Making the difference: Ian West, Head of Technology, Media and Telecommunications, talks to us about helping clients make sense of emerging technologies and finding a faster path to tech-enabled transformation.

We met Ian West at KPMG’s Canary Wharf offices in London. In this interview Ian talks about understanding emerging technologies and how they can underpin the success of your digital transformation.

It can differ by client and by sector, but the idea of transformation has really shifted from a series of projects and sprints to one of continuous change. It’s not a destination, but a journey. Time and again organisations who embrace transformation with an agile mindset out compete. Alongside mindset shift there has been an exponential growth in access to technologies that can accelerate transformation.

It’s hard to think of a more complex time in history. We are experiencing political disruption, new regulations, energy challenges across the globe, and challenges to supply chain resilience. All of these issues have the knock-on effect to consumers who are living through a cost-of-living crisis. These issues are all driving transformation projects across many organisations.

Our clients also recognise an increasing need to transform their business to be more sustainable while managing the impact of climate change on their businesses. ESG-led organisations are better able to recruit the best talent and access better capital, both of which can be dramatically improved when you have a measurable ESG strategy in place.

Finally, of course, there is the impact of new technologies entering the market. If a new piece of technology can help drive productivity or efficiency, then those that don’t adapt and adopt can get left behind.

I have worked for KPMG in the UK for 21 years, 10 of which as partner, and in that time, I’ve spoken to many leaders who have transformation horror stories. Organisations can fail to understand the connections across their business because they’re not asked the right questions up front, or even at all. Questions like, ‘How will the implementation of a new finance technology impact our HR or marketing function?’ and ‘What unintentional consequences may occur as a result of ‘switching off’ legacy technology?’

Furthermore, good news tends to travel swiftly but bad news less so. Such is the issue with transformational program problems failing to reach leadership in good time, to put in place the right level of remedial action.

Other times organisations bring on a great new piece of technology that offers so much upside, but the end users aren’t engaged or trained to make the most of it, so it never reaches its full potential. Quite often too, organisations may have under appreciated the complexity and time it can take to deliver a tech-enabled transformation, so the time and costs can spiral.

There are four very good reasons why our clients choose to work with us on tech-enabled transformation.

Firstly, there is the element of trusted expertise. There are thousands of technology experts across the KPMG global network of firms who can help clients make sense of how technology can drive commercial improvements. Companies know that they need to do something different, but how? They read about emerging tech, the metaverse, web 3.0, quantum computing, edge computing, 5G and the Internet of Things, and so on. They come to us to make sense of this cacophony of noise.

Then there’s the power of KPMG’s multi-disciplinary approach. We’re able to bring together sector experts, technologists, risk and delivery experts and when needed, technology partners. This means that clients can rest assured that the transformation has a team of experts bringing unique insight to the programme.

Thirdly, over a number of years, KPMG firms have developed an eco-system of Alliances with many of the world’s leading tech companies. The benefit for our clients is that we objectively identify the right technology solution for their organisation’s specific needs.

Finally, I would say that the defined operating models and implementation processes we’ve developed through solutions such as KPMG’s Connected, Powered and Trusted suite are tried and tested.

“When we work with clients on a transformation, they trust that we can help to mitigate risk and accelerate the delivery.”

We help you be the disruptor not the disrupted, guiding you on the latest technologies to innovate at speed and power your digital transformation.