Although the world may be facing a severe economic downturn, or in some views a 'great recession', Enterprise Resource Planning specialist Hari Iyer believes it could provide well-established professional firms like the UK's Mazars, with great opportunities.

Mr Iyer is a CQUniversity MBA graduate who heads up the Enterprise Resource Planning advisory services for one of Europe's leading accounting firms, Mazars LLP.

Hari Iyer as he appears in the magazine featureHe recently told In The Black magazine that his role had a heavy focus on business development and forming business alliances and partnerships with large IT companies such as SAP, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and Accenture.

"I love my job and I have very strong support from senior partners of the firm at the board level. I have a lot of freedom in shaping our ERP advisory services and to grow this line of service rapidly within the UK and in Europe," he told the magazine.

He said despite the current economic conditions being a significant challenge for him with developing and growing ERP advisory services, the company was well placed to weather the storm.

Mr Iyer worked in the auditing field in Australia while completing a Graduate Diploma of Business at Monash University before completing his MBA at CQUniversity. He later became a Certified Practicing Accountant and SAP-certified consultant before migrating to the UK.

During the past 8 years he has worked for the UK's 4 largest accountancy firms in the IT audit field, before joining Mazars.