Consulting industry of Australia grows to 4.2 billion
The Australian consulting market has last year grown by 2%, taking the total value of the market to an estimated $4.2 billion. On the back of a recovering public sector and financial services market, the rate of growth in 2014 is expected to increase slightly to about 3%.
For a few years in a row the Australian consulting industry has booked positive growth rates. In 2011 the market was, according to analyst firm Source Information Services (Source), worth just over $4 billion. Following a 4% growth in that year and subsequently a 2% growth in 2012, the market was at the end of last year valued at approximately $4.28 billion. Australia’s large services sector led the way, growing by 3.9% to $687 million. The Financial Services sector, the second largest market for Australian consultants, grew by 2.1% to $790 million, mainly driven by projects in the area of cost-cutting, consumer experience and digital. Healthcare was also strong – up 3.1% to $150 million.
Work for management consultants across the Australian public sector grew by 1.6% to $663 million – as consultants help government to modernise and streamline. According to Source, major programmes have been launched recently, the most visible of which being the National Broadband Network project, which is thought to be the largest consulting project McKinsey & Company has ever won in Australia - a feat accomplished in conjunction with KPMG. Others domains which is expected to incite massive spending on consulting firms include the development of Sydney’s second airport, the development of new payments platform and further cost-cutting transformations.
From a service offering perspective technology dominated; growing by 3.2% in 2013 to over $1 billion. Productivity was the key driver, followed by traditional IT consulting services like ERP and IT-management.
