Not only has PwC piloted a drone to cut time from a U.K. audit – a first for the Big 4 firm – it is also helping clients tap the technology to gather data themselves.
The drone, controlled from the ground by PwC, was used to assess coal inventory for the German energy giant RWE in Aberthaw, South Wales, the firm says. At the same time, the firm predicts a “drone economy” will employ 500,000 people by 2030 and is studying drones to eventually help clients extract insights from drone data.
Now, however, recreational drones have proven troublesome for air traffic and are strictly regulated. In the future, PwC predicts that a regulated commercial fleet of about 76,000 drones will be used for a range of different tasks, reports Consultancy.uk. To prepare, the firm has gathered a team of drone experts and set up a global center of excellence to study drones’ potential.
UK Drone company’s QuestUAV’s fixed wing drone, ready to take flight
As a test, PwC used a drone to measure the volume of RWE’s coal reserves to determine value. In 30 minutes the drone captured 300 images, which were used to create a “digital twin” of the coal pile to measure its volume. The value of the coal was then calculated to within 99% accuracy. The traditional method of hand-counting inventory would have taken four hours, the firm asserts.
“While the traditional method remains reliable and will still be used for RWE’s formal year-end financial statements, the drone trial was conducted to explore ways of challenging the traditional method of stock counting,” says audit partner Richard French in a statement. “It was a classic example of new technology challenging the old – and based on our results, the potential is groundbreaking.”
Elaine Whyte, UK drones leader at PwC, adds, “Sectors with large assets in hard to reach areas are the most obvious starting points for expanding this kind of work further – from mining to agriculture and forestry… In this case, drones have allowed us to trial a more efficient service which has the potential to save both money and time, while allowing us to deliver greater insight too. There is also a clear health and safety benefit to using drones for this type of work, without someone having to climb over the coal pile.”
New York-based Marks Paneth (FY17 net revenue of $131.4 million) has launched a number of new cybersecurity and risk mitigation services to address clients’ data security issues. Services include incident response, cyber risk assessments, business recovery plans and compliance with payment card industry (PCI) and HIPAA regulations.
