Data Studio

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is a global professional services network with a powerful presence in assurance, tax, and consulting. With a network spanning 157 countries and over 328,000 people, PwC provides a wide range of services to businesses of all sizes, from startups to multinational corporations. Their expertise covers areas like financial reporting, risk management, business restructuring, deals, and technology. A key part of their consulting practice involves helping clients navigate complex transactions like mergers, acquisitions, disposals, and restructurings – often involving vast amounts of financial data.

To enhance their capabilities in this critical area, PwC Sydney commissioned Atomic Labs to collaborate on the design and delivery of a global data analytics platform. This platform plays a crucial role in ingesting, transforming, and analyzing large financial datasets during these complex transactions, ultimately aiding in recovery and informed decision-making. This platform is a testament to PwC’s commitment to leveraging technology to provide cutting-edge solutions for their clients. It operates within a significant portion of PwC’s business, supporting a substantial segment of their $8.5 billion revenue stream.

PwC faced the challenge of developing a global data analytics platform to handle the immense volume and complexity of financial data associated with mergers, acquisitions, disposals, and restructurings. This involved collaborating with PwC’s global development teams to scope, design, and build the platform from the ground up. Key challenges included:

• Global Scale and Availability: The platform needed to be accessible and reliable across multiple regions worldwide, meeting stringent availability, scalability, security, and data sovereignty requirements.
• Data Volume and Velocity: Handling massive financial datasets and ensuring efficient processing and analysis posed a significant technical hurdle.
• Integration and Collaboration: Working effectively with PwC’s global development teams across different locations and time zones was essential.
• Technology Selection: Choosing the right technologies and ensuring seamless integration with existing systems was crucial for success.

Atomic Labs partnered with PwC’s global development teams to deliver a robust and scalable solution hosted on the Microsoft Azure platform. The platform leverages a combination of off-the-shelf data processing tools, Azure cloud services, and custom-built software components. Key elements of the solution include:

• Azure Databricks (Apache Spark): This powerful engine is used for large-scale data processing and analytics, enabling efficient transformation and analysis of financial datasets.
• Azure Services: Leveraging various Azure services provided the necessary infrastructure, security, and scalability for the platform.
• Data Pipelines and APIs: Atomic Labs designed and implemented robust data pipelines to ingest and process data from various sources, along with APIs to facilitate access and integration. User Interfaces: Intuitive user interfaces were developed to enable PwC’s teams to easily interact with the platform and access insights.
• Automated Deployment and Testing: Automating the deployment and testing processes ensured rapid and reliable development cycles.

The data analytics platform has delivered significant value to PwC and its clients:

• Increased Efficiency: The platform streamlines data preparation and enables the reuse of previous analyses, significantly accelerating project delivery times. This allows PwC teams to focus on higher-value activities like analysis and strategic insights.
• Enhanced Analysis Capabilities: The platform provides powerful analytical tools and capabilities, enabling deeper insights and more informed decision-making.
• Extended Engagements: Automated and continuous data ingestion from source systems allows PwC to extend engagements beyond the initial deal phase, even into the post-deal integration period. This provides ongoing support and value to clients.
• Improved Client Outcomes: Ultimately, the platform empowers PwC to deliver better outcomes for its clients by providing faster, more insightful, and more comprehensive support during critical transactions.

• Partnership with PwC’s global development teams.
• Global internal application used within a $8.5 billion business line.
• Highly available and globally deployed application.
• Highly scalable data processing pipeline.
• Utilized in high-profile mergers and acquisitions, demonstrating its importance in complex, high-stakes transactions.

I'm always hugely impressed by Tim and his team. They provide a highly professional service, balancing an incredibly deep technical skillset with great communication skills. They don't just deliver what's been asked for, Tim works out what I actually wanted, but didn't know how to explain.

Finally, Tim's enthusiasm for keeping up to speed with new tech is admirable - we first started working together 7 years ago and he's constantly pushing to use the most suitable mature tech on the market.

Charles Pickett

Partner, PwC