Microsoft and KPMG in Singapore (KPMG) have partnered under the KPMG Digital Village program to co-develop Internet of Things solutions for businesses.
The collaboration in Singapore mirrors the global Microsoft and KPMG relationship that is driven by a shared certainty that clients are looking for business partners with solutions and services that combine the best in leading-edge technology, industry insight and innovative thinking.
Lyon Poh, Head of Digital + Innovation, KPMG in Singapore, said: “Today, most organizations operate as ‘service-based’ businesses that are powered by people. In the near future, we envision businesses transitioning towards being ‘asset-based’, powered by technology and intelligent solutions such as IoT, Blockchain technologies and telematics.”
Andreas Hartl, General Manager, Cloud and Enterprise Division, Microsoft Asia Pacific shared: “The convergence of connectivity, cloud and mobile technologies is creating a shift in how companies need to operate. Microsoft research in Asia shows that 57 percent of business leaders still feel that they lag behind in digital strategies. However, 55 percent of business leaders in Asia today are prioritizing IoT in the next 12 to 18 months. This partnership with KPMG in Singapore will enable us to provide proof of concepts to accelerate adoption of important solutions like IoT and leverage insights strategically in a way that will empower every individual and every organization to achieve more.”
Leveraging HealthTech to fight the war on diabetes
The first outcome of this partnership is a prototype of an IoT-enabled lifestyle management solution to help KPMG and Microsoft’s corporate clients deliver patient-centric solutions to their end-customers. Specifically, this solution combines the use of a wearable device, connected weighing machine and a customized app.
It aims to help corporates such as insurers and healthcare providers empower people at high-risk for diabetes, pre-diabetics and newly-diagnosed diabetics to monitor and manage their lifestyle in order to prevent or manage the progression of the disease.
This solution was inspired by Singapore’s Ministry of Health’s declaration of a ‘war on diabetes’ earlier in April this year, which highlighted that one in three diabetics who are diagnosed have poor control over their condition, and 12 percent of our population suffers from pre-diabetes.
Built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service platform, this solution differentiates itself by incorporating the Asian diet, lifestyle and culture. An example of Asian-centricity is how the app enables the family to get involved by monitoring and motivating the individual, thus making the management of diabetes a family affair.
Looking ahead, subsequent iterations of the solution will include additional features such as fraud detection. Completely built in-house, this commercially viable solution is the outcome of Digital Village’s multi-disciplinary team of digital strategists, customer experience specialists, data scientists and designers.
“Microsoft and KPMG collaborated to develop a solution that is scalable but yet easily pivoted to the specific needs of our clients. The result is a solution that can help our corporate clients drive top-line growth or reduce operational costs. If you’re an insurance company, this solution could help you reduce claim costs or enable a new business model such as behavior-based insurance. If you’re a healthcare provider, it enables you to provide additional value-added services to patients,” said Lyon.
“We believe in providing a ready and intelligent platform, and pre-configured services to customize from, so businesses can accelerate their IoT journey. The solution we have collaborated to develop is an apt example of this. It presents the ability for companies to get started quickly, customize as per their objectives and gain insights from customer data for action,” shared Hartl.