“Us disrupting ourselves” — PwC Digital’s journey to 2020

“In contrast to peers such as EY, which held an entire analyst conference focused on, and organized around, its technology consulting capabilities, PwC structured each of its client stories around the central business challenge, with the technology solution presented as only part of the successful outcome. PwC placed considerably more emphasis on how it worked with clients’ C-Suite and line employees to identify and resolve key pain points and organizational issues, rather than leading with silver-bullet technology solutions that addressed clients’ specific RFPs.” TBR analysis, October 2018

While PwC Products fully coalesced into being over the last 12 to 18 months, the firm’s technology evolution started at least 10 years ago, with the Hallandale Experience Center perhaps the most critical catalyst in changing the firm’s overall approach to embedding technology into every engagement. Importantly, embedding technology did not mean, as noted above, focusing first on technology, even as the firm developed fully formed solutions. As PwC leaders reminded TBR, the firm developed the DoubleJump Health platform more than three years ago, building experience with a subscription-based software business model. In the last year, PwC enhanced collaboration among the eight digital factories and labs across the firm and took careful stock of the assets the firm had already developed and deployed with clients.

While previously PwC developed bespoke solutions within an industry or service line, with little collaboration across the firm, the recent shift included consolidation of the independent assets that had potential and a scrubbing of these old assets through a digital process pipeline. By putting the solutions through a rigorous vetting process with the goal, as explained by PwC, of determining which assets would meet consistency and quality standards as well as “make an impact,” the firm created a model for product innovation that could be implemented across all of PwC. As one PwC leader noted, “The assets were there. PwC Digital’s job was to put them together.” In addition to process, the firm also needed creativity and a willingness to disrupt itself, something TBR commented on in April 2019: “A PwC leader once challenged TBR to explain why the consulting business model seemed immune to the disruptions changing every other industry. The answer, and the disruption, are within his own building, and consultancies and IT services vendors not seeing it risk falling substantially behind.”

PwC Products: The $500M business built on BXT

“Is PwC now a software company or a technology-enabled consultancy with a global distribution channel for assets and managed services? We’re watching and waiting to see.” TBR analysis, October 2018

We have our answer. PwC is a business solution provider, and some of those solutions include products — tangible, defined assets that allow the firm to be, as the PwC leaders noted, “better, faster, and cheaper for clients.” Some of those assets will remain within the firm, scalable but deployed only to increase speed or efficiency in certain engagements. Some assets will remain with the client, paid for in full, through licensing or by subscription.

Taking AI further

EY’s “six habits” study provides detailed information and assessments of digital transformation leaders’ best practices as well as “actions for the boardroom,” such as “create a culture of continuous learning” and “embed innovation with corporate governance.” In previewing the study, TBR noted that the recommendations for boards to consider when accelerating AI — “assess the current state,” “integrate AI into core” and “measure AI benefits” — perfectly mirror EY’s own consulting offerings around AI. In discussing AI further, Higgins and Little explained that the firm has been applying AI when making its own financial forecasting and HR management decisions, providing additional insights into how different solutions could be rolled out to clients. Little made explicit that the firm would “build AI into every solution we have,” laying down a clear marker of the firm’s bet on emerging technologies. The firm has been trying to move away from the historical consulting and systems integration approach of putting many people on projects and would instead be adopting more agile sprint methodologies, automation and AI. A concerted effort to embed AI both internally and in every solution built for clients echoes TBR’s November 2019 Digital Transformation Insights Report: Emerging Technology, which noted that, “to capitalize on the cost savings generated by AI, vendors must shift their value proposition toward navigating clients’ technical and business change management obstacles to implement solutions, a strategy requiring continued investment in consulting expertise.”

Building better ecosystems

In discussing changes to the partnering ecosystem for all consultancies and IT services vendors, TBR has emphasized the need for re-evaluation and constant management of alliances, particularly as the technology vendors themselves change their own partnering models and go-to-market approaches. EY has stepped ahead of this change, recognizing the firm needed to evolve its traditional partner program into strategic ecosystem management.

In February EY released a new study on the “six habits of digital transformation leaders,” based on a survey of global CEOs and board members. TBR spoke with Jim Little, EY’s global Microsoft Alliance lead and EY Americas Technology Strategy lead, and Dan Higgins, EY’s global Technology Consulting leader, to gain additional insights and comments on the study, as well as to understand how the firm has shifted its internal operations and strategy around technology. TBR has attended multiple EY events in the last few years, including those geared specifically toward highlighting the firm’s technology practice. Based on those events and the March 2020 discussions with Little and Higgins, TBR believes EY has substantially changed its approach to technology consulting, from enabled to embedded and scalable, which will increasingly expand the firm’s opportunities with global clients, potentially at the expense of traditionally more technology-centric competitors, such as Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Deloitte. Little and Higgins explained that EY fully intended to embrace a new strategy around technology, with solutions designed for reach and scale, a brand seeking to move beyond trust, and an ecosystem managed to “create real outcomes” for clients.