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Consulting industry comprises companies, independent contractors, and organizations that are operating in HR, IT, Strategy, Operations Management and Business advisory services. An increasing number of companies are requiring the services of consulting firms or independent consultants for better services, strategic planning of projects to boost their revenues and competitiveness. IT consulting firms provide management solutions for technical projects and they provide help solutions with testing and writing custom software. In addition they provide consultations on issues relating to designing integrated software, hardware and communications infrastructure and managing computer systems. An increasing number of software companies are venturing into the consulting realm to meet the growing demand for design, implementation and management of IT-based business information processes.

Consulting firms provide management, scientific and technical consulting services that include specialized services such as environmental, HR, IT, logistics and marketing & advertising. The high demand for consulting firms services is driven by the needs of variety of businesses, nonprofit institutions and government agencies for outside service. The profitability of individual companies depend on the efficiency of their operations and their ability to maintain a steady flow of business. Large firms always have an added advantage of being able to offer broad ranges of services and to take on more complex projects but small firms can compete effectively by specialized strategies. In the consulting industry, the market share is fragmented and it differs from country to country, for example- the US consulting industry's top 50 companies account for less than 30% of the industry's revenue. In particular, the management consulting services, including consulting related to strategic planning, marketing and HR account for approximately 80% of revenue, scientific and technical consulting accounts for 12% and environmental consulting accounts for 8% in total.Ìý

Consulting Industry Current Trends

The IT consulting and related services experienced an incredible growth in 2011 in reaching revenue value of US $542 billion. Since then the performance of the market has been maintaining steady balance and improving slightly. According to MarketLine, the IT consulting industry is expected to reach the value of $653 billion by 2016 with the yearly rate of 4% from 2011. After the consulting industry gradually emerged from the struggling days of the great recession, the numbers of requirements for services are rising back up to the pre-recession times. The utilization and billing rates have gone up and pipelines are bulging and recruiters are busy.Ìý Although there are positive and future prospective signs are pointing towards new trends and acceptance but they might threaten the industry's return to its lucrative prominence and those factors are internal consulting and consultant managers.

In the digital world as of today, now and tomorrow, E-business consulting is changing the way companies do businesses and the kind of consulting companies needed. Many traditional consulting practices are in danger of becoming obsolete and irrelevant with the digital and internet age taking over most of the business with enhanced and improved organizations. The future consultants are going to require a whole new set of different skills as the connectivity, sharing and marketing reaches most of the corners of this world. With special initiatives, e-business and e-practices, there are more entrepreneurs today that are innovating seamlessly and creatively.

A large number of e-business agencies have been established in recent years to increasingly utilize internet-related avenues and prospects in tackling traditional consultancies that have been in the market for several years. Old players are increasingly finding newer ways to adapt to the modern processes and execute with full potentials but with all the experience and expertise in the field, adapting to newer technology and utilization of those technologies has become an important aspect. To implement and derive better results, many consultancies have retained their seasoned staff as they believe it is better to keep the resources that know better than to hire fresher. Consulting firms have been working hard to build their brands and the confidence of their clients in them as the global consulting industry is somewhat a cyclical industry. The performances and market shares change and fluctuate unpredictably. According to Plunket Research, the global consulting industry is expected to reach the revenue collection of $415 billion by the end of 2013.

Major Consulting Companies

Consulting industry Major companies include Booz Allen, Deloitte Consulting, IBM Global Services, and McKinsey & Company, (all based in the US), as well as Accenture (Ireland), Roland Berger (Germany), Tata Consultancy Services (India), Razorfish, Scient, USWeb/CKS, Viant and Agency.com.