KPMG offers corporations IT transformation: consulting and implementation; Firm transforms IT function to increase ROI on corporate IT investments

Business Wire, June 25, 1996

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 25, 1996--KPMG today announced a new practice that offers a set of services aimed at improving the performance of the IT function within corporations to achieve bottom-line benefits. The new practice, World-Class Information Technology (WCIT), joins KPMG's family of transformation consulting practices -- for human resources, sales and marketing, supply chain, and finance -- that provide clients end-to-end enterprise business solutions.

Organizations have invested billions of dollars in IT purchases, training and development in recent years. As a result, IT has become a target for realignment as senior management attempts to justify IT expenditures with return on investment figures.

"Our goal is to deliver services that positively and quickly impact the way a company operates, in the IT function and across the enterprise, by providing in-depth industry knowledge and consulting experience," said Allan Frank, the firm's chief technology officer. "WCIT delivers the ability to measure the return on IT investments and ensures continuous improvement of the IT function, enabling businesses to use technology effectively to meet overall corporate objectives."

End-to-end IT transformation: assessment to implementation

According to Ken Coppins, partner in charge of WCIT, the services offer organizations an end-to-end IT transformation. Some of the WCIT services include:

-- Initial assessment and benchmarking to map out the efficiencies and inefficiencies of existing enterprise IT architectures and practices.

-- Comprehensive consulting and systems integration to quickly implement transformation of the IT function, and other processes and technologies across the enterprise as necessary.

-- Recommendations for continuous improvement on the transformed business operations based on the initial IT benchmark assessment.

KPMG has built its WCIT service on the core business, technology and benchmarking experience of its consultants -- to date, KPMG has benchmarked the IT function in hundreds of organizations around the world. WCIT offers organizations the planning and implementation to position the IT function for the future. Coppins also said the service is targeted to large, multinational organizations with multiple sites and complex existing infrastructures, as well as to fast-growth organizations building IT architectures to meet their expanding needs.

(Please see attached fact sheet for additional specifics on WCIT offerings.)

About KPMG

KPMG's Strategic Services Consulting applies knowledge in operations improvement and enabling technologies to help clients improve business performance. It focuses on delivering measurable operational improvement of time, cost and quality in clients' business operations.

KPMG Peat Marwick LLP is the U.S. member firm of KPMG, the Global Leader among professional services firms. Worldwide, KPMG has more than 6,000 partners as well as 67,000 professionals servicing clients through 1,100 offices in 837 cities in 134 countries. In the U.S., KPMG partners and professionals deliver a wide range of value-added consulting, assurance and tax services in five markets: financial services; manufacturing, retailing and distribution; health care and life sciences; information, communications and entertainment; and public services. -0- World-Class IT Fact Sheet

Market overview:

Companies are looking for new ways to measure their IT costs, and ensure IT goals and investments are aligned with overall business objectives. For years, these companies have been investing billions of dollars in information technology, including technology purchases, training and development. Within corporations, senior-level management is discovering IT expenditures are difficult to measure and justify with return on investment figures.

World-Class IT: Aligning technology and business goals

KPMG believes the state of World-Class IT provides for an efficient and effective IT organization, and marries technology with strategic business objectives. Consisting of IT reengineering and functional transformation, WCIT focuses on immediate and continuous improvement of the overall performance of IT organizations. World-Class IT core service offerings include:

-- IT Assessment: assessing a company's IT function as it relates to the needs of the organization. End-to-end assessment of a client's IT organization includes benchmarks of all component functions. As part of this assessment, KPMG helps determine whether a company's IT components are effective, efficient, and focused on the right business objectives.

-- Benchmarking: benchmarking cost efficiency and effectiveness of IT with comprehensive tools to measure business operation, process, and human change factors, and compare those to comparable IT organizations.

-- IT Transformation: translating assessment and benchmarking results into actionable transformation plans for achieving World-Class status, by offering the implementation and assistance required to restructure, align, measure and improve overall IT performance.