Digitalization and Consulting 4.0

More and more consulting firms are feeling increasing pressure to change their own business models, methods and tools and adapt them to new customer requirements and technological developments.

For example, digital consulting instruments and predictive analytics tools with a self-service function are becoming increasingly important in the selection process for consulting mandates.

In addition, technological developments such as digital marketing, online commerce and IoT are leading to a massive increase in data volumes and significantly more unstructured information that needs to be evaluated and analyzed as part of consulting mandates.

Due to the increasing relevance of powerful data analytics tools and self-service BI solutions, Lünendonk has now published its third edition of the "Consulting 4.0" study series.

More than 120 managers and project managers from management and IT consultancies as well as auditing and tax consulting firms were surveyed for the current study entitled "How digital change is affecting the consulting market".

There is a particularly high demand for digital and software-supported consulting tools for analyzing real-time and mass data in consulting mandates relating to the analysis of the customer journey and the monitoring of (digital) customer interfaces.

Around 70 percent of the consulting service providers surveyed are heavily commissioned by their clients in this area to implement projects with the help of software tools.

"The more digital and data-based business models come onto the market and customer communication takes place via digital channels, the more important it is for companies to continuously measure customer interaction points.

Digital agencies and consulting firms are often involved in the analysis and optimization, and they must have the corresponding analysis skills"

Mario Zillmann, Partner at Lünendonk and head of the study, describes the challenges faced by many clients and consultancies. The increasing volumes of data mean that consultancies have to evaluate and analyze significantly more information and data within their mandates.