KPMG International announced that it would be investing $5 billion over the next five years to better position itself for the digital transformation going on in professional services.

“Technology is disrupting organizations across the globe,” said KPMG International global chairman Bill Thomas in a statement. “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.”

The investment will be directed to three areas:

• Technology. This will start with a focus on building cloud-based platforms to support service delivery, new client-facing business solutions, and managed services. KPMG noted that it will invest heavily in tax technologies, including artificial intelligence capabilities.
• People. Specifically, the firm aims to add to the digital skills of KPMG’s global workforce, and adding talent in data science, digital architecture, and similar areas. In January 2020, for instance, the firm will be open its KPMG Lakehouse learning and innovation center in Florida
• Innovation. This will include developing new digital offerings, and building a “diversified ecosystem” of alliances and a global innovation network. KPMG already has 52 locations in its global innovation network.

More with Microsoft

KPMG also announced that it would be strengthening its relationship with Microsoft through a five-year agreement that will include using Microsoft Azure cloud computing services and Azure AI as the backbone of a new global, cloud-based platform.

Using that platform, KPMG aims to develop a set of cloud-based capabilities that will include solutions in AI, cyber and robotic process automation. The firm will also be equipping staff with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams.

“Together with KPMG, we’re accelerating digital transformation across industries by bringing the latest advances in cloud, AI and security to highly regulated workloads in tax, audit and advisory,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a statement. “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 organizations together to help customers around the world become more agile in an increasingly complex business environment.”

“Our alliance with Microsoft has become a critical component in helping us deliver industry-leading solutions and services to clients. Our significant multi-year investment continues to empower our people to work more efficiently and collaboratively while maximizing the power of a workforce that blends people and technology,” stated KPMG’s Bill Thomas. “By harnessing Microsoft’s intelligent and trusted cloud, we aim to help clients be at the forefront of change and better prepared for a digital-first future.”

The firm and the software company have a jointly funded incubator that is developing solutions and managed services around cloud business transformation, intelligent business applications and smart workplace solutions. These include new tools aimed at helping health care and life sciences organizations improve their clinical, operational and financial performance, and a risk management, compliance and internal audit tool that enables the digitization of risk and compliance processes in areas like finance, legal and IT.

KPMG previously launched KPMG Clara, a smart audit platform based on Microsoft Azure, in 2017.