2010 Readers' Choice: Consulting

Dana Stiffler, vice president, Global Business & Outsourcing Services at AMR Research, exclaimed, "What a motley assortment!" when asked about this year's Consulting list. Accountants, traditional IT services firms, management consultants, and offshore firms: Stiffler believes that it's interesting that management consultants are better represented on the list this year, and that Cognizant has come out of nowhere.

CGT: Has the economic downturn impacted initiatives in this process area?

Stiffler: Absolutely. Consulting and project-based spend declined sharply toward the end of 2008 and came to almost a dead standstill in 4Q08 and1Q09. We started to see some thawing in the middle of the second quarter. Approval for new project spend is still grudging.

CGT: What consulting trends will impact the consumer goods industry?

Stiffler: Project spending will heat up significantly again, as will different types of support and outsourcing, including SaaS, business process outsourcing (BPO) and cloud-based services. The big bang ERP party is definitely over -- CG companies will aggressively explore SaaS and managed services options to get the capabilities they need.

The most interesting consulting and services opportunity will be the return of e-commerce, this time focusing on social networks and the convergence of different channels and devices, particularly mobile.

CGT: What types of projects are consultants typically being sought out for?

Stiffler: We've had numerous requests for supply chain benchmarking and optimization consulting, sometimes including assessment of application and technology portfolios, sometimes not. As you might expect, there have been fewer implementation projects, but we have seen requests for SAP APO, full SAP SCM suite, ATG and Oracle Transportation Management projects.

For more general back-office and IT initiatives there have been continued ERP roll outs to Latin America and other emerging markets, BPO assessments, particularly for finance, accounting and indirect procurement, and global application support deals.

"Hitachi Consulting was an invaluable business ally and an integral contributor to the success of our project. The depth of business acumen and industry knowledge balanced with technical expertise made Hitachi Consulting the right choice."
-- Brian Rademacher, VP & Chief Financial Officer, Schwan's Food Service Inc.

SMB MARKET: IBM

"Regarding Vendor Managed Inventory, our performance is consistent with all customers within the IBM Continuous Replenishment network. We now have the ability to see when a customer has set up new items, allowing us to alert our production department in order to get the items produced and to the consumer in a timely manner."
-- Jamie Hornstein, IS Director, Dad's Pet Care