Clients first—providing what they need

Seams make the strongest fabrics weaker, create friction for moving objects, and draw unwanted attention.

In professional services, the ability to serve clients seamlessly in multiple countries or functions has become a necessity. "Today's marketplace demands truly borderless behavior," says Roger Dassen, Deloitte Global Managing Director of Clients, Services, and Talent. "Our largest and most global clients choose Deloitte because of our network’s ability to deliver both in terms of depth and breadth."

With a coordinated network of 47 member firms operating in more than 150 countries and territories—supplemented by centers of excellence and global delivery centers—Deloitte is positioned to serve clients seamlessly, adeptly, and professionally around the world. "Clients expect and deserve continuity," Dassen says. "We differentiate ourselves by providing deep industry insights and local market expertise, with the added benefit of an entire network of more than 210,000 professionals ready to solve complex problems, manage risk, and streamline processes wherever and whenever the client demands."

A regional approach to service

Longtime client Cisco Systems recently engaged Deloitte to improve service delivery in Latin America. A cross-functional Deloitte team came together across borders to hold service delivery assessments and workshops with Cisco in pilot countries to identify improvements to its finance, statutory, and tax reporting processes. The teams developed an action plan to implement an operating model that increases visibility into activities, lowers costs, and improves efficiency and effectiveness across the region.

"By tackling this on a regional, rather than country-by-country basis, we greatly increased client satisfaction and positioned Deloitte as not just a vendor, but also a proactive teammate committed to Cisco's success in the region," says Gary Lord, Principal, Audit & Enterprise Risk Services, Deloitte & Touche LLP (Deloitte U.S.). "We conducted work sessions in four Latin American countries, with Deloitte teams working side-by-side with Cisco teams to identify process improvements. This approach showed our commitment and greatly enhanced our relationship with the client."

"We were impressed with how the Deloitte team seamlessly connected to serve us as a region. No other service provider has made this kind of an investment with us in Latin America," says David Sweet, project leader for Cisco.

Meeting high expectations

The opportunity for Lenovo, the world's largest personal computer maker, existed in its mobile device business. In January 2014, Lenovo announced the acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google, making Lenovo the largest smartphone supplier in China and one of the top three in the world.

Deloitte was selected as the financial and tax advisor to Lenovo on the acquisition transaction, the largest ever for Lenovo. The engagement required an extensive and diverse team representing Deloitte member firms from China, the U.S., and Brazil. "The work entailed intense negotiations and around-the-clock work under challenging conditions. On top of that, we needed to complete it within a short timeframe," says Gary Wu, FAS Partner, Deloitte China (Beijing). "The close and seamless collaboration among our multifunctional country teams was the key to meeting Lenovo's high expectations in such a challenging transaction."

Leading with technology

Deloitte's technical knowledge and professional insight has positioned it among the world's most respected tax advisors. Tax & Legal sees an opportunity to differentiate itself, though, through technology that connects clients and member firm tax professionals to tools, processes, data, knowledge, and each other. "The tax profession is becoming more tech-enabled. We want to lead that transformation," says Dan Lange, Deloitte Global Tax & Legal Leader.

A new tool that embodies this commitment is Deloitte tax@hand, a sleek, customizable mobile app that aggregates news and information about tax jurisdictions across the globe. Available on mobile, tablet, and desktop devices, the app provides relevant news, tax information, and contacts. Deloitte tax@hand is integrated with social media, can be personalized by selected geographical and topical areas of interest, and includes multilingual capabilities. A phased rollout of the app began with its soft launch in September 2014.

"We have developed an app that mirrors the insights Deloitte delivers to clients every day, offers unique value, and creates engagement with clients worldwide in a personalized manner," explains Paul Riley, Tax National Managing Partner, Deloitte Australia. "Deloitte is the only one of the Big Four to offer clients this highly accessible, consolidated, global view."

The tax@hand app is the latest tool in a growing list of tech-enabled services offered by Deloitte member firms. It joins Deloitte Tax Insight (DTi), a proprietary tax-management system that lets businesses manage their global tax commitments through a single system with transparency and visibility across jurisdictions. Deloitte Revatic Smart technology, used by Deloitte's indirect tax recovery service, automates data flows and processing of value-added tax (VAT) refunds for companies. And Tax Data Analytics Smart ^Lite technology helps clients establish key performance predictors to make timely, more-informed decisions. "These innovations and others like them strengthen our ability to be a seamless global service provider and make Deloitte a clear leader in the digital space," Riley says.

In this report, the terms Deloitte, our, we, and us are used to refer to the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) network of member firms or to one or more DTTL member firms. See additional information. 

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