We read with palpable disbelief the news reported yesterday that frontline KPMG auditors, and others, have been on the receiving end of the firm’s greatest act of charity since, well, ever.
According to the AFR:
[KPMG] is issuing about 3000 mobile devices to frontline auditors and advisers, including Apple’s iPhone and wireless data cards for laptops.
The firm’s CFO and COO, John Teer, spoke with the AFR about a productivity assessment of the firm which revealed:
One of the most glaring aspects to come out of the study was that while about 80% of KPMG‘s workforce were in client-facing mobile roles, only about half of them had full access to mobile technologies.
So apparently KPMG had been sending auditors offsite to inspect client accounting records with a grey-lead pencil and a pad of paper. But has this embarassing technological deficiency seriously given rise to a decision to issue thousands of workers with an iPhone 4? And is it for personal use, or just work-use? For example, can the beneficiaries of the iPhone 4 get the Free Firm Spy Appl?
Mr Teer was conspicuously tight-lipped in this regard, offering only that:
[KPMG] would attempt to retain a controlled technology environment.
So we’re asking our KPMG spies to write in with the particulars of the arrangement. Email us at news@firmspy.com.
Whatever those particulars may be, it certainly seems like the firm is a far cry from the technological wasteland that is Australia’s largest law firm by revenue: Minter Ellison. You’ll recall an anonymous Minters spy reported:
There’s a hostile approach to technology – three people need to sign off before you get the “privilege” of being able to log in from home… apparently if they cant see you doing the work, you can’t be trusted to do it. To make it worse there’s a lot of incentive to work from home because the offices are old, the chairs are unergonomic and the fit out is falling apart (I’m being serious!).
Meanwhile, in response to our post last week profiling alleged PwC Spring Carnival misbehaviour, we received the following comments from an anonymous KPMG spy:
I heard recently that at KPMG one young senior consultant got paid out because of long term sexual and emotional abuse by a Partner that ruined her career with the firm. They are both no longer at KPMG and he is now rumoured to be with Deloitte. These things are apalling, yet they are allowed to happen everyday.
If this rumour is true, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time a Big4 staffer has been explosed to sexual harassment in the workplace.
Do you know more about these allegations? Tell the Firm Spy first at news@firmspy.com.
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I wish PwC would get with the times and upgrade our technology. We are working on $1k laptops that never work and don’t get blackberrys (let alone iphones) until we reach senior manager level. So the people out at clients doing work have no access to email – good thinking management.
Perhaps the senior partners here should stop trying to pick up the young graduates and focus on the issues that are killing the firm…
Wow 3G cards for staff at KPMG! If only Deloitte was so kind. Only Seniors and above, and recently EA’s, have the privilege to such rewards.
Yes auditors @ deloitte do get sent out to clients without internet. Oh course you can always ask the Senior for their card, but we all know what they think when you do!
Luckily most clients supply internet, but if they dont I can always chew through my mobile phone data cap.
Ar yes, the GFC hangover continues. So much for being number 2, or was it 3? Or 1?
“it certainly wouldn’t be the first time a Big4 staffer has been explosed to sexual harassment in the workplace.”
Staffers? History suggests that Partners are subjected to the same.
Just another pathetic attempt to try to retain staff. A mere 9 months after leaving that dump and I am now earning 125% (that’s not a typo) more than those idiots were paying me. I can buy a few iphones with that.