Deloitte Digital opens Digital Garage in Amsterdam, 46th globally

Deloitte has unveiled plans for a new digital complex in Amsterdam. The Digital Garage in the capital city of the Netherlands will be Deloitte Digital’s 46th studio across the globe.

Demand for technological solutions, embedded within creative designs from public and private sector clients across Europe, has increased substantially in recent years. Companies and organisations are seeking to provide beautifully responsive streamlined services for citizens and customers alike – as well as looking to leverage wider potential cost savings and efficiencies through digital solutions.

As the consulting industry has striven to keep up with this increasing demand, Deloitte Digital has continuously made headlines recently, as a result of its extended expansion campaign. Following its acquisition of US-based creative agency Heat, the Big Four’s consulting, creative and technology studio – developed in response to demand for a complete solution to meeting changing customer needs – Deloitte Digital has launched 40+ digital studios worldwide, including a new studio in Edinburgh.

The digital wing of the professional services firm has seen impressive organic and inorganic growth since its inception in 2012. Today, the organisation boasts revenues of more than $1.5 billion and employs more than 26,000 in 100 countries.

Now, Deloitte Digital has signed an agreement to launch a new Digital Garage in the Netherlands in 2018. The 1962 building of the Citroën complex, which is part of the former football stadium of Ajax Amsterdam, will serve as the base for Deloitte’s 46th studio. The Citroën showroom was designed by Dutch architect Jan Wils some half a century ago, and along with the city’s Olympic Stadium – which is in close proximity – the location is among the most iconic in the country's capital. It will offer a space that inspires consultants, creatives, engineers and its partners like Apple, Adobe and Salesforce to develop new digital products, services and capabilities in co-creation with its clients.

Their work will be driven by the aim of combining the best design skills and latest augmented reality, mobile, IoT and Blockchain technologies to develop products and services that will surprise and delight. Further explaining this, Stephen Ward, Managing Partner of Deloitte Digital in the Netherlands, commented, “We hope to breathe new energy in the way we serve clients in the digital era. Don’t tell me but show me and co-creation: that’s what our clients are asking for.”

Ward continued, “We will work closely with our partners to develop the Digital Garage and use new technologies, including IoT and AR. For visitors it will be a chance to experience the future. And our talents will have even more opportunities to shine, experiment and encourage each other. It will become the place for co-creation, prototyping, experience and innovation.”

By launching its Digital Garage in the country, Deloitte Digital is profiling its identity within Deloitte and outlining its ambitions in the market. Victor Hoong, a Partner at Deloitte Digital, elaborated on the group’s future aspirations, “After recent acquisitions like creative agency Acne and Market Gravity (both in the UK) we have the aspiration to create a new segment in the market and become the #1 creative digital consultancy agency in the Netherlands. The investment in our new studio and recruitment of an extra 100 digital talent demonstrates this.”