With 31,000 management consultants,11,240 of which are in Europe, PricewaterhouseCoopers claims already to be the biggest ERP consultancy in the world. It’s now saying its projected growth curve for 1999 calls for the hiring of 1,000 additional consultants a month worldwide, as it positions itself to meet the demands of a largely untapped market for ERP services in the ‘new Europe’ of eastern bloc countries.
In line with this strategy PwC recently announced a multi-million dollar contract with Russia’s largest company Gazprom, responsible for producing a quarter of the world’s gas, to create an accounting and gas settlement and information management system using SAP. Elsewhere in Europe the aim is to consolidate a presence in its four key geographical markets of Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and the UK.
There is however, a danger that growth prospects could be stymied by recruitment difficulties. Colin Sawyer, UK head of the systems integration practice at PwC Management Consultancy Services complains that finding and developing high quality staff is one of our key challenges – every month, we are looking for 50 to 60 new IT consultants in the UK alone. So if PcW is to meet its recruitment quotas, it’s unlikely to be able to do so without having to poach the ERP personnel of its client base.
So far it has successfully sustained its ERP services expansion. PwC’s IT practice reported growth of 40% for FY98, accounting for around 55% of total revenue of its management consulting business. The growth for this division came mainly from ERP consulting which experienced growth of around 60% for the year. Growth continues at a steady rate within our technology practice, says Sawyer, consultants from all our technology solutions practices – Systems Integration, SAP, Oracle and PeopleSoft – are being called on to work on large-scale projects where technology is underpinning process improvement or strategic change.
PwC reported revenue figures for its management consulting divisions of $3.97bn for FY98 representing a growth rate for FY98 of 41.5%. In the computing consulting stakes this puts PwC second only to Andersen Consulting who recently posted revenues of $8.3bn for FY98. Most of PwC’s total revenues derive from the US ($1.89bn). In Europe PwC’s Management Consulting Services (MCS) reported revenues of $1,212 million, the bulk of this coming from service contracts in the UK ($634m) and Germany ($192m).
Following the merger between Pricewaterhouse and Coopers and Lybrand, PwC can now boast that multi-discipline projects are being undertaken across a wide variety of industries including telecommunications, government, utilities and financial services. The hunger for skilled personnel stems from the extensiveness of its service offerings: its Global Systems Solution Centres have dedicated SAP, Peoplesoft, Oracle and Baan divisions offering services that stretch from strategy through to implementation, enhancement and ERP extensions.
In support, PwC has 16 global Advanced Software Engineering Centers (ASECs) with resources to implement packaged, custom-built, or reengineered systems. It has Solutions Thru Technology (STT), a technology and systems delivery practice of PwC’s Management Consulting Services that provides systems development and technology integration services from experienced consultants each with 10 year’s systems solutions expertise. And it has a datawarehousing division and a so-called internet advisory service.
