Big Four KPMG named European Advisory of the Year by GSA

The Global Outsourcing Association has announced the winners of its 2016 European Awards. In total fifteen awards were handed out in recognition of best practice in the outsourcing realm, with KPMG staying ahead of Aecus and Elixirr to scoop the prestigious Award for ‘Advisory of the Year’.

Since 2009 the Global Outsourcing Association (GSA) – an industry association and professional body for the sourcing industry – annually organises the European Awards, a competition which rewards and celebrates organisations and individuals who have demonstrated excellence in the pan-European outsourcing sourcing world in 2015/16.

More than 50 cases were shortlisted for the 2016-edition’s final, with submissions received from both buyers, service providers and industry bodies. “This year we’ve had an unprecedented number of entries of excellent quality, which really is indicative of the high standard of outsourcing programmes being implemented across Europe”, said Kerry Hallard, Director of the GSA, adding “The shortlist is truly representative of the best and brightest that European outsourcing has to offer, with innovation, collaboration and customer-centricity inherently featured throughout.” 

The winners were unveiled at a ceremony on the 6th of October 2016, held in Bulgaria. More than 200 of Europe’s foremost leading outsourcing suppliers, support providers and buyers, as well as international outsourcing associations from across the world, travelled to Bulgaria’s capital city to attend the event, held in the exquisite Sofia Hotel Balkan. 

Among the winners (all winners are listed below) are three consulting firms: KPMG, Mercer and TCS. Big Four giant KPMG took home the ‘Advisory of the Year’ prize, beating fellow finalists Aecus and Elixirr to the top spot. Last year the award was won by Elixirr, which recently was also recognised by GSA’s UK Chapter for excellence in the field and by IAP as one of the globe’s top 20 outsourcing advisory firms, while in 2014 the accolade was scooped by Eversheds (the category has since been split into best advisory firm and best law firm). 

Commenting on KPMG’s strength in the outsourcing domain, David J. Brown, the firm’s global lead for its Shared Services and Outsourcing Advisory practice, says, “KPMG’s dedication to empowering its more than 1,100 team members in over 60 countries with Center of Excellence-based people, process and technology investments and rigor, has enabled us, year-over-year, to help our clients realise sustainable, transformational change.” 

Mercer, a global HR consultancy, came out on top in the ‘European Shared Service Centre of the Year’ category, in the process gaining more votes than Sykes. TCS, an Indian-origin technology consultant, was awarded the ‘Outsourcing Works Award’, testimony to its continued delivery of business value to the European outsourcing landscape.

The award for best outsourcing destination of the year went to Egypt, the number 16 on A.T. Kearney’s ranking of best outsourcing locations. 

Hallard concludes, “My congratulations go to all the winners, for their tremendous contribution to both innovation and service excellence in the global sourcing community.”

The GSA European Awards 2016 winners:

- European Hackers of the Year - ITC Infotech for ‘Plant a Tree’ project
- European BPO Contract of the Year - Intelenet Global Services and Barclays
- European IT Outsourcing Project of the Year - Indra Sistemas and Telefonica
- European Automation Project of the Year - Thoughtonomy and Computacenter
- European Service Provider of the Year: SME - ScaleFocus
- European Service Provider of the Year: Corporate - Sykes
- European Law Firm of the Year - Slaughter & May
- Award for Advisory of the Year - KPMG
- European Shared Service Centre of the Year - Mercer Services Delivery Centre Poland
- Award for Corporate Social Responsibility - IBA Group
- Best Partner Ecosystem - AIB
- Innovation in Pan-European Outsourcing - Sykes
- Outsourcing Destination of the Year - Egypt
- Outsourcing Works – Award for Delivering Business Value in European Outsourcing - TCS
- Outsourcing Works in Bulgaria - Imperia Mobile 

Related: The best IT outsourcing providers in the United Kingdom.