PoC of Digital Services focused on Company Analysis using Competitive Intelligence and GenAI

his thesis explores the concept of creating a “Digital Services Marketplace” platform within a major international consulting firm. The goal of the platform is to enhance the company’s competitive advantage, potentially leading to long-term profitability above the industry average. The proposed platform is intended to serve as a foundation for digitizing existing services or developing entirely new services (products) in areas such as audit, tax, and legal consulting. Digital services can expand, supplement, or replace the current service portfolio, thereby contributing to higher efficiency and innovation. The primary objective of this thesis is to demonstrate the usability of the “Digital Services Marketplace” platform by developing a proof of concept (PoC) digital service, “Company Analysis.” This service, focused on risk management within the supply chain in tax advisory, would enable verification of reliable VAT payers using structured and semi-structured publicly available (open) or paid data sources. The thesis focuses on technologies in the areas of digital service design, containerization, APIs, generative AI (particularly LLMs), Competitive Intelligence, and OSINT, with the main emphasis on microservices and data product management from a Data Mesh perspective. A key theme is the modular approach, which enables the creation of more complex services or data products. Additionally, this thesis examines current concepts, methods, and approaches to designing both the platform itself and individual digital services. It includes a business case that serves as a basis for management’s decision on solution implementation. This case provides an analysis of the business environment, competition, expected financial and non-financial benefits, and a 5-year cash flow model, including investment return indicators (NPV, IRR). Expected benefits include increased efficiency in providing existing services, achieved through digitalization and full or partial automation of certain service components, or by enhancing services with new digital elements. Additional benefits include support for innovation, leading to the development of new services that contribute to revenue growth from existing customers and support customer acquisition, particularly among small, medium, and large enterprises and corporations.