In the 1990s, the business consultancy practices of the majority of the Big Five accountancy firms (Ernst & Young, PwC Consulting and KPMG) were sold off and snapped up by IT services companies, all eager to add business acumen to their IT portfolios; or in the case of Arthur Andersen spun off to form a new consulting and technology services organisation (now called Accenture).
Since then, Capgemini (Ernst & Young), IBM (PwC Consulting) and Atos Origin (KPMG) have endeavoured to get the most value from their acquisitions.
In response, their IT services company peers, such as LogicaCMG and EDS, have sought to build up business consultancy capability from the ground up.
In parallel, the pure-play business consultancies have continued to offer standalone advice, often in competition with the IT services players, while also seeking to gain some revenue stability from longer-term engagements.
This market activity has resulted in business consultancy playing an increasingly important role in the IT services market.
This report analyses the role of business consultancy in IT services and answers key questions such as:What is business consultancy? And what is the relationship between business consultancy and IT services? Can IT services companies offer advice of the same quality as the pure-play business consultancies? What type of business consultancy should IT services players undertake? Should IT services players with consultancy capabilities effect enterprise-wide business change amongst their clients?How should IT services firms manage their business consultancy organisations? Should they claim to be neutral? Should business consultants be rewarded for pulling through revenues for the core IT services organisation? The report draws on interviews with representatives from the client community, both commercial and public sector, and the supplier community, both IT services companies with ‘captive’ business consultancy capability and pure-play business consultancies.
These interviews were undertaken during February 2007.