The best consulting firms for IT strategy and digital transformation

A group of 50 management and digital consulting firms in the United Kingdom have been lauded for their services in IT strategy and digital transformation. The group broadly consists of the IT arms of top strategy consultancies, generalist professional services firms, ‘pure’ IT consultancies, and diverse miscellaneous firms which have performed well in the more than $40 billion digital transformation consulting market.

In early 2018, The Financial Times released its annual ranking of the top members of Britain’s management consulting scene. Along with traditional management consultancy firms, those considered relevant for the analysis included IT consultancies, advisory branches of auditing firms and consultancy branches of technology companies. Statista used two online surveys – one polling executives and partners of consulting firms, while the other cross examined a pool of executives from the client base of the management consultancies – giving respondents the chance to present a selection of consulting firms on a long-list of over 1,000 firms with ratings of four to six stars.

Based on the feedback from both consultants and clients, a list of the leading consulting firms in the UK was crafted. While the resulting list provided a comprehensive overview of the top leading management consulting firms in the UK generally, the research also explored which firms led in 29 individual sectors; including the healthcare and life sciences arena, and the IT strategy and digital transformation segment.

The growth of the digital transformation consulting market has accelerated continuously in recent years, driven by a desire among firms across all sectors to exploit new digital innovations to reduce long-term expenditure and improve efficiency and productivity in the process. The pervasive nature of this wave of change has seen practically every level of global business attempt to transform, partially out of the fear of falling victim to digital disruption, meaning the consulting work aimed at digital transformation now stands as a $44 billion market.

Consultancies which have benefitted from this surge in demand have come in the shape of four broad groups. The IT wings of traditional strategy firms like McKinsey & Company; generalists such as the Big Four; ‘pure’ IT firms including the likes of Infosys and IBM; and miscellaneous professional services firms such as Atkins and BearingPoint. In order to understand which global firms were performing most strongly in the field, Consultancy.uk has analysed the research of Statista and the Financial Times to determine 50 of the best firms for IT strategy and digital transformation services.  

An overview of the top 50 consulting firms for IT strategy and digital transformation (in alphabetical order):

Accenture
Founded: 1989. Headquarters: Dublin. Employees globally: 442,000.

Adaptive Lab
Founded: 2009. Headquarters: London. Employees globally: 60.

Agility in Mind
Founded: 2010. Headquarters: Wiltshire. Employees globally: 9.

Argon Consulting
Founded: 2001. Headquarters: Levallois-Perret. Employees globally: 230 (with Crimson & Co).

ASE Consulting
Founded: 1987. Headquarters: London. Employees globally: 41.

A.T. Kearney
Founded: 1926. Headquarters: Chicago. Employees globally: 10,400.

Atkins Global
Founded: 1938. Headquarters: Surrey. Employees globally: 15,740.

Atos Consulting
Founded: 1997. Headquarters: Bezons. Employees globally: 3,315.

Avanade
Founded: 2000. Headquarters: Seattle. Employees globally: 10,922.

Bain & Company
Founded: 1973. Headquarters: Boston. Employees globally: 11,052.

Baringa Partners
Founded: 2000. Headquarters: London. Employees globally: 654.

BCG - The Boston Consulting Group
Founded: 1963. Headquarters: Boston. Employees globally: 19,034.

BearingPoint
Founded: 2002. Headquarters: Amsterdam. Employees globally: 4,343.

BMC Consulting Services
Founded: 1986. Headquarters: Amersfoort. Employees globally: 412.

Capgemini Consulting
Founded: 1990. Headquarters: Paris. Employees globally: 13,137.

Chaucer
Founded: 1987. Headquarters: London. Employees globally: 214.

Cognizant
Founded: 1994. Headquarters: Teaneck. Employees globally: 211,490.

Deloitte Consulting
Founded: 1893. Headquarters: New York. Employees globally: 14,926.

Deloitte Digital
Founded: 1999. Headquarters: London. Employees globally: 5161.

DMW Group
Founded: 1989. Headquarters: London. Employees globally: 105.

DXC Consulting
Founded: 2017. Headquarters: Tysons. Employees globally: 59,063.

EY Advisory Services
Founded: 1989. Headquarters: London. Employees globally: 241,301.

Gartner
Founded: 1979. Headquarters: Stamford. Employees globally: 10,925.

Grant Thornton
Founded: 1924. Headquarters: Chicago. Employees globally: 16,809.

IBM Global Business Services
Founded: 1911. Headquarters: New York. Employees globally: 516,933.

Infosys Consulting
Founded: 1981. Headquarters: Bangalore. Employees globally: 196,119.

KPMG Advisory
Founded: 1987. Headquarters: Toronto. Employees globally: 64,646.

KPMG Boxwood
Founded: 2005. Headquarters: London. Employees globally: 83.

LiveStrategy
Founded: 2015. Headquarters: London. Employees globally: 6.

Managementors
Founded: 1996. Headquarters: Berkshire. Employees globally: 40.

McKinsey & Company
Founded: 1926. Headquarters: New York. Employees globally: 24,663.

Moorhouse Consulting
Founded: 2004. Headquarters: London. Employees globally: 159.

NCC Group
Founded: 1999. Headquarters: Manchester. Employees globally: 1,719.

Netcel
Founded: 1995. Headquarters: Hertfordshire. Employees globally: 54.

NTT Data
Founded: 1967. Headquarters: Texas. Employees globally: 14,215.

Oliver Wyman
Founded: 1984. Headquarters: New York. Employees globally: 4,811.

PA Consulting Group
Founded: 1943. Headquarters: London. Employees globally: 3,894.

PPL Consulting
Founded: 1991. Headquarters: Victoria. Employees globally: 6.

PwC Consulting
Founded: 1849. Headquarters: Washington. Employees globally: 167,313.

Roland Berger
Founded: 1967. Headquarters: Munich. Employees globally: 2,400.

RSM UK
Founded: 1988. Headquarters: London. Employees globally: 3,423.

Sapient Consulting
Founded: 1990. Headquarters: Boston. Employees globally: 518.

SapientRazorfish
Founded: 1990. Headquarters: New York. Employees globally: 6,372.

Strategy&
Founded: 2014. Headquarters: New York. Employees globally: 3,539.

Symphony Ventures
Founded: 2014. Headquarters: London. Employees globally: 171.

Tata Consultancy Services
Founded: 1968. Headquarters: Mumbai. Employees globally: 366,978.

Turnstone Services
Founded: 2006. Headquarters: London. Employees globally: 7.

Wavestone
Founded: 1990. Headquarters: Paris. Employees globally: 2,811.

Wipro
Founded: 1945. Headquarters: Bangalore. Employees globally: 6,272.