EY unifies analytics capabilities into Global Analytics Center of Excellence

LONDON and NEW YORK, June 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Being able to analyze an ever-increasing volume and variety of information now sits at the top of the business agenda as organizations grapple with gaining real insights that help improve business performance and proactively manage risk. After an initial period, when big data was an optional extra for most businesses, data analytics is now widely accepted as a business imperative.  

However, most organizations have made only modest progress at a strategic level and have yet to develop a comprehensive framework for how to drive value. For this reason, EY has established a Global Analytics Center of Excellence (COE) and will commit to a US$500m, multiyear investment to deliver transformational change to clients by combining analytics with business acumen, domain and functional skills.

The details of this investment include:

• Deploying technologies, systems and processes that support sector and issue-based analytics solutions
• Acquiring talent in areas such as data sciences and advanced statistical modeling to complement EY's existing 3,500 analytics professionals
• Expanding EY's Analytics Research & Innovation team in India at the Kerala Innovation Center that includes 15 PhDs and more than 100 professionals with Master's degrees in various disciplines
• Building on EY's previous 10 acquisitions in the analytics space with additional acquisitions and alliances to significantly increase the organization's capability and access to market-leading IP

Chris Mazzei, EY Global Analytics COE leader and Global Chief Analytics Officer, says:
"For business leaders, analytics is no longer just a technology issue, it is a strategy and operational issue. Big data and analytics is a disruptive innovation that is transforming our everyday lives. Enterprises need a holistic plan for creating competitive advantage, identifying opportunities and ultimately measuring value. We are seeing the emergence of the chief analytics officer as more of a senior-level change agent, with a unique combination of skills in business, mathematics and technology."

Carmine Di Sibio, EY's Global Managing Partner – Client Services, says:
"We believe that there is tremendous value to be gained by those organizations that leverage analytics to transform their business processes and how they make decisions. This is why we established a dedicated EY Global Analytics COE and are committing US$500m to our analytics capabilities and the benefits they will deliver to our clients."

EY has imbedded analytics into all of its service lines and is growing discrete analytics offerings. Those offerings complement EY's innovation strategy services and its full breadth of digital capabilities. By taking an enterprise approach to analytics, all clients can benefit from EY's domain and industry sector approach to business analytics.

Recent examples of how EY has helped clients use analytics to deliver transformational change include:

• A consumer products company was able to identify favorable market trends, as well as product enhancement and operational improvement opportunities with respect to a potential acquisition target through the use of social media analytics.
• A retailer redesigned internal controls to combat the risk of fraud following testing and analysis that showed manual sales transactions were at higher risk and were not subject to the same level of internal control as system-generated transactions.
• A global wealth and asset management company was able to significantly increase the accuracy and robustness of its regulatory risk self-assessments through the application of unstructured/text analytics.
• A municipality used advanced analytics to improve debt collections and reduce backlog of unpaid fines that totaled billions of dollars.
• A telecommunications provider that developed and implemented a customer segmentation model to drive improvements in customer communications, interactions and deliver incremental revenue to the business.
• A retail and consumer product company was able to utilize network optimization and decision support models to minimize their supply chain cost-to-serve. This implementation also informed the client about changes to distribution arrangements, enabling win-win outcomes for other partners in the value chain.
• A health care organization transformed its data management processes and systems to support analytics that are used across Finance, HR and Clinical Care.

Norman Lonergan, EY's Global Vice Chair – Advisory Services, says: 
"EY's approach to analytics is centered on delivering business value. We step back to ask the right business questions before worrying about what data is needed or what type of analytics need to be performed. We then bring the needed domain skills in areas such as fraud, risk, finance, customer, supply chain, HR, tax and transactions."

To view an infographic on how to rewire companies to use big data for success, please go to "Rewiring how companies use analytics."

Notes to editors

About EY 
EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

This news release has been issued by EYGM Limited, a member of the global EY organization that also does not provide any services to clients.

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SOURCE EY