IT Transformation In Management Consulting Services

With the emergence of information communication and technology, the world is rapidly moving towards the process of digitalization. Investor expectations, rising competition, new regulatory pressures and increasing opportunities are putting organizations under pressure to digitalize their processes and management. Management consulting firms are providing IT transformation services to businesses, banks and other organizations to overcome challenges such as increasing stakeholder expectations and flat or declining budgets. Such services include identifying critical technologies, setting an IT agenda, consolidating, standardizing and harmonizing IT solutions across business divisions in a cost-effective manner. For example, Accenture Consultancy increased its revenues from the communications, media & technology division by 16.6% from 2017 to 2018 due to increased demand for digital transformation for management services.

Rapid technological changes, coupled with increased pressure to reduce costs, and increased use of smartphones, have also introduced the concept of virtual firms to market players in the management consulting industry. It is expected that a high number of management consulting firms will go virtual and have few permanent offices. By hiring contract employees, placing the entire infrastructure in the cloud, and utilizing a small number of physical offices, management consulting firms will be able to cut costs and increase revenues. Companies such as Aepiphanni Business Consulting have already adopted a virtual firm concept and are providing management consulting to their clients online.

The global management consulting market will be driven by these technological and digital changes, expected to grow from around $1,080 billion in 2019 to $1,460 billion in 2022 at an annual growth rate of more than 10.5%.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are some other technological advances that are revolutionizing the way management consultants explore data. AI and automation help management consultants handle such processes as processing and analyzing of massive amounts of data more efficiently and faster than an average human. It can also provide accurate insights in the areas of businesses such as sales, operations, supply chain and more. For example, JLL, an American professional services and investment management company specializing in real estate, leverages an AI analysis system to drastically streamline workloads. The real estate consultancy advises on client portfolios that can be from anything between 1 and 100,000 properties, which traditionally took professionals weeks to analyze. In the consulting area, the information gathered through AI on sales channels, customer journeys and client behavior can help consultants identify new opportunities and develop effective strategies for advertising campaigns. According to Euan Cameron, PwC’s UK AI Leader, AI could add huge value to the management consulting sector which traditionally was conservative and human-driven.