Thursday 12th Apr, 2018
By Zoë Stumpf.
I’m a big fan of Germany. That’s probably just as it should be: My surname is German, as are (perhaps more importantly) some members of my family. It’s also hard not to have huge admiration for a country that keeps all its best wines purely for domestic consumption. However, my respect for German attitudes has grown even further on the back of research that we conducted recently for our DACH report on trends and growth in the German, Austrian, and Swiss consulting market.
The reason for my ever-growing enthusiasm for all things German is that it turns out that quite a number of senior German consultants feel that they need to lead the debate about the impact of robotics and AI on the future workforce. I know that this is the topic of many news stories the world over, with widespread concern about the potential disappearance of a number of white-collar jobs, and those of us with children trying to steer them towards future-proofed careers (apparently hairdressing is a safe bet).
Tuesday 6th Feb, 2018
By Fiona Czerniawska.
It sounds like heresy. With digital transformation consulting work growing by almost 20%, technology services companies—and here I’m talking about firms that develop, implement and integrate software systems, as well as those that provide outsourced IT services—would surely be mad to ignore the opportunity that’s sitting on their doorstep.
Escaping the gravitational pull of their legacy business:
Right across professional services, there’s a growing divide between low-cost services—typically fairly standardised, repeatable work in familiar areas, which organisations buy because they simply don’t have (or want) the bandwidth to do themselves and high-value services, which are those focused on new and emerging issues, where organisations aren’t sure of the skills required, and where innovation therefore plays a critical role (cybersecurity and the use of digital technology to reinvent business models would be two good examples).
Tuesday 23rd Jan, 2018
By Racel Duk. IBM is continuing to invest heavily in Watson, and as this iconic gentleman of the cognitive computing scene approaches his second decade, he’s embarking on something of an image makeover. In short: Watson’s getting serious. By IBM’s own admission Watson was created under pressure; the firm wanted to showcase its technological prowess to the world. And while Watson certainly dazzled—winning the quiz show ‘Jeopardy!’ in 2011 against human competitors—at his core was a man of far less substance than the Watson we see today. Watson is still out to cause a stir, but his realm has moved beyond the desktop and he is now making waves across diverse fields—including retail, aviation and even oncology.
Wednesday 22nd Nov, 2017
By Fiona Czerniawska.
Interviewed recently by the BBC on the impact automation is likely to have on the professional services sector, I was asked whether I thought that all the work done by professional service firms could be done by computers. The answer, to me at least, is clearly no.
Imagine the future of consulting—as we have in our report on the potential impact of robotic process automation and artificial intelligence—on the industry, as a partial eclipse. The sun is the work that conventional human consultants do today. It, and the rays emerging from it, represent different aspects of the consulting process: discover; predict; advise; decide; design; implement; run and report. Technology is the moon. But, even as the moon moves across the face of the sun it won’t entirely obscure the latter’s light: Around the edge, a corona of human activity will continue to shine.
Tuesday 12th Sep, 2017
By Fiona Czerniawska.
There are two ways to answer this question.
In the first place, it’s highly likely that the current surge of interest in robotic process automation will generate demand for consulting support–indeed, most firms are already seeing this. Eighty-one percent of clients say they’ll need consulting support in this area, far higher than for more conventional consulting services. And the reasons are obvious: this is a new field, packed to the gills with different technology options. Coming up with a sensible strategy will depend on being able to tap into the world’s small number of genuine experts, most of whom have already been snapped up by prescient consulting firms.
But all this starts to look like small beer if we take a step back.
Monday 13th Mar, 2017
By Edward Haigh.
61%.
That’s the proportion of clients that we surveyed in the US recently who said that they were already involved with, or planning, initiatives related to artificial intelligence (AI), furthering the idea–currently being pushed by people from Silicon Valley to Washington and beyond– that we stand at the cusp of a new wave of automation.
Friday 10th Mar, 2017
By Edward Haigh.
$20bn.
That’s how big we think the global digital transformation consulting market is now, which means that it represents about 15% of the entire market. It’s a market that’s changing all the time, both in response to changing technology, but also as clients’ understanding of the potential for digital transformation moves from front to back office.
Tuesday 17th Jan, 2017
By Fiona Czerniawska.
You should never say never, but it’s tempting. For all their occasional moments of robotic behaviour (the cool, analytical brain, the steely gaze, the Terminator-like tendency to say, “I’ll be back”), the best strategy consultants aren’t machines but perceptive human beings capable of taking into account the emotional context that surrounds a difficult decision and its execution, as much as the facts.
But parts of the strategy consulting process could be automated.
Thursday 12th May, 2016
By B.J. Richards.
The management consultant and the computer nerd. Hardly the same species, it’s almost as though they are of two different worlds. One is slick, well-manicured, and effortlessly works the room in a suit that cost more than my rent. The other spends long, solitary nights hopped up on Mountain Dew, furiously tapping away at a keyboard, clad in a Cheeto-stained hoodie.
Could they ever learn to get along, to join forces for the common good? Perhaps if the fate of the world hung in the balance. How about the fate of the Benelux consulting market?
Like consulting firms in most markets, those in the Benelux region are facing a dire shortage of consultants with the digital skills they need to grow. Unable to hire, acquire, or train techy consultants as quickly as the market demands, some are taking a drastic step: They’re admitting they won’t always be able to find the consulting skills and the digital skills they need in the same person, and they’re restructuring their talent strategies accordingly.
Tuesday 8th Mar, 2016
By Fiona Czerniawska.
The following forms part one of a series of articles that we are publishing based on our on-going research into how clients see consulting firms. To view the second article in this series, please click here.
Digital transformation represents a massive opportunity for technology consulting firms, but why does our research suggest, again and again, that these firms are missing out?
Our new suite of reports, brand perception summaries for individual consulting firms, suggests the answer lies in clients’ heads.
Let’s take IBM as an example. It has a predictably strong reputation for the quality of its technology consulting work: 66% of executives who know the firm by repute (what we call indirect clients) describe quality as high or very high (the average is 49%), and only a very small percentage say anything that is outright negative. Equally, because IBM is so well-known, there’s little difference when we look at actual clients (or what we call direct clients): everyone knows what IBM does, and does well.
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