Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC aggressive on providing technology services

Deloitte, EY (Ernst & Young), KPMG, and PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), the “big four” accounting firms, maintain a formidable presence in India, and it is expected to grow further in the future, thanks to their expansion into various domains and primarily into technology services.

The big four are best known for their accounting and audit services globally. However, with time, they have added several more services to their work.

These companies now provide professional services in domains like management consulting, corporate finance, legal services, etc. However, the most interesting addition to their portfolio has been technology services. To support this arm of their business, they have hired a lot of technology professionals from India.

Deloitte and EY have about 100,000 employees in India. This is 25 per cent of their global employee strength. PwC has around 50,000 employees on its rolls, and KPMG employs more than 40,000 people in India.

In the case of Deloitte and PwC, more than 50 per cent of their employees in India work in the technology services domain. For EY and KPMG, about a third of their employees in India work in technology services, the report said.

Most of the hiring for technology services happened in the past few years when there was an unprecedented rise in demand and a massive spending surge in global technology spending.

Expansion plans
Deloitte plans to add another 50,000 employees to support its technology services arm in the next three years, the newspaper reported. Their soaring interest in technology services has now placed these traditional accounting firms in direct competition against established IT services firms, which include both Indian and foreign names.

President of Deloitte South Asia, Satish Gopalaiah, was quoted in the report as saying, “Clients come to us saying they want to transform the organisation. They want us to tell them what their business plan should look like and how it can be implemented best. So, we work with these companies from end to end.”
Thus, the consulting team advises clients about the business plan, and the tech team helps with the systems that will add value to the business.

EY India is responsible for building the tech stack for EY centres in the Philippines, Australia, and other locations. EY India has 30,000 people in its tech team, and half of these are tech consultants. The firm has tripled its tech employees since the Covid-19 pandemic.
PwC has 17,500 dedicated technology resources working with Indian clients and another 10,000 employees that work to support international deliveries. PwC India opened three new offices last year, in Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, and Noida, to focus on hiring local, skilled talent, the report said. Business Standard