15 top global digital transformation consultancies
Accenture, McKinsey & Company, Publicis Sapient and Cognizant are among the top consultancies for managing digital transformation projects, says Forrester.
About these consultancies
In the latest Forrester Wave report, "Global Digital Business Transformation Accelerators, Q1 2019 - The 15 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up," the research firm identifies 15 companies that are top digital transformation consultancies. The report was written by Forrester analyst Nigel Fenwick, with help from Allen Bonde, Liz Herbert, Sara Sjoblom and Peter Harrison.
Leaders
The Forrester Wave report names six digital transformation consultancies as leaders in the field: Accenture, EY, IBM, McKinsey & Company, Publicis Sapient and PwC.
Accenture delivers the broadest range of capabilities for complex transformation.
“Accenture scores especially well for its operations design skills, innovation labs, and academic partnerships,” Forrester says. “It was less distinguished for how it presents its transformation road map and market approach. Reference customers highly rate the firm’s ability to connect to the VC ecosystem and bring innovative technologies to their transformation journeys.”
EY stands out as a business innovator.
“EY stands out because of its integrated transformation capabilities and ability to bring a customer insights-driven strategy to its clients,” the Forrester report says. “The firm also delivers strong operational design and has a clearly articulated vision of digital transformation. Even so, EY has room to improve its range of accelerator software tools.”
IBM brings unmatched technology expertise to digital transformation.
“IBM’s strengths are its strategy consulting and use of technology assets and innovation centers to accelerate its clients’ transformation journeys,” Forrester explains. “The company also brings solid design capabilities to bear on redesigning customer experiences and business operations. IBM’s ability to design data architecture for the digital age and integrate with legacy systems is also a strength.”
McKinsey & Company in 2019 is much more than a strategy company.
“McKinsey remains one of the best at integrating innovation labs and operational design with strategy and change management,” Forrester says. “And the firm is now on par with others for experience design. Reference customers rate McKinsey very highly for strategy, deep industry expertise, and its ability to connect to the startup ecosystem.”
Publicis Sapient excels at designing great digital experiences.
“Publicis Sapient rates highly for its ability to bring accelerator assets and tools to clients alongside its proven digital design and execution,” Forrester explains. “Yet, the firm’s strategy for building new accelerator products remains uncertain, and there is room for improvement around its ability to advise on business strategy at the CEO level, where clients can use other partners.”
PwC ditches slides in favor of active engagement and winning customers.
“PwC is particularly strong in operations design and execution, digital talent training and development accelerators, and change management,” Forrester says. “The firm is weakest at integrating its advisory services for P&L operating models and raising outside capital with its transformation practice. If you fear death by PowerPoint, you’ll find PwC’s approach refreshing.”
Strong performers
Forrester rates six vendors as strong performers in the digital transformation consulting space: Atos, Capgemini, Cognizant, Deloitte, KPMG and Wipro.
Atos is a powerhouse of IT and internet-of-things (IoT) innovation.
“Atos gets high marks for operations design and execution as well as how it brings along a wide range of supporting products to engagements,” Forrester explains. “With its global footprint, reference customers find Atos a difficult company to navigate. They look to the recent acquisition of US-based Syntel as a sign of the firm’s digital aspirations but still view the company’s best work as that centered around technology-based innovation using IoT and related capabilities.”
Capgemini works to bring its digital acquisitions under one brand.
“Capgemini is strongest in strategy consulting, venture and academic partnering, and transferring digital skills to its clients,” Forrester says. “It’s also noteworthy for its technology integration capabilities. Across the board, Capgemini brings market-level or higher capabilities, making it a very strong competitor with the Leaders.”
Cognizant is fast becoming a full-featured digital agency with consulting.
“Cognizant is strong in strategy consulting, market research, digital experience design, data architecture, and technology integration,” Forrester says. “But the firm lacks the funding and business structure advisory capabilities of other players and is only on par when it comes to innovation labs and culture and change management.”
Deloitte brings transformation capabilities to large enterprises on a global scale.
“Deloitte effectively uses its innovation lab capabilities as part of its overall transformation methodology, weaving them into strong digital experience design capabilities,” according to the Forrester study. “It also rates highly for its change management capabilities.”
KPMG delivers customer-centric transformation.
“While KPMG scores highest for customer-specific market research, it brings strength to almost all of its other capabilities,” Forrester says. “But KPMG is not as focused on building out accelerator capabilities as other vendors and has yet to design the lab experience into its transformation methodology. As a result, none of its reference customers have used KPMG’s labs to accelerate their T2BI.“
Wipro has pockets of digital brilliance.
“Wipro is strongest in the use of its Digital Pods to reshape its development culture and, with Designit, bringing a customer-centric view of market research,” Forrester says. “The firm is weaker in leveraging the startup and VC community as part of its transformation methodology and advising on restructuring the P&L to avoid operational conflicts.”
Contenders
Three consultancies were named as contenders for digital transformation expertise: DXC Technology, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services.
DXC Technology is a strong IT performer but lags in business transformation.
“DXC offers strong technology integration capabilities,” Forrester says. “DXC falls behind the Leaders in a raft of business transformation capabilities, such as strategy consulting, digital experience design, and market research. While less critical for IT transformation, they are essential capabilities for effective business transformation.”
Infosys is transforming itself to better integrate tech consulting and design.
“Infosys offers strengths in technology integration and digital talent training and development accelerators,” Forrester says. “It’s weaker in strategy consulting at the C-suite level and showing that it can successfully unify its many separate transformation capabilities as one.”
TCS remains core to many IT transformations as a technology integrator.
“TCS does well integrating its accelerator labs into its transformation efforts and transferring digital skills to its clients,” Forrester says. “TCS is weaker than its peers in bringing its disparate capabilities into a single transformation service as well as delivering full-featured strategy consulting and experience design.”
