13.5 The providers of IT consulting services

The variety of providers tends to grow as the relationship between IT and management consulting becomes more complex and as new generations of IT systems become commercially available. A short overview is given here. For advice on selecting consultants see box 13.1.

Strategy consultancies

In the past, the international high-level strategy consultancies tended to work at the corporate rather than the functional or operational level. However, the growth and strategic importance of IT has given them no choice but to become closely involved in IT strategy. The best of these firms are leaders in understanding the impact of IT on business strategy, and the best firms will be honest about how far they regard implementation of IT strategy as being within their competence and their interests.

General management consultancies

IT consulting is the biggest and fastest-growing segment of management consulting as a whole. It follows that any large firm of general management consultants will have a large IT consulting practice and will have built up a lot of experience. One selling-point for the larger consultancy is the ability to carry a project through from strategy to actually running the hardware if necessary.