PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Canada
SharePoint® Portal Plays an Integral Role at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Canada
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Company Overview
It was a little over 100 years ago – around the same time that Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier was congratulating newly elected United States President William Howard Taft on winning office – that a new company also came into being. That was the year that the first Canadian office of what is now PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC Canada) opened for business in Montreal.
Business Challenge
Since then, PwC Canada has evolved into a leading provider of industry-focused assurance, advisory and tax services for public, private and government clients in all markets. Today the firm and its related entities employ more than 5,200 partners and staff in offices across Canada.
Technology plays a key role in the day-to-day work of PwC Canada people. As trusted advisors to Canada’s leading businesses, they require access to a wide variety of internal and external information, tools and applications, as well as a wide range of detailed client data. The huge volume of diverse information PwC Canada employees work with presented efficiency and productivity challenges. As part of the solution, in 2003 the firm implemented a portal solution based on Microsoft® SharePoint® Portal Server 2003 to help streamline the delivery of information to employees and ensure the highest levels of connection with other member firms in the global PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited family.
“We moved from an environment where our staff was frustrated spending time searching for information, to one where the information they require is easily available and, in some cases, integrated for them in a contextual manner,” ,” says Gordon Vala-Webb, National Director, Knowledge Management.
In recent years, however, new business challenges emerged. The rise of globalization has made it even more critical that PwC Canada respond to client requests in an efficient and timely fashion. The regulatory environment has also changed dramatically since 2003. Today PwC Canada and its clients must adhere to Sarbanes-Oxley and numerous other financial and accounting regulatory guidelines in different jurisdictions.
“Client expectations have changed. Today they expect us to be where they are and to support them seamlessly,” says Steven Lugarini, IT Director, PwC Canada. “They may actually be interacting with several independent groups within PricewaterhouseCoopers, but they want that division to be invisible. This makes it even more important to bring our team together and face our clients as one integrated team that collaborates in real time.”
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Solution
In order to keep pace with changing client demands – on average, 90 per cent of the firm’s 5,200 employees visit the portal each week – and ensure employee needs continue to be met, PwC Canada implemented a refresh in 2007. To operationalize the portal, PwC Canada formed a Portal Services Team and tasked it with managing the portal work funnel and helping set business priorities, driving firm-wide portal content management, and improving the overall user experience.
The PwC Canada IT team made a number of changes, including integrating technologies and data across lines of business to maximize the effectiveness of the portal. To help staff better manage key client relationships, PwC Canada integrated the portal with Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM software. By overlaying SharePoint dashboards with Dynamics CRM, PwC Canada client account teams are able to obtain current or historical information on client accounts, better understand PwC Canada sales targets, and get information critical to effectively managing client relationships.
“Notes that representatives might otherwise send by email or follow up with by phone are funneled into the familiar dashboard user interface,” says Vala-Webb.
PwC Canada also wanted to extend the collaborative capabilities of the portal to address feedback from employees. For this reason PwC Canada added wiki functionality. The first, Acronym Directory, enables employees to compile and define the hundreds of acronyms they come across every day. The second is focused on “How do I” questions, and is designed to help employees get answers to everyday questions, such as who can change a light bulb or to get advice on hiring.
As well, to further help employees connect with each other and their individual talents, the Knowledge Management Team implemented a “finding people” function that lets users find other PwC Canada staff members according to business division and area of expertise.
Business Benefits
Shortly after the refresh was completed, PwC Canada conducted a user survey to gauge user acceptance. The results found that staff were overwhelmingly happy with the changes. The already high user acceptance rates grew even more, and employees indicated that the portal has helped them reduce the time required to do their jobs, save money, or both.
“We’ve had great feedback from staff. Our younger staff in particular is very interested in this technology, and the ability for us to offer them advanced portal functionality is key to our hiring and retention strategy,” says Vala-Webb.
Award-winning
Since refreshing the portal, employees find that critical client and PwC Canada information is easier to find, use and share. Taking advantage of the wiki functionality and the finding-people application, those new to the company are able to find the information they need to get started in their jobs, while veteran staff can get access to specialized expertise. As a result, knowledge can be transferred across organizational and geographic boundaries, helping people make better and more informed decisions. This approach is helping transform PwC Canada culture.
PwC Canada was selected as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers again in 2008 by Mediacorp Canada and was also chosen as one of the Financial Post’s “Ten Best Companies to Work For” in 2008. The Portal plays an integral role in how PwC Canada communicates and delivers its marketplace and people programs, and was a key part of its annual submission process. The submission included highlights of its employee communication vehicles on the Portal. As well, PwC Canada’s SharePoint implementation won the Best Portal, Content and Collaboration award at the 7th annual PCC Excellence Awards in the fall of 2007.
“We recognize that by removing the barriers to information and enabling people to do their jobs as easily as possible, we make PwC Canada a better place to work, boost productivity and better serve our clients. This helps set the stage for another 100 years of growth and success,” says Vala-Webb.
Time and cost savings
The new portal continues to promote a culture of self-service within the firm. Staff can access and update online personal data anywhere, anytime from anywhere in the world. A strategic business objective of the National Human Capital (HC) team at PwC Canada is to evolve HC as an e-business by transforming the way HC delivers services and information to employees using portal technology.
For example, rather than contact the local office HR administrator, employees now access the self-service tools on the portal to change their home address or bank account, update their academic history or enroll directly in online learning and education courses. As a result, PwC Canada has achieved significant cost savings and HC has increased its overall effectiveness by shifting from a manual system of information sharing to one that is automated and self-service based.
Each year, every employee is provided with online access to an individual, personalized Total Compensation Statement that communicates the full value of their financial package. The statements are completely customized and display information such as base salary, annual bonus, rewards and recognition, health and wellness benefits, and the value of their career development. Prior to launching online compensation statements, the PwC Canada HR team produced a paper-based annual salary letter. This labor-intensive process took weeks to complete as relevant information needed to be retrieved from different systems and then merged together. Based on the hourly billing rates of those involved, the cost of each letter was roughly $250. By taking advantage of the easily accessible portal, employees are now able to access these statements securely from their desktops. The total estimated cost is now at $1 per statement.
“At PwC Canada, our people’s time is one of our most valuable assets. By offering them a greater level of process automation, we can help save them time and, in turn, help reduce administrative costs across the board,” adds Vala-Webb.
Improved integration
With closer connections to other software such as Dynamics CRM, the portal now offers employees comprehensive insight into client scenarios. This helps PwC Canada provide a greater volume of information to clients, when and how they need it.
“Clients expect that everyone at PwC Canada can collaborate and get the information they need quickly. With the new portal in place, we’re meeting this new service level commitment. We can continue to deliver the highest level of service and better connect our employees in the process,” says Vala-Webb.
Microsoft Office System
The Microsoft Office system is the business world’s chosen environment for information work, providing the programs, servers, and services that help you succeed by transforming information into impact.
For more information about the Microsoft Office system, go to: www.microsoft.com/office
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Canada (PwC), products and services, call (416) 863-1133 or visit the Web site at:www.pwc.com/ca
