How Accountancy Firms are diversifying their services and disrupting the consultancy market

In the latest issue of ABACUS magazine, we take a look at how accountancy firms are looking to diversify by expanding their consultancy services. As the accountancy industry looks towards the future we could see firms offering HR, legal and financial advice services. 

It’s no secret that Accountancy firms have caused quite a stir in the professional service industry. With their array of legal and regulatory knowledge, deep corporate relationships with audit clients and an ability to provide clients with a ‘one-stop shop’ of services, firms have begun to establish consultancy offerings that both individually and co-operatively are a force to be reckoned with.

For top accountancy firms, diversifying their services now represents much more than just an appropriate add on. It’s an opportunity to provide a distinctive offering to their client base. And results are encouraging so far, with revenues from consultancy larger than ever. In fact, according to recent research, spending on consultancy services increased by 6.1% last year.

At PwC, income from consultancy grew by 16% whilst Deloitte have doubled in size over the last 10 years with the help of consulting. Furthermore, EY has announced plans to grow its strategy consulting practice to over 2500 professionals by 2020. And it’s not just the Big 4 who are making waves. RSM have recently added a HR business to their service offering. Last year, the turnover for RSM’s consulting business grew by 195%, with the possibility for further growth in the HR consulting market.

Read the ABACUS articles here.