilities include analyst-recognized cybersecurity solutions and advanced use of AI and intelligent automation in Regulatory Driven Transformation and Deal Advisory solutions. And KPMG professionals have access to globally consistent tools and solutions, benchmarks and industry analytics to provide clients with consistent support wherever they do business.
Investing In People
KPMG is also making investments in the professional development of its people by setting up a sophisticated innovation center in Orlando, Florida. And starting in January 2020, KPMG is expecting to welcome 800 partners and professionals to KPMG Lakehouse each week and lead over 1 million hours of in-person learning experiences. By drawing on advanced technology and custom-designed flexible learning spaces – including inverted classrooms that open to the outdoors – Lakehouse is going to encourage collaboration, creativity, and discovery.Currently, KPMG operates 153 countries and territories and has 207,000 people working in member firms around the world.
The inaugural class of KPMG’s cloud training program launched in November 2019. And this program is designed to help KPMG professionals understand the full potential of cloud technology and to leverage those tools when developing internal and client-facing business solutions.
And KPMG is continuing to stimulate technology innovation through several global programs, including its ecosystem of strategic alliances and KPMG Global Lighthouse — the company’s Center of Excellence for Data-driven Technologies.
Plus KPMG is also further investing in its global innovation network with 52 locations. This includes KPMG Ignition Centers — which enables the company’s professionals and clients to experience all of the dimensions in the company’s innovation capabilities in one location. And the innovation network also includes KPMG Insights Centers — which is a high-tech collaborative environments to explore data-driven technologies, emerging trends, and the latest analytic solutions and services where KPMG professionals work with clients in an immersive process to apply design thinking for business model innovation, draw on industry research, customer insights, technology innovation, and investment analysis to translate signals of change and help them take action. Plus KPMG’s Sensory Advantage Ecosystem is a global network that helps proactively identify early marketplace trends and conducts research to help KPMG and clients accelerate growth and strategy.
