CIO

Deloitte acquires Kiwi Salesforce specialists CloudinIT

This is the latest in a series of moves in the digital space over recent years that, taken together, make Deloitte one of the largest digital advisory firms in New Zealand, says Deloitte CEO Thomas Pippos
Deloitte chief executive Thomas Pippos

Deloitte chief executive Thomas Pippos

Deloitte is expanding its Salesforce offerings, with the team from CloudinIT joining the professional services firm from February 2019. 

Deloitte chief executive Thomas Pippos says the move follows the recent launch of Deloitte Digital in New Zealand.

“Clients have increasingly told us that some of their biggest challenges are getting the basics of digital right, and this includes having a single view of their customers. The Salesforce capability that the CloudinIT team brings to Deloitte Digital gives us even more expertise to support clients in these efforts,” says Pippos.

“This is the latest in a series of moves in the digital space over recent years that, taken together, make Deloitte one of the largest digital advisory firms in New Zealand.” 

CloudinIT is a professional services firm that helps customers implement Salesforce and Amazon Web Services systems.

We both believe digital transformation is a catalyst for changing traditional business, using modern solutions to solve conventional problems with the needs of customers front and centre

Raymond Yong, CloudinIT

CloudinIT co-owners Raymond Yong, Jacob Taljaard and Ben Edwards will become Deloitte partners, and their team will join Deloitte Digital in Auckland. 

Yong says the merger is an exciting opportunity for both firms.

“By joining forces we can help even more organisations adopt cloud technologies and put their customers at the heart of their digital agendas,” says Yong. 

Through this acquisition we gain the best of Deloitte and retain the best of CloudinIT, Yong tells CIO New Zealand. 

“The knowledge pool, client base, development and growth opportunities are immense, but we get to maintain our own culture and applauded client service model with the three directors, Ben, Jacob and myself, remaining at the helm of the business.”

He says fundamental to the acquisition is a shared prioritisation and approach to digital transformation.

“We both believe digital transformation is a catalyst for changing traditional business, using modern solutions to solve conventional problems with the needs of customers front and centre,” says Yong.

“Success lies in a commitment to deep change that is collaborative, cross-functional, embraced as part of the organisation’s culture and embedded in business planning,” says Yong. “This will make an impact that matters in digital and this is our focus in the future.”

‘Play the long game’

Grant Frear, head of Deloitte Digital in New Zealand, meanwhile, lists five key practices that organisations can employ to achieve digital maturity.

These were taken from a recent Deloitte study of global digital business, undertaken in collaboration with the MIT Sloan Management Review.

Implementing systemic changes in how they organise and develop workforces, spur workplace innovation, and cultivate digitally minded cultures and experiences: For example, digitally mature companies say they are increasingly organised around cross-functional teams. This fundamental shift in the way work is done has significant implications for organisational behavior, corporate culture, talent recruitment, and leadership tactics.

Playing the long game: Digitally mature companies’ strategic planning horizons are consistently longer than those of less digitally mature organisations, looking out five years or more. Their digital strategies focus on both technology and core business capabilities. Linking digital strategies to a company’s core business and focusing on organisational change and flexibility enables companies to adjust to rapidly changing digital environments.

Scaling small digital experiments into enterprise-wide initiatives that have business impact: At digitally mature entities, small “i” innovations or experiments typically lead to more big “I” innovations than at other organisations. Digitally mature organisations are more than twice as likely as companies are at the early stages of digital development to drive both small, iterative experiments and enterprise-wide initiatives. Digitally mature organisations are also shrewd and disciplined in figuring out how to fund these endeavors and keep them from languishing in the face of more immediate investment needs.

Becoming talent magnets. Employees and executives are highly inclined to jump ship if they feel they don’t have opportunities to develop digital skills. Digitally mature organisations typically understand the need for, and place a premium on, attracting and developing digital talent. Their development efforts often go far beyond traditional training. These businesses create compelling environments for achieving career growth ambitions while acquiring digital skills and experience, which make employees want to stay.

Securing leaders with the vision necessary to lead a digital strategy, and a willingness to commit resources to achieve this vision. These leaders are more likely to have articulated a compelling ambition for what their digital businesses can be and define digital initiatives as core components to achieving their business strategy.

At digitally mature entities, small ‘i’ innovations or experiments typically lead to more big ‘I’ innovations than at other organisations

Grant Frear, Deloitte Digital

These practices can serve as a roadmap that all companies can follow, says Frear, in a recent blog.

“None of these practices involve a sole focus on developing the next killer app, making the next big technological breakthrough or replacing the workforce with robots,” says Frear.

“They are, in some respects, more mundane and related to long held business fundamentals," he adds.

"Digital allows us to tackle the fundamentals of business with a new set of tools and at times a new set of rules. Strategy, design, technology and culture are the key ingredients to making an impact that matters through digital.”

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