KPMG cues $5-billion outlay on digital push with Microsoft

KPMG and Microsoft Corp. are strengthening their global relationship through a five-year agreement to accelerate digital transformation for KPMG member firms and mutual clients.

As part of its announcement to significantly invest in technology, people and innovation, KPMG is modernising its workplace using the Microsoft 365 suite of cloud-based collaboration and productivity tools, including Microsoft Teams.

KPMG is also using Microsoft Azure and Azure AI as the backbone for a new common, global cloud-based platform. The platform will strengthen KPMG’s range of digital offerings with new innovations in cloud-based audit capabilities, tax solutions and risk management.

Clients in all sectors, including those in highly regulated industries, benefit from globally consistent and continuous service delivery that enables greater speed of deployment while adhering to industry-leading compliance and security standards.

“KPMG’s deep industry and process expertise, combined with the power of our trusted cloud — spanning Azure, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 — will bring the best of both organisations together to help customers around the world become more agile in an increasingly complex business environment,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft.

As organisations expand to new geographies, develop new products and recruit new talent, processes can become increasingly complex and harder to scale. Market forces, such as evolving data protection laws, currency fluctuations and geopolitical tensions, increase the complexity and require a greater responsiveness for systems and tools.

The portfolio of KPMG and Microsoft alliance offerings can help address these challenges more quickly by building applications on demand, automating manual processes, and continuously analysing information to minimise the risk of errors and increase the ability to make smart decisions.

“Our significant multiyear investment continues to empower our people to work more efficiently and collaboratively while maximising the power of a workforce that blends people and technology,” said Bill Thomas, global chairman o KPMG International.

Through a jointly funded incubator, KPMG and Microsoft are co-developing a robust portfolio of solutions and managed services in the areas of cloud business transformation, intelligent business applications and smart workplace solutions.

Through its common, global cloud platform, KPMG will create a set of cloud-based capabilities ranging from hosting infrastructure based on Microsoft Azure to more than 50 advanced solutions, such as AI, cyber and robotic process automation.