KPMG teams up with Microsoft
A ground-breaking alliance between KPMG Management Consulting and Microsoft aims to provide businesses with rapid IT and business solutions.
“The market is moving towards packaged solutions of a different sort, where you will see advanced joining of IT components to take to market in consulting,” said David Jones, principal consultant, responsible for alliances, data warehousing and KPMG’s globalisation programme. “Microsoft wanted to link up with an organisation that deals with business issues, and from a KPMG point of view we are looking at it as an IT business consultancy alliance.”
Microsoft will provide the technology and the training for KPMG’s consultants who will be brought up-to-date with Windows NT and KPMG will provide the business solution. The firms will focus on applying a combination of new technology solutions, including e-commerce, knowledge management and customer value management to the finance and retail sectors.
“We are building solutions for the retail sector. Certain solutions will need a wall-to-wall SAP element, with Microsoft NT technology attached to it, with an e-commerce element provided by another firm, but all provided by in partnership with KPMG,” said Jones.
KPMG believes this venture will change the face of the IT and business consultancy market, enabling firms to tailor IT solutions to their business needs. Firms will no longer buy off-the-shelf packages, but build a solution using IT components that can be slotted in around core business infrastructure.
While the alliance is very important to the future direction of the firm, Jones pointed out that KPMG sees impartiality as key in its client relationships and will not compromise it. He said: “Clearly we are not going to recommend a Microsoft system to someone who does not need it.”
The KPMG/ Microsoft alliance model is based on one developed by Forrester Research.