KPMG and SAS join forces to enable cloud transformation at speed

KPMG and SAS have announced a strategic collaboration designed to support faster cloud transformation for SAS clients.

Together, the companies will establish Cloud Acceleration Centres, with a specific focus on North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

The idea is that the centres will be able to help companies on their journey to the cloud in a way that is both cost efficient and quick, and utilises relevant SAS infrastructure and solutions.

According to KPMG and SAS, the centres will be highly collaborative, tech-enabled environments that bring together multidisciplinary teams.

Specifically, they will help with everything from design and architecture through to implementation, and will look to support clients who have their own cloud environment as well as those who are employing other cloud-based managed services.

The centres will also provide access to cloud-based SAS infrastructure. According to the companies, with this infrastructure clients can use a number of cloud solutions and managed services for specific tasks.

This includes accounting change, anti-money laundering, continuous monitoring for procurement integrity and SAS Model Manager on SAS Viya.

On the whole, these solutions are designed to help clients derive better insights from their data to combat fraud and mitigate risk, while also building, managing, deploying and governing analytics and AI to ensure that models are understood and can be put into production at speed.

SAS chief technology officer and chief operating officer Oliver Schabenberger says, "An accelerated move to the cloud has become a necessity for many organisations; optimising and adapting business processes is a great opportunity to maximise the power of the cloud.

"SAS and KPMG continue to work together to help our mutual clients make the most of this transformation.

KPMG International global head of technology and knowledge Christian Rast says, "We're excited to be expanding our global alliance with SAS. With these centres, KPMG professionals can continue to help SAS clients to derive increased value from successfully moving to the cloud, as well as drive improved collaboration that will enhance the current solution portfolio.

"[This] already includes solutions such as Procurement Integrity and Anti-Money laundering compliance that have been particularly helpful for organisations during the current pandemic.

"Additional advanced compliance solutions that are helping clients to meet regulatory requirements with increased speed and accuracy will also be prioritised.

Globally, KPMG has a network of more than 400 practitioners to support SAS clients with cloud transformation. This latest announcement is in conjunction with Virtual SAS Global Forum 2020, the analytics conference that is being held virtually this year due to COVID-19.