2025 MCA Awards

Buses and coaches are key parts of the UK’s transport infrastructure, delivering direct economic impacts for passengers and operators with significant additional benefits for supply chains and communities. However, there was a lack of robust quantifiable data about these impacts. The most recent comprehensive study of buses was over ten years old, while for coaches an equivalent study had never been done.

The Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) commissioned KPMG to conduct new studies on both modes of transport. Starting in May 2024, a multidisciplinary team of KPMG experts from the firm’s Transport Economics Advisory practice applied cutting-edge methodologies to produce credible and actionable outputs.

KPMG adopted methods based on established independent government guidance for economic analysis. However, the team went further, applying true thought leadership to apply an additional lens – using extensive research across multiple sources and datasets to quantify the economic impact of bus/coach passengers interacting with local economies.

This innovative approach meant that, for the first time, a complete and multifaceted picture of the scale of economic impact of bus and coach services could be obtained:

• Bus services: With over 10 million daily journeys, bus service provision supports £11.3 billion in direct, indirect, and induced economic impacts, facilitates passenger spending of £39.1 billion annually, and supports around 105,000 jobs.

• Coach services: Coach service provision delivers £6.4 billion in economic benefits, with coach passengers spending £8.3 billion per annum, of which £5.4 billion is linked to domestic tourism, and supports around 81,000 jobs.

The research also highlighted key qualitative benefits, including:

• Enhanced accessibility for rural and underserved communities, improving social mobility.

• Environmental benefits, such as reduced congestion and emissions, through modal shifts from cars to buses and coaches.

• Enhanced community cohesion and wellbeing, with buses and coaches enabling education, healthcare, and leisure access.

The reports were launched at high-profile events with Ministerial and senior local official attendance, and generated significant media coverage including in the BBC, The Times, Independent, transport news outlets and local/regional media.

The research has also informed policy debate including in the House of Commons and House of Lords. Many transport bodies have used the findings of the reports, as well as third party organisations and think tanks. The reports have been discussed and/or presented at many key industry events and conferences.

There has been considerable industry interest and KPMG has already been commissioned by a Transport Authority to conduct a further in-depth study for its region.

This has truly been relevant, timely and ground-breaking thought leadership in action.

Social housing is the foundation of strong communities and productive economies. Yet currently, the UK social rent housing sector is selling more homes than it is building, leading to record-high numbers of people in temporary accommodation.

 When Lloyds Banking Group asked us to help their cross-industry partnership – the Social Housing Initiative – find ways to help address the issue, KPMG jumped at the opportunity. Working in collaboration with their broad range of stakeholders, we set to work analysing the root causes of the issue. We helped them identify the binding constraints of the sector and assess a range of interventions that might make a real and sustainable difference across the UK.

 The recent UK general election provided an opportunity. With public debate about social rent housing at a high and promises of building 1.5 million new homes still fresh on the lips of politicians, we saw an opportunity to use our findings to create a clear, evidence-based and solution-oriented call to action to policymakers and housing leaders. The report, entitled Building futures: A new era of investment in social housing, was launched in July 2024.

 The report has been a massive success. It has elevated the quality of the debate on social rent housing. It has provided evidence to support future investment. It has delivered new ideas and approaches to the market. And it has positioned our client, Lloyds, at the heart of the solutions.

It’s not often technology consultants can say they’ve helped to save and improve a patients life. But that’s exactly what KPMG’s work supporting the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) has led to, not just saving 1 life, but saving more than 50,000.

Connected data is crucial to joined-up, collaborative healthcare – and therefore to patient outcomes. The NHS has implemented a national Federated Data Platform, to bring together all 134 Acute Trusts’ patient and operational data, so that staff can access crucial insights to make better decisions for patients.

 The NHS asked KPMG to help and we supported with:

• Driving buy-in of the FDP

• Enabling Trusts and Systems to adopt the platform to improve patient care

• Work with front-line clinicians to develop new digital products

• Embed sustainable digital and data capability in the NHS

We brought together a highly flexible, multidisciplinary team, with over a century of combined NHS experience, resulting in:

1. 70,000 more patient surgeries
2. 210,000 patients removed from waitlists for treatment they don’t need
3. 14% more patients are being discharged home early
4. Patients now spend 19% less days in hospital due to unnecessary delays
5. Doubling the up-take of the platform to a 100 Trusts and built 11 new front-line led products

 These benefits are truly transformational and what’s more, is entirely technology led and driven by people improving processes on the ground. Put simply: we’ve helped NHSE harness the power of connected data – which is transforming public healthcare delivery in England.

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has an exciting vision for the accounting profession but was struggling to drive the necessary digital transformation.

ACCA’s IT landscape had evolved over the years into a complex web of systems, data, applications and processes. This made change difficult, while inflating maintenance costs and hampering innovation.

Four years into attempting transformation with another provider – with limited success – ACCA turned to KPMG to reset and relaunch.

We challenged their assumption that only a big-bang implementation would work, proving that a phased, single-cloud approach would deliver value faster.

The first phase was modernising the membership engagement processes. We had just 13 months to be ready for go-live at the next systems update.

Following a discovery process, we designed, built and configured the core components of the new membership architecture, integrating them into ACCA’s legacy systems.

Given the tight deadline, we ran three releases in parallel, timing them to land at the next update. Following testing and iteration, and training for ACCA staff on the new system, we were ready to go live in time.

The new platform gave ACCA a modern operational backbone, revolutionising membership support and engagement. The new, seamless member experience will enhance customer satisfaction.

The service team now operates a single, integrated system – rather than three separate ones – making membership processes far more efficient.

And crucially, there’s been a complete cultural shift. From struggling with digital transformation, ACCA’s is now confident of decommissioning its legacy systems and updating the entire estate.

They Executive board has had no hesitation about moving into phase two – modernising the affiliate and student programmes – with more phases on the horizon.

Bupa Global has an ambition to increase the availability of international private medical insurance to people around the world and stimulate emerging economies through the inward investment that this brings. As part of this, Bupa wanted to establish its own insurance operation in the rapidly expanding Kenya market.

Setting up a new insurance company in a developing overseas economy is a complex undertaking that involves coordinating many moving parts. Bupa Global had already set up a project team and begun engagement at a senior level in Kenya, principally through a facilitating agent in the country and initially employing the services of a local legal firm. But these were only early-stage steps and Bupa wanted to formalise and accelerate the process – deciding to put the project out to tender to enlist outside consultancy support. Bupa appointed KPMG to support it at the end of a competitive tender process.

KPMG in the UK deployed its multidisciplinary Insurance Reorganisation team with deep subject expertise in insurance regulatory licensing, operating model design and key related fields (tax, legal, finance) and worked closely with KPMG in Kenya who provided invaluable support on the ground.

Through rigorous project management and close collaboration with Bupa’s project team, the work progressed through key milestones, dealing with several hurdles and challenges along the way.

One of the key steps was to work with Bupa to design an operating model for the new company in Kenya and how this would fit into the wider Bupa Global operating model. For this, KPMG was able to draw on extensive knowledge of insurance leading practice and structures, but it was also important to consider the nature, culture and regulatory requirements of the market in Kenya. KPMG’s understanding of the UK and Kenyan operating environments meant that the team was able to bring truly informed insights to Bupa and help them define an effective operating model.

One further important aspect, which was key to gaining authorisation, was to help recruit Kenyan senior executive management and non-executive board members for the new company.

As a result, Bupa received the fastest authorisation that the Kenyan regulator has ever granted. The new entity will boost the Kenyan economy through employment and taxes, while more people, both local and expatriates, will have access to medical insurance. This could also become a platform for expanding into other countries in Africa, bringing economic and health benefits to more parts of the fast-developing continent.

KPMG supports leading insurer Beazley plc to help it achieve remarkable business growth and technological transformation in a fast-evolving market.

The cyber insurance market is booming, forecast to triple in size to US$40 bn in gross written premiums by 2030. Already a major player, Beazley sought KPMG’s expertise to strengthen its leadership position and capitalise on emerging opportunities.

Beazley has successfully grown its cyber business by 57% from ~US$0.8bn in 2021 to ~US$1.2bn in 2024, with KPMG providing support throughout this period, while simultaneously creating new digital foundations for sustainable growth.

Paul Bantick, Global Chief Underwriting Officer at Beazley plc, praised the partnership with KPMG: “Beazley has successfully developed a strong cyber ecosystem, which provides comprehensive support to clients before, during and after a cyber-attack. KPMG has worked collaboratively with us, providing insight to help us focus on key priorities, providing expertise to help us deliver our growth ambition, and becoming a trusted partner on our ongoing journey.”

The results speak for themselves: Beazley has achieved a 57% growth in cyber business, deployed multiple state-of-the-art digital applications, and implemented 15 new AI use cases in record time. KPMG has helped Beazley not just respond to the exponential growth in cyber risk but position itself at the forefront of this critical market for years to come.

In 2022, Tesco embarked on a three-year journey with KPMG to place customers at the centre of every business decision, from operations to service and cost management. This initiative involved connecting with 80 million shoppers weekly and equipping executives and frontline colleagues with insights for better customer decision-making. The project supported 4,000 stores, more than 330,000 employees, across 8 countries, covering Tesco's Stores, Mobile, Bank, and Online divisions.

Tesco and KPMG implemented new customer insights technology and colleague apps at scale, integrating them into business processes and operations. A change management program engaged 20,000 colleagues, fostering a culture of action tracking, accountability, and continuous improvement. Leadership sessions combined Tesco data with global best practices from KPMG's Customer Experience Excellence Centre.

The impact of the project was substantial. Tesco's "Customer Recommend" score increased significantly as did their Group Net Promoter Score (NPS). Tesco Mobile achieved "best operator in the world" status, outperforming peers in 39 countries. Tesco grew to 28% market share.

The document also highlights the performance challenge faced by Tesco during COVID and the post-pandemic recovery. To sustain performance and grow rapidly, Tesco aimed to lead in customer excellence by creating meaningful connections with customers. The project involved rigorous discipline, real-time customer insights, accountability, and continuous improvement. KPMG assisted Tesco in establishing clear goals for customer experience linked to Tesco's Long-Term Plan financial metrics.

The approach included designing a decision-making framework grounded in emotional connection, customer experience, helpfulness, and colleague behaviour. New customer insight technology was developed, capable of equipping colleagues with tools to drive performance at unprecedented scale. Change management involved extensive engagement with the executive team, functional leaders, store managers, and customer leads. The program launched successfully, with KPMG providing round-the-clock hyper care.

This submission emphasises the collaborative relationship between KPMG and Tesco, grounded in deep familiarity with the group. Extensive knowledge transfer and coaching on best practices in insight setup and application were provided. Feedback scores for KPMG's support were perfect across all measures.

In summary, the project exceeded its performance goals by transforming decision-making across Tesco, achieving technical innovations in the VoC program, and delivering a complex project on time and to budget. The work brought Tesco closer to becoming Britain's Most Helpful Shopping Trip.

Many UK universities are facing significant financial challenges, with some running deficits and even at risk of bankruptcy or closure. Yet, most lack real-time visibility into their financial status. Their economic models and finance systems have not evolved to meet the demands of today’s commercial environment.

In times of financial pressure, transparency is critical, but many universities are operating without clear insight into their financial health.

It was in this daunting context that the University of St Andrews embarked on a finance transformation. Its finance system couldn’t meet the university’s complex needs and was nearing the end of its life.

Finance technology implementations in higher education are fiendishly difficult – not least because university finance is as complex as it gets. They are routinely seen as failing to deliver, prompting damning media headlines.

Not this one.

KPMG delivered higher education’s first-ever incident-free finance transformation. No glitches, no defects, no disruption. “It couldn’t have gone better,” in the words of Financial Operations Manager Allyson MacCrossan.

For a university finance transformation to go so smoothly is unheard of. Factor in St Andrews’ unique complexities, and its success is unprecedented.

St Andrews is a world-leading, research-intensive university, which makes its financial model incredibly complicated. Hundreds of research projects are constantly underway, each with its own funding sources.

Despite this, we went beyond replacing the system: we redesigned the entire finance operating model – including research and student finance, and procurement.

As a result, the finance team now has access to real-time data, and complete confidence in the resulting insights – giving them proper visibility of funding and spend for the first time.

As Finance Director Andy Goor says: “We can now concentrate on where we're going, not what we've just done.” As St Andrews navigates the sector’s financial crisis, that ability to look forward will be invaluable.

With colleague retention one of the most important business challenges across the retail and logistics industries in general, our client wanted to lead the way in being a great place to work.

To achieve this, they called on KPMG for support. A multidisciplinary KPMG team with deep expertise across operations, people & change, data analytics & modelling created a comprehensive and systematic project plan, delivered over the course of 12 months.

This started with a primary qualitative research phase to develop a deep understanding of the working environment through observation, interviewing and workshops, conducted with reference to 60 hypotheses around what factors may impact staff engagement and retention.A second phase consisted of extensive external benchmarking to contextualise their performance and identify the white space they could occupy to differentiate from competitors. This also included looking outside the immediate industry to adjacent organisations.

The third phase was the centrepiece of KPMG’s work – the building of a leading-edge machine learning model to analyse the huge amounts of live data available to create insights into the drivers of employee retention.This included using some sophisticated approaches to enrich the solution, such as SHAP values and scenario modelling, which enabled KPMG not only to identify factors leading to employees leaving but crucially to interrogate the model’s results to understand why this may be the case. This opens up the ‘black box’ of machine learning to make it truly actionable. To KPMG’s knowledge, the solution is one of the largest scale turnover modelling exercises conducted using workforce data.

Based on the insights generated, KPMG then used a design thinking approach and ran collaborative working sessions with our client to surface 54 ideas/opportunities across five key areas (recruitment & onboarding; job design; pay & incentives; culture & engagement; structured development). Seventeen of these ideas were then shortlisted as ‘must do’ initiatives under five workstreams.

KPMG also built a data-driven scenario model to support the client with dynamically predicting the impact of making changes in these key areas. For example, this model highlighted that reducing driving incidents for the top 10% of new joiners who faced incidents in their first 12 weeks could reduce new joiner turnover by more than 5%.

A powerful dashboard visualisation suite was created enabling the client to view the results and see how factors change over time, along with comprehensive training to equip teams to use it.

Key outcomes already achieved include:

• 54 employee experience enhancement opportunities identified and 5 workstreams set up to implement these

• 17% reduction in staff turnover last year

• On track to hit new joiner retention targets by the end of this year, for the first time in many years

Everyone intuitively knows that accessible transport is critical for people living with disabilities and for our country’s economic growth, yet nobody had ever stopped to quantify the actual cost. This meant that there was no reliable data available to help transport authorities make business cases for investments into accessibility.

The Motability Foundation wanted to change that and to go further; it wanted to create a £20 million research and innovation centre focused on accessible transportation. Motability needed help – not only to quantify the size of the problem, but also to assess their options, procure a solution and set up their research centre. They chose KPMG to provide that support.

Leveraging our deep experience with complex economic modelling, we calculated that improved access to transport would deliver the UK an annualised benefit of £72.4 billion. That got industry interested, and it gave us the data to help the Foundation create its proposed research centre.

We brought our firm’s full multidisciplinary power to the table. We helped Motability to assess a range of delivery model options for the centre and to execute a professional bid competition and drive engagement. We instilled a high level of governance, providing the board and participants with confidence. Then we helped them select the winner and establish the centre, ultimately supporting the project from idea right through to solution.

The National Centre for Accessible Transport has already made significant contributions to the data surrounding accessible transport which, in turn, is helping eliminate real barriers to accessibility.

Palliative and end of life care (PEoLC) is an important and emotional topic for people across the UK. Nearly every adult has had an experience where a friend or family member has needed PEoLC services. The experience isn’t always optimal.

Patients and their carers complain of too many unexpected A&E visits, too many uncomfortable nights waiting for medications, too much stress trying to navigate the system. More often than not, and despite their wishes, most patients end up dying in hospital.

The PEoLC patient pathway isn’t just suboptimal for patients and their carers. It’s also hugely expensive for the NHS. Each year more than 650,000 out-of-hours visits are made in the UK to emergency departments by people at the end of life. Ambulance conveyancing of PEoLC patients is also extremely high. Without change, the challenge is only going to get worse with demand for palliative care projected to increase by 13% over the next 10 years.

One of the UK’s leading end of life charities, Marie Curie, scored a big win for PEoLC patients in 2022 by working with the government and allies to ensure that the new Health and Care Act 2022 would include a statutory duty for Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to commission PEoLC services that meet the needs of their populations. They wanted to understand how the ICBs were getting on with the requirements.

KPMG knew we could help. Working pro bono, our people partnered with Marie Curie to survey the 42 ICBs and understand their challenges and opportunities related to PEoLC. The survey uncovered some important findings. Taken as a whole, they suggested that progress had been slower than hoped. Just 35% of systems said they had a good understanding of their population’s health needs. Only 3% had properly assessed the required workforce to deliver services effectively.

Yet the big takeaway from our discussions was that the ICBs needed a way to quantify the value of their programmes to better support prioritisation and investment decisions.

Challenge accepted; KPMG is great at helping organisations quantify value. Drawing on the best of our firm’s deep repository of tools and methodologies, we created a practical and flexible toolkit to help PEoLC services quantify their value and build their business case.

KPMG is also great at driving change. And we know the key to adoption is success stories. So we volunteered to work with one leading ICB to look at a range of options for how they could improve 24/7 access to essential PEoLC services. Then we helped them make an informed decision and put them on the path to executing their strategy. We demonstrated how their strategy could save them more than £100m over 20 years while vastly improving patient care.

We took Marie Curie from problem through to solution and activation. In doing so, we helped improve the quality of PEoLC care across the country.

Sainsbury’s – the UK’s second largest grocer – is executing its Next Level Strategy to deliver outstanding value, unbeatable quality food and great service. Critical to the successful delivery of this strategy is a market-leading Data and Analytics capability, and there was a desire to continue to strengthen it. They wanted an external assessment and, if necessary, a new D&A strategy and restructured capability to support it.

KPMG worked with Sainsbury’s to conduct a robust assessment of their current D&A capabilities and capacity. We looked at best practices globally and showed them where market-leaders around the world were with their D&A capability. We assessed and segmented business demand for D&A to identify where the greatest value was and could be delivered. We built consensus across their Operating Board on the way forward.

With a clear understanding of Sainsbury’s objectives, we helped them design a new strategy and operating model that would centralise certain D&A capabilities, while extending four ‘spokes’ of analytical capability into the business. Together we developed a new governance structure for managing and prioritising demand, fully integrated into their existing governance forums.

The newly refreshed Sainsbury’s D&A capability is supported by a new Chief Data Officer, reporting to the Chief Marketing, Data and Sustainability Officer. The refreshed capability is continuing to grow data science capability, further embedding the use of AI across the business, driving enterprise reporting and continuing to elevate enterprise-wide data quality.

Sainsbury’s new D&A capability enables a stronger, future-proofed business which can fulfil its objectives with confidence.