KPMG Australia has announced its acquisition of Hands-on Systems, adding powerful execution capability to its technology-based transformation services. The acquisition strengthens KPMG’s global alliance with Microsoft, with KPMG today also being announced as a Gold competency partner for Microsoft Dynamics in Australia.

The deal follows the €26 million acquisition of international IT company, Crimsonwing, in February this year jointly by KPMG’s UK, Netherlands and Malta member firms. KPMG Crimsonwing is now the largest ‘big 4’ provider of Microsoft Dynamics consulting and implementation services in Europe.

“Today marks a further strategic step in KPMG’s growth agenda, with the added benefit of deepening our strategic alliance with Microsoft,” said KPMG Australia CEO, Gary Wingrove.

“KPMG has traditionally consulted on the strategy side of transformation programs, with implementation being delivered by third parties. However clients with an eye to the future are looking for multi-disciplinary business partners. Hands-on Systems’ capabilities considerably enhance our systems integration, implementation and overall technology enablement capability. We can now provide end-to-end technology transformation services which, more and more, is what clients want,” said Mr Wingrove.

Hands-on Systems is a multi-award winning IT business specialising in Microsoft solutions. The company is one of Microsoft’s top global partners and is a complete Microsoft Dynamics enterprise resource planning (AX, NAV) and customer relationship management (CRM) solution provider. It is one of only 12 members of the Global Microsoft ERP Partner Advisory Council, providing clients with direct input into Microsoft product direction.

Established in 1985, the Hands-on Systems’ team of around 80 people will join KPMG’s Technology Enablement business and be known as KPMG Hands-on Systems. The business sets up, maintains and supports infrastructure hardware and software for more than 10,000 Microsoft Dynamics users throughout Australia including Harvey Norman, Komatsu and Harris Farm Markets.

“We’ve been a successful business for more than two decades, providing quality Microsoft solutions that give businesses greater control and visibility of their performance, allowing them to make more informed decisions, drive down costs and grow with new technology. The chance to join a world class organisation like KPMG gives us an unprecedented opportunity to expand while still staying inside the Microsoft Partner Network,” said John Munnelly, CEO of Hands-on Systems.

Commercial terms were not disclosed.

Internally, the firm has selected Dynamics to rollout to its own 5000 employees across Australia to help drive sales productivity and marketing effectiveness. ”We went through an extensive and competitive process and Dynamics came out on top through its ability to harness social insights and business intelligence and deliver a highly connected enterprise sales model. It gives us a 360 degree view of our customers in a way that benefits all parties,” added Mr Wingrove.

With KPMG’s commitment to Dynamics as a Partner and now as a customer, Microsoft has invested a full time solution architect onsite at KPMG Australia in Sydney to help the firm leverage the Microsoft Dynamics suite to clients.

Pip Marlow, Managing Director of Microsoft Australia welcomed the new partnership.

“They say you are judged by the company you keep, so we are delighted to be in the company of such a great partner in KPMG. The deep collaboration between the two companies, backed by the investment in Hands-on Systems, adds immeasurably to the Microsoft family and can only help in delivering benefits to our customers,” said Ms Marlow.

“This is also one of our largest Dynamics CRM Online deals to date in Australia and is a testament to the power of our solutions, the reliability of our trusted cloud and the creativity of our people,” she added.

In March this year, KPMG announced a global strategic collaboration with Microsoft to jointly develop and deliver new suites of innovative solutions and services to help clients address their most critical risk, performance and growth issues.

The collaboration, based on Microsoft’s Azure, Dynamics and data platforms, allows Microsoft and KPMG member firms to work together to develop and deploy solutions and services that will help address the disruptive challenges topping board agendas today. These include realising the business potential of one global, scalable platform which can deliver cloud-based solutions for Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Data & Analytics, which collectively help transform businesses while maintaining regulatory and compliance requirements.