July 8, 2019
Grant Thornton collaborates with Hitachi Solutions and Microsoft to turn information into intelligence
Channelnomics Staff
The Chicago-based firm plans to leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to help clients overcome financial, operational, technological, and risk-related obstacles.
The Lowdown: Hitachi Solutions will help Grant Thornton apply AI and ML tools across Microsoft’s Azure and Dynamics 365, as well as the LinkedIn Sales Navigator platform, to pinpoint nascent client needs and develop solutions that address challenges pre-emptively.
The Details: Specifically, Hitachi Solutions aims to assist Grant Thornton in broadening customer relationships, monitoring business changes around the clock, and enabling valuable insights – all to drive growth, create customer value, and sharpen the competitive edge for the audit, tax, and accounting firm. In addition, Hitachi Solutions will help Grant Thornton develop risk-sensing tools.
The Impact: The three-way collaboration offers testimony to the growing impact of technology on vertical markets. Hitachi Solutions, a longtime Microsoft partner, offers its technology consulting services to customers in architecture, engineering, and construction; banking; health care; insurance; manufacturing; oil and gas; retail; and transportation and distribution.
The Buzz: “We focus on staying ahead of our clients’ needs,” said Nichole Jordan, Grant Thornton’s national managing partner of Markets, Clients, and Industry. “Our clients face obstacles that didn’t even exist five years ago, and we want to help them model, forecast, and overcome these obstacles. That’s why we’re embracing potent tools like AI and ML.”
“We appreciate Grant Thornton’s focus on bringing more value to its clients, using intelligent technologies to create predictive models,” said Sharan Hildebrand, senior vice president of Sales and Strategy at Hitachi Solutions. “Helping Grant Thornton’s clients gain outside-in expertise – analyzing a sea of data in real time to achieve their goals – has truly unlimited benefits.”
