Digital Consulting Revenue Expected to Grow by 13.5% in North America, ALM Study Finds

NEW YORK, Dec. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ALM Intelligence found that digital consulting and cybersecurity mandates have fueled growth in the North American consulting market in 2016, and ongoing commercial and governmental mandates for digital consulting and cybersecurity services will continue driving consulting demand through 2020. Digital consulting revenue in North America is expected to grow by 13.5% in 2017, which is four times higher than revenue growth for the region's overall consulting market.

To access the ALM Intelligence consulting report on North America, and the forthcoming consulting reports on Latin America, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and Asia Pacific, please visit http://at.alm.com/Global2016. 

"Consulting in North America is being driven by digitalization. In turn, this has created a buying frenzy within the consulting industry for digital specialists," said Lasse Pitkaeniemi, Director of Market Research for ALM Intelligence. "Over the last five years, consulting companies have been snapping up digital advertising agencies—Accenture, IBM and Deloitte own three of the top five digital agencies. Even traditional management consultancies like McKinsey & Co. have been embarking on initiatives to pull in large numbers of data scientists, with an emphasis on Millennial hires who have broad backgrounds in statistics, computer science and business."

While ALM Intelligence found that digital consulting and cybersecurity engagements in North America have fueled impressive growth in this region in 2016, research also indicates that the overall North American consulting market is entering a downward trajectory following five years of strong growth.

The North American consulting market experienced strong growth over the past five years due to a boom in corporate mergers and acquisitions, which was driven by loose Federal Reserve monetary policy, more rigorous regulations in key U.S. industries such as financial services and healthcare, digitalization, and national security concerns related to cybersecurity. The North American consulting market was also boosted by Canada's economic resilience during the Great Recession and annual increases in Canadian commodity prices.

However, ALM Intelligence found that the North American consulting market is beginning to decelerate because:

• The Federal Reserve is embracing a tighter monetary policy that will bring the corporate M&A boom to an end.
• Canada's housing bubble is about to burst, and the country is experiencing economic pain from the freefall in natural resource prices, leading ALM Intelligence to predict that Canada will shortly enter a recession.

ALM Intelligence reports that healthcare will remain the greatest growth engine for the North American consulting market. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act in the U.S. is ongoing, but the election of Donald Trump as President makes the future of the legislation uncertain. Canada is also engaging in healthcare reforms, such as shifting drug-buying power to the federal government. 

If economic growth rates in the U.S. and Canada remain below 2%, ALM Intelligence predicts that additional public spending will lead to a boost in consulting revenues from the public sector and the aerospace and defense industry.

About ALM Intelligence
ALM Intelligence provides accurate and reliable market sizing and forecasts on consulting services worldwide, needs-analysis and vendor profiling for buyers of consulting services, timely and insightful intelligence on the top consulting firms in their respective markets, and operational benchmarks that measure consulting performance.

ALM Intelligence's research spans multiple service areas, client vertical industries, and geographies. Our analysts provide expert commentary at consulting industry events worldwide, and offer custom research for Management Consulting and IT Services firms. More information about ALM Intelligence is available at http://consulting.almintel.com.

About ALM
ALM, an information and intelligence company, provides customers with critical news, data, analysis, marketing solutions and events to successfully manage the business of business.

Customers use ALM solutions to discover new ideas and approaches for solving business challenges, connect to the right professionals and peers creating to create relationships that move business forward, and compete to win through access to data, analytics and insight. ALM serves a community of over 6 million business professionals seeking to discover, connect and compete in highly complex industries. For more information, visit www.alm.com.

SOURCE ALM Intelligence

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