IBM case study

A beautiful new relationship with IBM

The introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley led to opportunities as well as constraints for professional services firms. In KPMG's case, it led to an opening to build a global Transaction Services relationship with IBM. We were asked to showcase our talent on a relatively small deal and performed so well we were immediately offered another deal. We are now IBM's preferred provider of due diligence services globally.

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A pragmatic, business-minded approach

In approaching this engagement we decided that our Sydney office would perform all the work but that our New York office would oversee the engagement and the reporting in order to build the relationship with IBM's corporate office. We saw this as important given that they would be the source of future potential work. We took a business rather than just an accountant's approach to the work, aiming for a pragmatic, highly-succinct report. After a week of onsite due diligence work in Australia and close co-operation between the U.S. and Australian firms, we delivered our report. IBM were so impressed with the quality of our work that they saw an opportunity to upgrade the quality of their overall due diligence. However, naturally enough, they wanted to make sure our success had not been a one-off. They therefore asked us to perform due diligence on another transaction, this time in California. Suffice to say, we again delivered a top-class engagement, establishing ourselves as IBM's future preferred provider of all due diligence services.

Derek, partner-in-charge of Transactions Services in the Mid-atlantic region of the U.S., is the Transaction Services global lead partner on IBM and has played a key role in building the relationship. His career demonstrates just how fast a career in KPMG can take off. After starting with KPMG in 1991 as an audit associate in the Guildford, U.K. office, he took the opportunity just three years later of an international assignment to our recently established office in Prague, Czech Republic. Here, he worked in the German practice, mainly helping foreign companies acquire businesses in the newly opened markets of Eastern Europe. In 1996 he relocated to New York, U.S. to help found the firm's U.S. Transaction Services practice, helping it to grow to a national practice of now 600 professionals.