It's Not a Kind of Magic

Andrew Aitken from Lanner discusses how specialist consultancy firms are recognising the value of simulation to offer clarity and confidence to their customers.

Business solutions consultants operate in every industry and whether they are there to support strategy development, management execution or technical delivery they can be an important supplementary component when conducting large business projects. In the last two decades the consultancy industry has grown and spawned many new specialist niches. This growth has consequently led to a progressive demystifying of the image of a magical guru who has been invited into the boardroom, to the point where today’s successful consulting firms need much more than high-powered boardroom contacts to guarantee their commercial success. They need to visibly and continuously prove that they are delivering real decision-making expertise and value to the large scale, complex projects that they are working on.

Ignoring any competitive bid or proposal stage, there are essentially four main stages to a consulting project: Data Collection; Problem Analysis; Solution Identification and Solution Implementation. Often the first three stages are combined to identify the solution and secure the buy-in of the client management team, before ‘selling’ the implementation phase. Today’s consultancy clients are undoubtedly more informed and demanding than a decade ago and are therefore more challenging of analysis findings and recommendations presented to them. It’s no longer adequate to justify a suggested solution via elementary data analysis that is masked behind fast words and a colourful PowerPoint presentation. Instead today’s informed managers demand to see that a robust analytics-based approach has been taken and that all valid solution alternatives have been considered before agreeing on a preferred way forward.

Today’s computer simulation technologies allows consultancy firms operating in many industries to up their analytics game. This reduces the risk of proposed solutions for both them and their end clients. Lanner, who provide specialist simulation technologies and services, have recently worked in collaboration with a variety of such firms to provide specialist: technologies, process analytics and modelling expertise that can guarantee an optimal result for their end clients. Such engagements can range from delivering the multi-billion dollar design of a new hospital with an industrial mega-player, through to optimising an outsourced financial services call handling operation alongside a Business Process Outsourcing provider.

Recently announced is that the prestigious firm Boston Consulting Group has invested in specialist data analytics and simulation specialist TSG Consulting. This trend is set to continue as specialist consultancies respond to the demands being placed on them from increasingly analytically-aware client management teams. The best consulting firms will ensure that they set themselves up to deliver client solutions which represent not just a better client answer, but the best answer.