KPMG: Improving project delivery speed with access to SAP software knowledge using SAP Joule for Consultants
Helping consultants become smarter, faster
With the aim of delivering speedier, more-impactful client outcomes, KPMG firms are equipping their global SAP software consultants with generative AI. With the SAP Joule for Consultants solution, teams can access SAP’s most authoritative and current knowledge—reducing research time, accelerating project execution, and helping clients realize value sooner.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Professional services | Operating in 142 countries and territories | 275,000 employees (globally) |
SAP Global Lead Partner, KPMG in Germany
Quickly accessing up-to-date SAP software knowledge at scale
KPMG’s global network of member firms provides insight, advice, and analysis across the functional areas of audit, tax, and advisory to enable clients to tackle today’s most pressing challenges. KPMG firms also collaborate closely with an ecosystem of organizations, academic institutions, and leading companies, including SAP. As global SAP partners, KPMG firms field around 7,000 consultants specialized in SAP software who deliver industry-specific digital solutions and services that help clients become agile, data driven, and resilient.
It’s vital that these consultants have access to the most current implementation guidance, configuration methods, technical reference materials, and preferred practices across the SAP solution landscape. This applies not just to KPMG’s experienced professionals but also to junior consultants. Consultants must navigate complex system landscapes, from scoping and design to implementation, testing, and end-user support. In doing so, they have to align technical capabilities with customers’ business objectives while meeting tight timelines.
Hendrik Thörner, lead partner for SAP, KPMG in Germany, explains: “KPMG firms’ clients are faced with a wide array of topics in the market, such as economic challenges brought about by the global supply chain. On top of that, AI has really changed the game for them. We want to help generate value and execute a lasting and sustainable transformation with them. This involves challenging ourselves to make the best use of technology, knowledge, and training for our people.”
Just as clients are addressing how generative AI can transform their businesses, KPMG wanted to explore how the technology could be used to help keep member-firm consultants up to date with SAP software developments. Thörner says: “The traditional way of accessing SAP software knowledge involves working through documentation or relying on internal specialists. This can slow down delivery, especially for offshore teams. Our focus should be on what helps clients transform with SAP solutions in the midst of incredible business complexity. KPMG professionals want to answer their questions faster and concentrate on what’s important to them.”
SAP Global Lead Partner, KPMG in Germany
Helping teams work efficiently with generative AI
As longtime users of SAP solutions, KPMG firms embraced the opportunity to explore SAP Joule for Consultants through the Early Access Program.
The consulting tech solution, delivered through the Joule copilot, helps consultants, systems integrators, and IT personnel implement and maintain deployments of SAP software using generative AI to create tailored instructions. It provides access to SAP’s knowledge base of implementation data using natural language, reducing the need to sift through data manually.
Exploring SAP Joule for Consultants through the program made perfect sense for KPMG, where member firms have long used technology to enhance delivery of SAP software transformations. It also supported KPMG firms’ wider investments in strengthening their position as next-generation advisory providers.
KPMG saw that SAP Joule for Consultants could help streamline consulting workflows, helping make teams more efficient and allowing them to focus on higher-value work. The tech solution could help optimize service delivery by automating repetitive tasks that occur in every SAP software implementation. And it could also reduce potential technical barriers to adopting the vast amount of SAP software knowledge spread across different platforms, helping KPMG bring new professionals up to speed in much less time than needed in the past. This is especially relevant in a competitive market where skilled professionals are in high demand and technical innovation cycles are becoming ever shorter.
According to Thörner, “KPMG consultants need to research, provide documentation for, and answer clients’ questions. We believe that SAP Joule for Consultants can help us answer these questions faster and more on point. We want to give every SAP software consultant at KPMG access to generative AI so that they can use it in their daily work and excel in client projects.”
KPMG also used the SAP Business Data Cloud (SAP BDC) solution to bring together structured and unstructured data from both SAP software and third-party solutions.
Increasing the value of clients’ SAP software investments
KPMG firms have already experienced benefits from their early experiments with SAP Joule for Consultants. Instead of a manual search for the right set of information on different platforms, consultants can now access the information they need in the moment with just one prompt. The consulting tech solution helps accelerate client research by summarizing system documentation, best practices, and process insights. It streamlines the creation of deliverables such as transformation road maps, system documentation, and change-impact assessments.
Having embedded the solution into the consulting methodology for SAP software engagements, KPMG firms have improved their service quality by increasing consultants’ productivity, reducing errors, and deploying gold standards enriched by SAP’s leading practices. Clients can enjoy a more streamlined experience across different work streams and technical areas. They can also make faster decisions while benefiting from more-efficient and impactful business transformations that create true value.
Thörner elaborates: “SAP Joule for Consultants puts knowledge at our consultants’ fingertips. Clients want results, and we want to spend time on their transformation. Of course, you can ask other generative AI tools about SAP software, but the curated knowledge base behind the solution is incredibly important in providing quality for both clients and consultants.”
Of course, AI is only as good as the data behind it, which is where combining SAP Joule for Consultants with SAP BDC brings extra value. The solution bridges the gap between SAP and third-party data to enable smarter, more-relevant, and more-accurate insights. Thörner adds: “Generative AI can be incredibly powerful if it builds on the right datasets and is trained well. With SAP BDC, we’ve got an amazing tech solution in our hands to bring SAP and third-party data together and provide qualitative data that agents and generative AI solutions can work with.”
Harnessing the next generation of technology
KPMG continues to explore the potential of generative AI across the organization. For example, the global organization is developing strategies and running workshops to help it adopt a value-focused and trusted AI framework across member firms’ client service portfolio. In addition, it’s exploring new applications through SAP AppHaus, a co-innovative, collaborative space for customers and SAP’s teams.
KPMG is also looking at how AI can be used across member firms’ solution portfolio, such as by combining embedded AI, Joule, and innovations based on SAP Business Technology Platform. And it’s examining how AI can enrich internal and administrative operations as well as sales activities.
Thörner sums up the experience with SAP Joule for Consultants as follows: “KPMG firms want to be the next-generation advisors on clients’ transformation journeys. Right now, this starts with Joule.”