Many clients of IT companies expect IT companies to go beyond technology to solve their problems, and that open up the field of consulting capabilities and that differentiates these companies. To begin with consulting was offered by IT companies as an add-on to drive technology business, these days it is offered as an integrated bundle.

Management consulting is the foundation since one who has the decision making power gets the power to execute the agenda. The consulting firms and IT firms were distinct entities, but the lines between them are blurring. The Big Four — EY, Deloitte, PwC and KPMG — represent this trend. These traditional consulting firms try to scale up their tech capabilities. On the other hand, the IT firms acquire specialised firms to build their consulting capabilities, e.g. Infosys acquires Lodestone in 2012 and Noah in 2015. Similarly Wipro acquired Capco for providing financial services. HCL aquired StrongBridge and Symplicity DWS. Cognizant is in the process of acquiring AustinCSL.

IT consulting market is growing fast. IT service providers should focus on professional consulting services at reasonable prices, rather than offering consultancy either free or at throw-away prices. IT service providers should build a special cadre of manpower talent who can work on cross-disciplinary projects involving business strategy, technology and industry context or domain expertise. IT firms must also consider the client context since they are familiar with their operations, technology and data landscape. This can be used to showcase more practical roadmaps for the clients.