Trends in Consulting in India

As the Rs 400-crore Indian consulting market (industry estimates) starts booming (it is showing a growth of 50% per annum), the two sides have begun competing fiercely. On one side are big IT companies like IBM, Cambridge Technology Partners, Citicorp Information Technology Industries Ltd and TCS. On the other are management consultants like McKinsey & Co, PwC, Andersen Consulting, Ernst & Young and KPMG, who are making IT an integral part of their business. Management consultants are also beginning to reorient themselves. With clients asking them to implement what they preach, consultancies are building formidable IT expertise. PwC is transforming itself almost into an IT company. Some 700 people of its 1,000-strong staff are engaged in IT-related activities. About 500 alone are ERP consultants. Business is growing rapidly too. Total revenues increased by about 45% in the last three years, but in IT-related areas the revenues increased by almost 80%. In fact, by the year 2001, PwC expects two-thirds of its revenues to come from e-business consulting. Others are following suit. For Ernst & Young, 60% of work comes from IT-related areas. Cisco has taken 19% in KPMG after the latter was involved in its e-business consulting. As for Andersen Consulting, 80 of the 200-strong workforce in India work on technology-related areas. And it is now increasingly focusing on e-commerce and convergence technologies like m-commerce related projects as its major thrust and growth area.