Grant Thornton in India launches a new service line – DigiTech to assist clients in embracing digital transformation

In 15 years since its inception, Grant Thornton in India (GT) has grown to over 3,000 people and has become a leader in serving mid- to large Indian companies that have global aspirations for both their compliance and advisory needs. Understanding the crucial role that technology is playing in today’s business environment, the Firm has now taken a step forward to assist its clients unlock the potential for growth through digital transformation. Grant Thornton has combined Digital Transformation, Technology (IT) & Analytics into a new DigiTech service line in India to complement its services in Audit, Tax, Risk Advisory and Growth Advisory.  

GT has invested in a new team of 65 consulting professionals with 5 dedicated partners. The team is expected to double its size before the end of FY 18. The DigiTech team is led by Mr. Debashis Basu, an industry veteran with past leadership roles across other Big firms in the US and in India.

Commenting on the launch of DigiTech,Vishesh C Chandiok, National Managing Partner, Grant Thornton India said, “The World of Business is currently both scary and a very exciting place at the same time. Words like Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Big Data, Advanced Analytics, Machine Learning, and Digital, are going through the journey from being considered slang to becoming the norm. Today, technology can be used to help solve every business problem, both for our clients and for Grant Thornton.

I am delighted that we now have a market leading Digital & Technology team at our Firm that can help us rapidly digitise our own offering and also help our clients in their Digital journey. DigiTech will also set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in India to create Sector Specific Repeatable Solutions, transform our own service delivery and create a Platform for real differentiation. Debashis is a charismatic leader and a rapid business builder- the ideal skills for success at our Firm. I have to say that we are clearly less scared and more excited about Digital than we were before Debashis and the team joined us.”

With enhanced Digital capabilities, GT in India has started helping real estate clients with Digitised RERA Compliance, CEOs with Digital KPI Dashboards, CMOs with Analytics to support their campaign optimisation and CIOs to manage the growing threat of a cyber-attack, whilst also helping GT enhance the use of ‘Bots’ to reduce its dependence on test checking and manual checking in audit and internal audit work.

On his new role as the National Leader for DigiTech at GT, Debashis Basu, Partner, Grant Thornton Advisory Private Limited commented, “Having spent time at some other Firms in the same industry, I can safely say the opportunity for GT in Digital is both massive and unique.GT clearly has the best resources with least conflicts and therefore has the ability to make a real difference. Similar to the way our Firm challenged the proposition of the Big firms in compliance and traditional Advisory and established itself in that space, Grant Thornton in India is now planning to do the same with an ambition to build a team of 500 people and touch INR 100 Cr in DigiTech revenues by 2020. This capability will be developed in key centres globally for use of our clients and our member firms over the years.”