{"id":99250,"date":"2017-12-05T14:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T19:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techvibes.com\/?p=99250"},"modified":"2017-12-05T19:05:17","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T00:05:17","slug":"pwc-opens-digital-accelerator-in-toronto","status":"publish","type":"magazine","link":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/magazine\/pwc-opens-digital-accelerator-in-toronto","title":{"rendered":"PwC Opens Digital Accelerator in Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

PwC Canada is looking to lead its clients through business transformation in its new Toronto innovation hub called the Digital Experience Centre.<\/p>\n

On the 19th floor of the accounting giant\u2019s Toronto tower, a newly opened 8,000-square-foot centre is where PwC will meet with clients to understand their toughest business problems and solve them through a human-centred approach.<\/p>\n

The firm is tackling these problems with the\u00a0latest technology including VR, machine learning, IoT and robotics, and by collaborating experts in those\u00a0disciplines.<\/p>\n

\u201cPwC has always done the business and the technology piece, but globally there\u2019s been a big push to go digital,\u201d said Nadir Hirji, digital services partner and co-lead at PwC Canada. \u201cThis space is a year and a half in the making\u2026 We had our clients asking for it and our own employees demanding to work differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Digital Experience Centre is triple the size of the firm\u2019s former innovation space. Joining Ottawa, the Toronto\u00a0accelerator is the second of its kind in Canada and adds to a global network of 35 similar spaces. The open work environment includes both private meeting rooms and long banquet tables.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a space like this is important, but it is more about what happens,\u201d Hirji said. \u201cClients are in here co-creating the future with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hirji said more than $1 trillion will be spent globally on digital transformation in the next year, and that a majority of those initiatives will fail. PwC\u2019s Digital Experience Centre gives clients an opportunity to fail fast while bringing together experts to apply a digital lens and customer-centric approach to a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re helping clients be more competitive\u2026 And their transformation is powered by technology. No matter what business you are in, people\u2019s expectations have changed dramatically,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While they can\u2019t name names, Hirji said PwC Canada\u2019s digital services team is currently working on blockchain pilots with banks.<\/p>\n

PwC brought on Jon Finkelstein as the executive creative director for its digital services team, who works with clients to get them to think differently about the problems they\u2019re hoping to tackle.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur clients know about IoT and blockchain, but they don\u2019t know what to do with it. We show them how to use it,\u201d said Finkelstein. \u201cWe\u2019re not into props. It\u2019s not cool for cool sake. It is fundamentally changing how people do business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finkelstein spoke about how they\u2019ve worked with the federal government on a roadmap to modernization. He said PwC developed a playbook that gave the government a way forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIdeas are easy, but implementation is hard. We don\u2019t hand off a project. We\u2019ll work with a client from strategy to execution,\u201d Finkelstein said. \u201cThey need to have guidance to how to take a technology and apply it to what they are doing. A lot of clients will come to us because they can\u2019t figure it out on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Digital
The Microsoft HoloLens is one of the technology products PwC is harnessing to digitally push organizations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The firm is currently working on a proof of concept for AR use with police services in Ontario. In a demonstration at the centre, PwC showed how a police officer could wear a HoloLens in a crime scene scenario, allowing them to collaborate in real-time with a remote forensics team through video chat. The wearable headset can take 360 images of a room or scene to document evidence too.<\/p>\n

Beyond AR and drones, PwC is collaborating with a global retailer to figure out how they need to align their processes and prices to stay competitive\u2014a reality that\u2019s become pressing due to the growth of e-commerce shopping channels. The Amazon effect has extended to\u00a0power and energy too as Hirji said PwC is working with major utility companies in Canada to personalize their\u00a0services.<\/p>\n

Overseas, PwC has undertaken drone-powered solutions for monitoring construction projects in the U.K. and existing infrastructure in Poland. They created software that can map data gathered by drones, using the unmanned devices to track the progress on new infrastructure projects and detect damage in aging dams and bridges.<\/p>\n

While Ireland\u00a0is the firm’s designated blockchain hub and London serves as PwC’s drone hub, Hirji said he sees Toronto becoming an AI hub for the firm, leveraging the city’s growing global presence and local expertise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PwC Canada is looking to lead its clients through business transformation in its new Toronto innovation hub called the Digital Experience Centre. On the 19th floor of the accounting giant\u2019s Toronto tower, a newly opened 8,000-square-foot centre is where PwC will meet with clients to understand their toughest business problems and solve them through a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76241,"featured_media":99259,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[154,627,2328,454,21],"magazine-region":[],"magazine-series":[],"magazine-topic":[],"class_list":["post-99250","magazine","type-magazine","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-News","tag-ai","tag-blockchain","tag-digital-experience-centre","tag-pwc","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine\/99250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/magazine"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/76241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine\/99250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/99259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99250"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine-region?post=99250"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine-series?post=99250"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=99250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}