Digital transformation of audit/assurance : how to interact and engage with clients in a digitalized manner.

Abstract

The Professional services industry such as audit and advisory services represents an important market within Luxembourg but also internationally. For many years, the companies called the big four have been the leaders of this wealthy sector. However, the competition is changing, with potential new entrants in the market that could provide services at cheaper prices. Companies such as PwC have to transform profoundly their client experience in order to remain at the top of the market. In this context, PwC Luxembourg has initiated a digital transformation program. For PwC Luxembourg the industry that delivers the highest revenue is the asset and wealth management, that is why it has been decided that the transformation program will start from there. This AWM transformation project is a global project that is done in partnership with PwC US.

In the context of the project thesis, we agreed with the company and my promoter on a plan to respond to the question: “How to interact and engage with clients in a digitalized manner, for an audit/assurance service”. This thesis aims at discovering ways to cooperate and communicate in a digitalized approach. We studied the market of technologies developed for asset and wealth management and the current positioning versus the repositioning of PwC. This thesis also explores the co-creation methodology used to develop products and services within the company. Finally, we researched on an adequate communication strategy for the project. To do so, we did some deep internet researches and literature review of the main concepts suited in the thesis. We organized qualitative interviews with experienced employees of the company, interviews with partners in charge of important clients and finally co-creation sessions with influential group of clients.

Our research tells us, that PwC occupies a great place in the digital transformation market, but it needs to communicate more about its new services and products. We learned that in the professional services industry it is difficult to change profoundly and rapidly the way of working, particularly given the size of the company, but companies like PwC need to transform their traditional way of interacting with clients if they want to stay at the top of the market.