A Conversation with Christie Simons and Saikat Pattadar of Deloitte

Broadcom is connecting everything. Our technology — both semiconductor and infrastructure software—powers the most complex IT environments in the world and touches everyday life — from the latest mobile and home devices to the Cloud, to service provider networks, to software and critical infrastructure. The Connected by Broadcom interview series features discussions with leaders who collaborate with Broadcom to take their business to the next level.

Deloitte* is the largest professional services company in the world. And while you may be familiar with Deloitte, you might be surprised to learn about the collaborative relationship it has with Broadcom. In an insightful conversation for our Connected by Broadcom series with Christie Simons, Global Lead Client Service Partner for Broadcom at Deloitte, and Saikat Pattadar, Principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP, we discussed what Deloitte calls its “360-degree relationship” with Broadcom and what that connection means to Broadcom, to Deloitte, and to our clients around the globe.

A 30-year veteran of Deloitte with a deep background in semiconductor technology, Christie Simons currently leads Deloitte’s global relationship with Broadcom. Saikat Pattadar has equally deep knowledge and experience in software and has worked with Broadcom for nearly 15 years. Between their long history with us and areas of respective knowledge — semiconductors and software — they are uniquely positioned to talk about the Broadcom Connection. Here are some highlights of our conversation.

The 360-degree relationship

Broadcom and Deloitte have long enjoyed a unique and special relationship. Deloitte calls it “the 360-degree relationship.” Simons says that the term refers to the holistic nature of our relationship. The 360-degree relationship rests on three elements which Deloitte believes creates greater value for itself as well as for Broadcom. The three elements are:

• Deloitte is a valued customer of Broadcom.
• Deloitte and Broadcom are engaged in an “alliance” relationship.
• Broadcom is a valued customer of Deloitte.

Deloitte is a valued customer of Broadcom

Deloitte leverages Broadcom products in its own business and Pattadar says, “is approximately more than 1/3 of our business globally.” He says that the organization’s reliance on Broadcom tends to fall into “two big buckets: sustainable ops and security and infrastructure software productivity solutions.” These infrastructure productivity solutions are important to Deloitte’s ability “to transform and innovate our clients’ ecosystems.” Our endpoint security solutions are embedded across the organization’s entire global footprint and in Deloitte’s businesses.

The Deloitte – Broadcom Alliance

The alliance between our two companies is one that Simons says Deloitte is “very proud” of building over the past decade. The alliance defines the Go-To-Market (GTM) relationship specific to Broadcom’s security software portfolio. Deloitte and Broadcom are now building on the success of that alliance by building a GTM relationship for Broadcom software solutions. The combination of Deloitte’s technology strategy and implementation capabilities with Broadcom’s leading technologies “really helps our clients and their customers better manage security risks as well as operations to draw greater value from their IT portfolio.”

Broadcom is a valued customer of Deloitte

Deloitte is also a vendor that provides a broad range of services to Broadcom and helps support Broadcom’s strategic priorities. Pattadar highlights three principal areas of involvement:

1. Creating what he calls “sustainable operations on the technology side,” that focus on maintaining and innovating Broadcom’s hardware business technology products worldwide.
2. Digital transformation and helping Broadcom modernize and transform Broadcom’s software portfolio to accelerate go-to-market and time to value.
3. A broad range of consulting services and compliance programs for Broadcom and Broadcom’s customers.

Together, these three elements create “a full circle, which is why,” Simons says, “we describe it as a 360-degree relationship.”

Broadcom culture and the alliance

Broadcom’s culture is key to Deloitte’s 360-degree relationship with us. Simons and Pattadar explained that Broadcom’s innovation-first culture allows it to move fast, take risks and deliver results. “This kind of culture,” Pattadar emphasizes, “is very unique to Broadcom.”

3 tips for women entering management consulting

Given Simons long and distinguished career in consulting, I just had to add a final request. I asked her if she would give me three tips for young women who want to enter the consulting field. “I love this question!” she answered. “When I started with Deloitte back in 1994, only 5 percent of the partners in our organization were women. Today it’s almost 30 percent. So, you know, we’ve come a long way baby!” Her advice:

• Be curious. The beauty of management consulting is that it really offers a lot of possibilities to learn.
• Finding women role models in school. One recommendation is connecting to The Ella Project which provides at-home STEM learning opportunities.
• Don’t be afraid to raise your hand to take an opportunity or try something new or challenging or ask questions.

Semiconductor trends

Changing gears, we spoke about major semiconductor trends Deloitte sees for the years ahead. Simons says that Deloitte predicts the industry to grow to $1 trillion in revenues by 2030 — a huge increase from $600 billion today. Deloitte credits that explosive growth to an insatiable need for semiconductor chips that are, as Simons says, “needed for everything that we do on a day-to-day basis.” The need for compute, storage, networking — all in relation to data — are expected to fuel this growth. And that, she adds, “is in addition to the explosion of AI.”

A bright future

Broadcom is ideally positioned to take advantage of this need for chips given its position as the leading supplier for chips for data center performance, connectivity, and security software. Pattadar adds that Broadcom connects the dots and creates hybrid ecosystems and environments for our customers. And that to him is Connected by Broadcom.”

Broadcom products have been designed and optimized for end-to-end integration and deliver the best-possible performance. That’s Connected by Broadcom.

*Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of Deloitte’s legal structure.