5 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

CHALLENGES UNIQUE TO THE BUSINESS

CONSULTING INDUSTRY
(and How Information Management Instantly Solves All of Them)
In the past as our habits have been completely overturned by newer and more
affordable technology and the way we approach work has shifted following
big societal changes, many industries have seen their fundamentals shaken.
decade, Companies have had to rethink the way they do business to the roots in
order to survive, and many new players have leveraged emerging trends to
pose a serious threat to incumbents.

The business consulting industry is no exception. Growth has picked up

after the decline following the Great Recession, and the sector is growing
at a steady pace — about 3.4% annually in the United States. Nonetheless,
consultancies have faced, and continue to face, challenges that cannot be
underestimated.

In particular:

1. More intense scrutiny by customers, whose expectations have

changed and are now demanding more.

2. Decreased prices of products and services offered, which

makes it more difficult to deliver top and bottom line growth

3. Additional complexity of projects, now involving multiple

stakeholders and required to deliver more value with less resources

4. A changed workforce that no longer tolerates having to spend

their working days with paper and manual processes and demands
instead to be challenged with interesting and relevant tasks

5. Increased reputation risk to have data and sensitive

information stolen or compromised. Most in the industry think
of data leaks in terms of when, rather than if.
“Using the advanced search capabilities in M-Files, we can
locate the correct and accurate versions of customer files
in seconds, which has helped to significantly improve our
customer service. In our business, meeting deadlines is
crucial to ensuring superior customer service. With the
powerful workflow capabilities of M-Files, we’ve streamlined
processes for completing tax filings, preparing financial
statements, and paying invoices, which enables us to keep
our customers happy.”
Gail Biere
Accounting Services Director
PSK

Within the same timeframe, M-Files has worked with companies

in the consulting industry to implement new ways to manage
information that could fit with their changing needs.

In the next pages, we will present five key learnings about how
information management can help consulting firms address the
challenges above and how it can prepare the industry for even
more change over the coming years.

Enhancing the Customer

01 Experience

In a world where people can find most answers on Customers’ expectations are also changing. Billable
the internet, the need for specialized knowledge is hours are becoming a thing of the past, replaced
jeopardized. by fixed or outcome-based fees that require
the service firm to be more efficient. Similarly,
This is particularly true in business consulting. customers now want to know what is happening in
Twenty years ago, big consulting firms could real time; a Deltek survey found that almost 40%
leverage specific and secretive expertise to of managers at professional services firms feel the
win customers; now this is no longer possible. pressure to be always-on. This represents a big
Knowledge is spread everywhere, and is used change for an industry that, as Clayton Christensen
by freelancers, boutique firms, purpose-driven puts it in a Harvard Business Review article, is used
consultancies and internal strategy departments to to generating recommendations in “the black box
help companies with their challenges. of the team room”.
Consulting firms are putting the customer at the
center of their offering. They are doing this by The Role of Information Management
focusing on two areas:
Where is the deliverable for that customer? Has
1. Eliminating obstacles that prevent it been reviewed already? Is this the most recent
personnel from serving the version of our final recommendations? How much
customer best. Making information time will it take us to respond to them with the
about customers and projects accessible information required?
when they are needed, in order to make
better decisions and avoid the duplication These (and many others) are questions our
of documents and requests. consulting customers were struggling to give a
prompt answer to. It’s not surprising that these
2. Reducing friction and costs to focus are common questions lobbed around when
on delivering the service. Throughout documents are stored in different systems,
the customer lifecycle, many processes exchanged via email, or archived on someone’s
are transformed from manual and laptop.
paper intensive to automatic and digital,
ensuring that personnel can focus on When information management is done right,
high value tasks. all information related to a customer can be
accessed when needed; it does not matter if the
A solid information management system can prove employee is working from home, at the office or
to be the cornerstone of the relationship between at the customers’ location — as is more and more
consulting firms and their customers. common nowadays.

Clients Want More

Objective Value Change

Consulting firms Increased client Facilitate access to
seek repeat satisfaction and correct information
business with loyalty about clients and
clients projects
A typical situation with archaic hierarchical are contracts in their different stages: from
network folder structures is one where more drafting to revision, from signature to renewal.
versions of the same document are available. With a system in place that moves the document
That’s confusing and it can be prevented, leaving from person to person, collecting input and
personnel to spend their time more effectively. sending notifications the moment a new action is
This is also valid for different projects related to a needed, deals get closed quickly and personnel
customer engagement, past and present, so that can start delivering value early. And when an
better decisions can be made when consulting for engagement is closed, information management
a customer over an extended period of time. can support the finalization documents and
closing the engagement out, as well as archiving,
Speaking of client projects, how each one of securing and retaining (or disposing of) all
them is carried out represents a considerable necessary information.
portion of the customer experience. A lot of
the project value is wrapped up in documents. With information management protocols in place,
Information management can standardize how at any time and for any reason, relevant staff can
these documents are created and handled, access all needed documents with a simple
ensuring that project documentation flows easily search and a couple of clicks, considerably
to all involved, without messy versioning issues. reducing the time it takes to move from
Delays and mistakes also make customers information gathering to action.
skittish about the relationship, and that’s why
project information management is a Imagine a situation where a customer wants
crucial part of overall project management, clarification on the work the consulting firm has
safeguarding crucial steps in a project lifecycle carried out for them. The customer has doubts
using automation to ensure no step is overlooked and wants reassurance that the correct processes
and no detail is left behind. Overall, information have been followed and the appropriate
management can optimize how projects are set information has been processed. What if you
up, managed, and executed to meet customer could get back to them with all the details in a
expectations. matter of hours, rather than days?

This starts with the initial RFIs and RFPs that This is what customer experience for consulting
consulting companies painstakingly try to prepare firms looks like with intelligent information
on time and with precise information. Then there management.
 02 It’s a Buyer’s Market!

As customers get a more central position in the incumbents want to maintain their edge, and to do
offering, the price charged for services provided so, they need to perform a balancing act between:
comes under increased scrutiny.

Nowadays, it is easy for customers of consulting 1. Offering products and services at

firms to shop around in search of fixed and lower costs. Organizations are looking
transparent pricing. It has also become common at their processes and procedures to
practice for clients to ask for help on a single optimize how resources are allocated and
issue to a variety of service firms, increasing the avoid waste, as value delivered cannot be
pressure on top line growth. decreased.

Deltek found that 54% of COOs in professional 2. Maintaining good levels of

services believe providing more value at the same productivity. As they commit to lowering
cost is a key challenge for the future of their operational costs, consulting companies
organizations. A second survey found that leaders also look for new ways to serve clients.
at consulting firms are looking to get better control They try to deepen existing expertise
of costs, and particularly project costs, to increase while simultaneously diversifying into other
profitability. consulting areas.

The competition is fierce. New entrants can

leverage technology to provide low-end, repeatable With information management, our consulting
services, without worrying about legacy systems customers are saving time and money, while
that can be cumbersome and difficult to integrate making space for their employees to focus on
into more modern processes. At the same time, higher value opportunities.

“In the past when all of our invoices were paper-based, it

was a time consuming and arduous task for our AP staff
to manually keep track of due dates, but with M-Files, we
can now easily manage, sort and process all invoices by
due date. In addition, the workflow capabilities in M-Files
have enabled us to streamline our invoice approval process.
We are now able to process invoices in minutes instead
of days, and we no longer have to worry about lost AP
documentation.”
Mike Hardy
Accounting Director
Orion Associates
 Lower Prices

Objective Value Change

Consulting firms Saved time and Digitize and
want to maximize money to redeploy automate
margins to higher value manual, tedious
activities processes

departments, and creatively implement the

The Role of Information Management new system to rethink the principles behind key
processes.
The cost of having staff wasting time on
tedious, manual work is way more than can be Accounts payable (AP) is a good example
appreciated in a financial statement. of how this can be put in practice. It often
features different steps, that can easily add up
It is also visible in offices where the amount of to weeks. Invoices are printed out and delivered
file cabinets exceeds the amount of employees, to the right person for review and approval. This
on desks that look more like a paper waste facility often requires collecting further documents to
than a work station, and in personnel that have make sure the invoice is correct, and possibly
to wander around offices to find the right piece involving different people in the process. When
of information, often having to ask colleagues, done, invoices are sent back to the AP team for
whose workday gets disrupted as well. payment, hopefully by the due date. No wonder
invoices are often lost in the process, or the due
With the aid of information management, date simply goes by while some actions are still
consulting firms can reexamine how processes pending.
and procedures are currently carried out,
automate what can be automated, and eventually In a different area, employee training can
reallocate resources (personnel, space, time) to also be cumbersome. Whether it’s for new hires
high-value activities that better serve the client or current staff, companies must make sure
and provide better returns. that people go through the correct documents
regarding procedures and best practices. They
We have seen previously how information also need to keep track of all training certificates
management can significantly help in accessing to be able to prove who knows what and when
the right information in its most recent version at somebody is due for a refresher. All of this often
the right time, no matter where it is stored. This means a lot of emails and calls.
breaks down silos and improves efficiency. We
have also described how companies can benefit Now, imagine how it would be to digitize and
from digitizing and automating processes related automate both accounts payable and training
to clients, such as proposals, contracts and close- — the benefits that could be reaped in terms
outs. of time saved accessing information, employee
satisfaction, paper-free work environment and
But there are also other areas in which efficiency office space availability.
can be enhanced, and this is why consulting
firms that benefit the most from information This is how information management can enable
management are those who take a serious consulting firms to reduce costs and find new,
look at how things are done in differenct more valuable ways to serve their clients.
03 Projects are More Complex
When a consulting firm gets hired, an ad hoc team
of experts is assembled, and a project is kicked off.
Being able to deliver the project on time and within
the constraints of the budget is fundamental to the
success of the service firm and the satisfaction of its
clients.

With customers more demanding and more careful

about how they spend their money, project managers
are under increased pressure to continuously
demonstrate how the engagement delivers value.

Almost 60% of managers in consulting firms Task management is not enough when it comes
see projects becoming more and more complex. to project deliveries. Documents are at the core
Partly, this is due to the involvement of multiple of every business consulting project, and effective
stakeholders to address a certain issue — information management is enabling our customers
subcontractors, independents, partner companies, to maintain their reputation intact and their
but also the customers themselves. Often the customers happy.
setting in which a project starts dramatically
changes over time and staying on track can be
complicated in light of additional demands from the The Role of Information Management
customer
When you have the best experts in your team, you
Consulting businesses that manage to provide do not want them to waste their time searching
reliable project delivery put significant effort in the for information, or filling in the blanks in a contract
following two areas: template, or duplicating a document because they
could not find the original one in network folders.
These are inefficiencies that slow projects down,
• They streamline and automate all raise costs and eventually cause consulting firms
project related processes, particularly lose business.
between different stages or milestones,
to avoid getting stuck because somebody
forgot to send an email or did not know
about the most recent changes.

• They facilitate access to project

documentation for all stakeholders
involved, so that information can be
accessed when needed in the most up to
date form, even on-the-go.
 Projects Are More Complex

Objective Value Change

Deliver complex Increased reputation Visibility on project
projects on time and customer information and
and on budget satisfaction processes

We have seen in the other sections how And finally, with powerful digital workflow
information management can automate capabilities, the different moving parts of
repetitive, manual tasks such as data entry, a project can be tracked and automated
project documentation setup, project close-out, to stop projects from getting stuck because of
contract management, RFIs/RFPs and more. With miscommunication. This is often the case when
these things out of the way, business consulting companies rely on people to send an email to
personnel can truly focus on delivering value to update on the status and kick off the next phase,
the customer and improve business. or when face-to-face meetings are the only way to
stay in the loop.
By bringing information together from different
places and making it accessible in the most recent Imagine how it would be instead if team members
version — a clear goal for a third of consulting would get an automatic notification when their
firms leaders, according to the Deltek survey — input is needed, add their value to the project, and
information management also enables project then click a button to fire up the next stage with
managers to stay on top of what is happening no need to hand over information, as everything is
at all times. This means, for example, being available, when needed, in a single place.
able to answer customer’s requests promptly, and
making relevant decisions in terms of scope should This is how projects can be delivered more
anything change in the setting of the project or effectively with information management.
should costs increase above a certain level.

“Managing these processes was complex, progressing

documents from one step to another required confirmation
via email, or verbal confirmation. The new approach enabled
us to optimize the collaborative section, including fewer
emails sent internally, and the possibility for staff to access
a document handled by another staff member, whether or
not they are present. Today we can process a document four
times faster than before.”
Cécile Cappeau
Associate Director
SRSI
 04 Workforce has Changed

Consulting firms are made of people. The services

they provide are only as good as their workforce. 1. Identify and retain new talent. We
have seen how reputation is important
In the past decade, many things have changed when it comes to repeat business with
in the way we all manage our personal and clients, but it is equally relevant when
professional lives. Our expectations have shifted, filling roles and open positions on the job
particularly what we want from our job and our market.
propensity for change. It was once normal to stay
with a company for most of a career, sitting at a 2. Ensure old and new employees stay.
desk 9-to-5, Monday to Friday, often working on Having technology in the workplace is no
trivial tasks. Today, we want work that is flexible, good if it makes day-to-day work more
collaborative, temporary and highly technological. complex, or if it does not become part of
processes and routines because it is too
Employees want to be challenged with relevant complicated to use.
problems and new ways to address them. They
want work that contributes to forming their Our business consulting customers are on the path
identities. to a truly digital workplace with the implementation
of information management.
What’s more, even if probably not as acute as in
other sectors, even consulting is dealing with a
shortage in skilled labor. In the survey conducted The Role of Information Management
by Deltek, 44% of managers at consulting firms
find it difficult to acquire new talent and 42% say Nobody wants to be in a job where hours are
they lack a successor for various positions. spent looking for a document needed to carry
out a simple task, or having to go back and forth
Balancing the needs of older and younger to colleagues and managers to get input on a
generations presents a challenge. Consulting firms proposal, or being singled out by HR for not
are committed on two fronts: attending last week’s training because the memo
got lost.

“The ability to access documents via mobile

devices during consulting appointments makes our
work so much easier and - in the interests of our
members - also more efficient and better...”

Alexandra Wellman
Attorney-at-Law
vem.die arbeitgeber e.V.
Most of what we have seen regarding information And imagine if people could actually start using it
management — securing information, enhancing right away, because they immediately understand
the customer experience and generating how it works and the benefit they can realize by
significant time and cost savings — is also very making it part of their work routine.
relevant when it comes to employee satisfaction
and meeting expectations. This is how information management can make
consulting firms a more appealing workplace
When there’s a system in place that enables for a modern workforce, while at the same time
staff to find a document with a simple search, improving the days of those who have been with
collaborate with colleagues without having to be in the company for some time.
the same physical office, and provide notifications
when an action is needed, it’s easier to foster a This is how information management can make
work environment where people can focus on accounting firms a more appealing workplace
solving problems that will grow the business. for a modern workforce, while at the same time
improving the days of those who have been with
Information management can also be easy to the company for some time.
implement and intuitive to use. Imagine if a new
software could be deployed to a full department
within weeks, even in a particularly stressful
period of the year.

Workforce Has Changed

Objective Value Change

Identify, attract Decreased Digital workplace
and retain talents employees turnover in line with
and labour new workforce
shortage expectations
05 Keeping Client Information Secure
Consulting services firms handle an enormous volume
of confidential client information.

From strategic and reorganization plans to details

about mergers and acquisitions, sales and marketing
data, personal identification data and classified
business communications; the documents containing
this information are delicate. When they fall into the
wrong hands, the bond of trust between the company
and their client is broken.

A 2019 IBM report on data breaches points to two Working with consulting firms on this issue, we
main sources of threat: have found that a flexible information management
environment can help address security
requirements.
• External — When a hacker attempts to
gain access to information like personal
identification numbers or credit card data, The Role of Information Management
that they can then use to commit other
types of fraud. “Who needs access to what?” is a great place to
start the conversation about how to better manage
• Internal — When employees accidentally and secure client information. Consulting services
email the wrong person with a sensitive firms can greatly benefit from having systems
attachment, or a disgruntled former staff and procedures in place to ensure that access to
member tries to take certain documents certain types of documents and information is
with them. only given to employees with relevant roles or in
relevant groups at the right time. For example, if
somebody’s input is needed when drafting an offer,
One way or another, the cost for the organization there is no need for them to retain access to the
is extremely relevant, both in terms of customer document subsequently. With a similar logic, when
turnover — the same IBM report estimates lost staffers are promoted or leave the company, their
business to be the biggest contributor to the whole access permissions should be modified accordingly
cost of a data breach — and in terms of company and automatically.
image and reputation.
 The way documents are shared is another meet local regulations or customers’ expectations,
big piece of the information security puzzle. consulting firms are often better off with a truly
Consulting firms use emails and attachments hybrid information management system, enabling
widely to collaborate with colleagues and clients, them to choose quickly what information to store
and this is one of the biggest threats. Once an where.
email is sent and a document shared, there is
no control over who has accessed it, when, and Finally, with all this in place, it becomes easy to
what happens afterwards. Relying on information respond to audit requests. Imagine being able to
management means moving away from email prove, in just a few clicks, that you are following
attachments and into an environment that the most recent standards or that you are
provides trackability of documents — as well operating according to your customer’s desires.
as maintaining control and visibility on shared Collecting the right information and evidence in
documents. minutes rather than days saves everybody a lot of
time.
Flexibility in the choice between cloud or on-
premises storage of information is another This is how information security for consulting
important factor. Cloud has some clear benefits firms looks with intelligent information
— namely easy maintenance, fast scalability and management.
lack of upfront investment. And yet, whether to

Safeguarding Client Information

Objective Value Change

Consulting firms Reduce costs due Digital control on
want to maintain a to lost business and access and sharing
reputation of safety E&O insurance of documents

“The problem we had with our previous system, a flat file storage,
is that it was really difficult for us to control. The groups were more
or less controlled by the user telling us who should be part of it,
and as people joined or left the firm, we had to continually manage
that. In the M-Files environment, we are integrating our directory,
so that as people join or leave the groups or the subgroups, they
will automatically be members of the departments or of the
appropriate areas. And if there is the need to lock it down further
than the group, we can do that.”

Alexandra Wellman
Attorney-at-Law
vem.die arbeitgeber e.V.
 Conclusion
The volume of documents and data any company
is dealing with will only get bigger in the future.
Consulting firms are no exception, and since time
is their most valuable — and limited — resource,
they need to make their wealth of information a
facilitator of growth rather than an impediment.

We have worked with consulting customers for

over a decade, and we walk alongside them
through the many changes the industry has
experienced. In this whitepaper, we have shared
things we’ve learned along the way and made
the case that information management enables
the modernization and digitalization of consulting
processes and procedures, delivering tangible
improvements to both the top and bottom line.

It can make information easily accessible, while Ease of implementation. There’s no need to move
at the same time ensuring that control is retained your files from where they are, M-Files fits with
across its full lifecycle. It can automate document- the way your employees are working and with the
intensive processes, particularly those related to tools they are using. It’s also scalable, and that
customers’ projects, so that no step gets delayed means that you can start with a pilot and then
and deadlines are met. And it can enhance the expand its use as you see fit.
workplace by cutting on paper and costs, making it
possible for the staff to focus on things that really Change management. M-Files is simple and easy
matter. to use, even for people who have no technology
background. On top of that, our consultants and
We know that information management, and services are with you along the way, to make sure
M-Files in particular, is the pathway to improved you can make the most of its implementation
efficiency for consulting firms. And we want to quickly.
close with two reasons why consulting firms
consistently choose M-Files for their digital
transformation.

“We were pleased that we could easily configure M-Files to

meet the nuances of our particular business. As a firm that
sells ‘non-tangible’ services versus a physical product, we
find that not all technology solutions can be easily adapted
to meet the specific needs of our business, but M-Files was
strong in this area and made it a straightforward process.”

Markko Ihamuotila
Senior Advisor
Hill+Knowlton
ABOUT M-FILES
M-Files is a global leader in information management.
The M-Files metadata-driven document management
platform enables knowledge workers to instantly find
the right information in any context, automate business
processes, and enforce information control. This provides
businesses with a competitive advantage and substantial
ROI as they deliver better customer experiences and
higher-quality work with lower risk.

For more information, visit www.m-files.com

M-Files has offices in eight countries.

To contact one of our regional offices, click here:
www.M-Files.com/en/contact-us

M-Files is a registered trademark of M-Files Corporation. All other registered trademarks

belong to their respective owners.