| | IT consulting increased
13% and systems
development assignments
increased by a staggering
43% in 2004, according to
the latest official
figures. The outlook for
consulting in 2005 also
looks extremely
encouraging with 86% of
clients believing their
spend on consulting will
be at or above 2004
levels in 2005.
These bullish findings
come from the Management
Consultancies Association
(MCA) Industry Report
released on Friday. In
stark contrast to its
poor performance since
the millennium, IT | |
|
| IT Consulting Market (Annual Growth %) |
| | | |
| Overall |  |  13
|
System
Development | | 43
|
|
|
|
| Source: MCA |
|
| | firms grew by 10% in
2004, with the UK
consulting market now
estimated to be worth
just over £10.1bn. The
figures reaffirm
Top-Consultant's view
that firms kicked off
major new recruitment
drives midway through
2004 in response to a
strong growth in order
books.
Looking more closely
at the resurgence in
IT-related consulting,
the report finds that 58%
of this work was in
systems development
(including systems
integration) in 2004,
with the remainder coming | |
|
| | from consulting on IT
issues such as IT
strategy, technical
architecture and supplier
selection.
Risk/reward deals
(where an element of the
fees are dependent on
success) have been in
evidence since the late
1990s, and have been
common practice in
outsourcing firms for
longer than that. What's
significant this year is
how far that trend has
extended to medium and
small consulting firms,
as well as the very
large.
The majority of
consulting firms expect | |
|
| | to grow in 2005, some
substantially. That
qualified optimism is
reinforced by a survey
carried out by the MCA
and PMP, which shows that
the vast majority (86%)
of managers expect their
use of consultants either
to remain the same or to
increase in 2005. For the
first time in three
years, demand for
consulting is
substantially picking up
in the financial services
sector too, and this is
expected to continue into
2005.
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