Sergio de la Fe knows a thing or two about how technology can transform business. As enterprise digital leader for RSM US LLP, he is responsible for driving the next wave of digital transformation for RSM that will differentiate the firm in the marketplace, boosting our client and talent experience. “Being a digital firm that provides audit, tax and consulting services is our vision,” says de la Fe, former chair of the RSM US LLP Board of Directors and member of the RSM US Executive Leadership Team.
Q: Your mantra in this new role has been “people, process and technology.” Can you explain?
SdlF: Alignment of people, processes and technology leads to optimal outcomes in our digital transformation. It is all about creating and driving value by leveraging state-of-the-art technologies. Effectively leveraging technology allows our people to spend their time focused on high-value tasks and building client impact. To derive maximum value from our digital transformation, our people need to embrace the change, learn newly implemented business processes, and understand how to use emerging technologies in their everyday work.
Q: Can you drill down a bit more on the people part of the equation?
A: In our digital strategy, the user experience is really, really important. Technology must be intuitive, and the processes must be well-designed to achieve what I call “speed to value.” It is a balancing act. We want to innovate without getting ahead of ourselves. As we roll out new technologies and tools, we need to ensure that we execute product testing, user testing and training. If any of these elements are missing, it will negatively impact the success of our digital transformation and the ability to achieve “speed to value.”
Q: Can you share a few examples of game-changing technologies at RSM?
A: I’ll give you two—our DASH platform and our tax technology transformation.
Our DASH platform is used to serve our managed services clients and is built on state-of-the-art ServiceNow technology. In DASH, we have built a platform that, very soon, will serve clients and transform our client experience across all service lines. Through DASH, our clients can access RSM data, knowledge, information and our professionals 24/7. This level of digital connectivity vastly improves our client experience and enhances our talent experience. Our clients get access to us, and we can focus on client needs more directly and rapidly.
DASH is a transformational platform for us and our future! We are already seeing the benefits of this internally with ServiceNow in our talent, information technology (IT) and compliance functions.
Our tax technology transformation is also industry-leading. A few years ago, our tax leadership decided that its practice needed to accelerate its digital presence and approach. Over the past few years, our tax team has built a suite of technologies that, I believe, have the potential to enhance our market position. With technology platforms like RSM Digital Power, CorporateSight®, FamilySight®, PartnerSight®, our tax workbooks, all powered by our Xcelerate infrastructure, are in many ways leading our digital transformation.
Q: How do our digital transformation efforts help RSM clients?
A: Brian Becker, our managing partner & CEO, says we need to be compelling, be global and be digital. Well, I do not believe that we can be compelling or global unless we are digital! For our products and services to be compelling to our clients, we must find ways to connect and collaborate with them digitally. We need to seamlessly deliver services on robust digital platforms like the ones I mentioned in DASH and our tax technologies. Serving our clients digitally will enable us to share observations and insights with them directly within the context of our work. Digital integration with our clients will allow us to collaborate with them more efficiently. By leveraging new technologies, we will enhance their experience to serve them more easily across all lines of business and capabilities. The value we deliver to our clients will grow significantly.
Q: How flexible should organizations be about digital transformation, and how long is RSM’s digital transformation journey?
A: Digital transformation is not something that stops. We must continually adapt, remaining nimble and flexible as we look for opportunities to enhance both our talent and our client experience. Late in the 20th century, we navigated the emergence of PCs and the internet. Earlier in this century, it was all about driving data and cloud-based computing. Now, it’s artificial intelligence and machine learning. What’s most exciting to me is the speed with which technology is evolving and our commitment to taking advantage of it to maintain our competitive advantage.
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