The world has changed; it’s about time that consultancies changed, too.
A burning platform
Remote working, prompted by the Covid pandemic, means it’s easier to work across organisational boundaries, and internationally. This has accelerated digitisation and transformed the world of work.
As one of our clients put it, ‘we thought we needed a burning platform to prompt change - instead, it simply evaporated’.
The inflationary pressures of the post-Covid world and the war in Ukraine have hit hard. Energy, commodity, and labour prices have spiked since the start of the pandemic and the effects have rippled through the economy. Corporate and government finances have been hit hard. Organisations have had to show remarkable ingenuity to adapt.
Meanwhile, breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence (AI) mean we face a new wave of digital transformation with more complex and uncertain implications than anything we’ve seen before.
If organisations are going to get to ‘what’s next’ in business and technology, they need consultancies that are set up to deal with those new realities.
Breaking down barriers
Working with a consultancy should mean working with the best experts available. But the truth is that many large consultancies are made up of small kingdoms headed up by partners who are, secretly, in competition with each other. The result is that, in many consultancies, the best people are not available.
Inevitably, the market has noticed. In 2023 the ‘ability to match suitably qualified people to projects’ wasn’t even a top 10 consideration in choosing a consultancy, according to Source Global Research (a firm that analyses the consulting market). Today it is the second most important factor, behind ‘sector knowledge and expertise’.
In the same study, the number one reason clients cited when they cease working with a consultancy is that they find them ‘difficult to work with and inflexible’.
In other words, consultancies need to change how they collaborate. Clients need consultancies to bring their best advice and be flexible about how they do that.
In forming Sopra Steria Next, we focused on that need. We began by strengthening our internal communities - building relationships and familiarity with each other’s capabilities.
We also removed organisational barriers so that our consultants across the UK and Europe can work with the clients who need them. That’s given us the flexibility to bring our best thinking to bear on our clients’ challenges.
Beyond slideware
With organisations under financial pressure, their focus has been on keeping balance sheets healthy today. It’s no longer justifiable to pay for a report that may or may not make a difference.
Consultancies need to be able to deliver programmes that have real impact, quickly. But to do that, they need real world experience of what happens after they’ve delivered their recommendations.
For us, that experience is already close at hand.
Our parent organisation, Sopra Steria implements technology at scale and manages large-scale services. Its responsibilities include running payroll systems for much of the NHS and handling the cloud transformation of the systems that log millions of financial transactions every day for the Financial Conduct Authority.
Being able to draw on that experience is a real advantage – it's the difference between a strategy that sounds good in a presentation, and a plan that works in the real world.
What’s next?
Our practical expertise extends to cutting edge technology such as AI. According to the 2024 SPARK Matrix™ analysis by Quadrant Knowledge Solutions, Sopra Steria is a leader in the global AI services market.
As the computing pioneer Alan Kay said: ‘the best way to predict the future is to build it’. We’re already working with artificial intelligence to transform our services and our clients’ businesses. So, while the AI future may be complex and uncertain, we are well placed to set out plans for pragmatic, ethical AI.
In a changing world, we’re changing, too. We’re helping our clients get ready for what’s next.