Research & Innovation

EY has launched its new EY wavespace centre in Dublin, expanding its global network of innovation centres that bring EY technology and business experts together with clients to achieve business transformation. EY wavespace provides facilitated sessions to its clients in Ireland that use design thinking methodologies and deep expertise across sectors and technologies.

The firm anticipates that 20% of EY employees will work in technology-focused roles by 2022, and has set a target that 25% of its graduate recruits come from STEM backgrounds in the same period. This is in addition to the investment of more than $530m globally in upskilling all EY staff in future-focused skills, including emerging technology.

The opening of the centre is aligned to the firm’s new Technology Strategy, which focuses on growth in the services it offers to clients in SAP implementation, cloud services integration, emerging technologies (including Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation), data science, advanced analytics and blockchain.

At the launch of wavespace, EY also announces the development of a mobile platform to help girls 13-18 years of age pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers. The EY STEM Tribe platform engages girls on their mobile devices with an entertaining and gamified STEM experience and was developed with Tribal Planet, a Silicon Valley-based company that develops innovative platforms and ecosystems to engage global citizens around social impact priorities.

Frank O’Keeffe, Managing Partner, EY Ireland, said: “We’re in a transformative age that requires new thinking, new investment and a different approach. Opening EY wavespace™ and launching our new Technology Strategy to the market is an important milestone in the evolution of our business. The number of people with STEM backgrounds we employ has grown rapidly over the last number of years, and we’re focused on ensuring we have the right diversity of talent and processes in place to give all of our employees an equally-positive experience while working here at EY. We have a responsibility to our clients and to society to ensure the sustainability of our workforce. That’s why we’re launching STEM Tribe to help build a long-term pipeline of diverse talent that will benefit both businesses and society more broadly in years to come.”

Located in the EY Building on Harcourt Street, Dublin the 650-square-metre EY wavespace™ is designed to stimulate idea generation in an open, flexible space for collaboration. The centre includes the EY wavespace™ Lab, where multidisciplinary teams collaborate on client projects, and the EY wavespace™ Studio, a multi-use, open creative space capable of hosting client groups of up to 120. Each of the spaces has been designed to the highest technological specifications, with a range of interactive screens and tools designed for easy connectivity with the 39-strong global network of EY wavespace™ centres.

EY wavespace™ collaboration sessions range from a one-day immersion workshop to long-term projects, to “pop-up” centres brought directly to clients’ locations and the firm’s regional offices in Belfast, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford. Through the combination of collaborative brainstorming with a team of EY experts, as well as a network of global thought leaders, and advanced technology, companies can drive digital transformation.

Frank O’Dea (pictured right), Chief Innovation Officer at EY Ireland, said: “EY wavespace brings together the best of what we can offer to our clients, and gives teams the potential to accomplish in a few weeks what would traditionally take several months. EY wavespace experiences are run with specific design thinking methodologies, by a team of multidisciplinary EY experts combining technology acumen and deep sector expertise, along with global insights from other wavespace centres. This helps teams to identify and navigate the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation specific to their organisation, reimagine business models and processes, explore new capabilities and increase their competitiveness by driving positive change.”

“EY wavespace gives us an unprecedented opportunity to collaborate with our clients to find solutions that drive major transformative change. The power of this collaboration when merged with technology creates something very special for our clients, and allows us to imagine the art of the possible together, and then to make that a reality,” concluded Helena O’Dwyer (pictured left), Head of wavespace at EY Ireland.

The EY global organisation has a network of 22 flagship EY wavespace™ centres in some of the leading tech and innovation cities around the world, and an additional 17 EY wavespace satellite centres focusing on a particular competency or emerging technology.