Colorado Real Estate Journal - May 6, 2015
KPMG LLP, a U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm, has opened the first of several planned high-tech work environments designed to facilitate the crossfunctional teaming critical to the successful design and delivery of emerging solutions to its clients. Dubbed “Ignition Centers,” the environments are modeled after leading technology parks and business incubators around the world that feature dedicated, project-focused workspaces designed for information sharing, collaboration and increasing efficiencies during the creative process. The new Ignition Center, based in Denver, will bring approximately 125 new jobs to the area in highly sought-after fields including data science, enterprise architecture, application programming, solution development and IT integration. “While we have offered these types of solutions for some time, we are now focused on centralizing the design and prototyping of these solutions in collaborative workspaces – enabled by the technology necessary to spark innovation,” said Stephen Chase, KPMG’s U.S. Advisory Management Consulting leader. In addition to KPMG’s strong presence in the region, Denver was chosen as the location for the first center because its metropolitan area boasts a booming information technology workforce, including software developers and computer programmers, and is rated as a top city for Millennials to develop their careers, according to the firm. KPMG plans to open additional Ignition Centers later this year. The Ignition Centers also house state-of-the-art tools to facilitate virtual collaboration and interactive demonstrations. Specifically, the centers are designed to deliver capabilities in data and analytics, digital solutions, technology business management, tax transformation and technology, elevating business in the cloud and HR transformation.