KPMG and Imperial College London form £20 million partnership

KPMG is investing over £20m to partner with Imperial College London on a new KPMG Centre for Advanced Business Analytics, with the aim of putting the UK at the forefront of data science.

The project’s five key areas of focus will be: analysis of business capital, growth opportunities, people, operations and resilience.

Each area has been selected to help UK businesses gain a competitive edge by launching products and services ahead of international competitors.

The new centre will also develop innovative approaches, analytical methods and tools for using big data, giving UK businesses the opportunity to solve complex issues, such as enabling banks to predict fraud or helping retailers better understand consumer behaviour.

The eight-year plan aims to complete 15-20 projects per year.

The centre will be led by researchers at Imperial College Business School as part of the College’s Data Science Institute, which is developing new data science methods and technologies.

“The fact is that one in five of the UK’s largest companies now measure the value of corporate data on their balance sheets. Businesses realise that finding better ways of analysing data is the key to unlocking its profitability and we hope to help them unleash new waves of productivity, growth and innovation,” said Alwin Magimay, KPMG UK head of digital and analytics.

“We are still at the silent movie era with respect to evolution of big data, and together with Imperial, we will break new ground with a simple objective of generating new insights to create new business value for our clients,” Magimay added.

As part of the launch, KPMG and Imperial are unveiling a number of initiatives - the first of which is a Global Data Observatory. Formed to bring large and complex amounts of data together with data visualisation capabilities, it will allow researchers to spot patterns and get real insights into complex business issues.

“More data has been created in the last two years than in the rest of history. That’s amazing, but we can all drown in data unless we know what to do with it,” said Simon Collins, KPMG UK Chairman. “Our collaboration with Imperial is about developing the people and skills to use that data to drive new industries and new services. It is immensely exciting for the UK economy and we are very proud to be leading in this crucial area.”

“For businesses to compete in a globalised economy, they need a full understanding of markets, customers, products, regulations, competitors, employees and much more. The effective use of information and analytics is key to this in order for companies to develop, grow and innovate,” said Professor G ‘Anand’ Anandalingam, Dean of Imperial College Business School.

“Today’s datasets are so big and complex to process that they require new ideas, tools and infrastructures. The KPMG Centre for Advanced Business Analytics aims to address these challenges by looking at how we can translate complicated information and turn it into potential solutions,” added Anandalingam.

Image courtesy Solvency II Wire under CC.