current trends and opportunities for consulting

Abstract

The objective of this report is to present to an Indian IT services firm - the areas of opportunity in the field of Supply Chain Management and Outsourcing as part of its market entry strategy in the value added business consulting space. A brief overview and analysis of the current challenges, emerging theories, best practices and practical frameworks are provided along with recommendations on specific focus areas. The current challenges in Supply Chain Management are - increasingly complex product requirements, volatile macroeconomic conditions coupled with the shifting of economic power base to emerging countries. Monolithic supply chains, designed for efficiency alone, will not suffice in such an environment. Based on the product type, supply chains can be configured in different ways. Functional products, characterized by long product lifecycles and stable demand are more suited for an efficient supply chain. Innovative products, characterized by short product lifecycles and unstable demand are suited for responsive supply chains. More recent works focus on agility, adaptability and alignment as the characteristics required by modern supply chains. Another recent approach is based on product architecture and system engineering which uses the nature of product composition and clock-speed of the particular industry to arrive at design decisions. In addition to these strategic decisions, it is also important to effectively configure risk management and control systems for risk mitigation. Our analysis of the strengths of Beyond IT, in the context of consulting, reveals that it has competitive advantages in supply chain areas involving systems and information integration. There are also industry specific opportunities to explore. For example, in the automotive industry, the current challenge is overcapacity and inter-supplier communication. Retail industry, characterized by low margins, is facing issues with sourcing. In Hi-tech industry, speed of product innovation and complexity of Supply Chains is the key challenge. Our recommendation for Beyond IT is to use their existing customer engagements to enter the consulting market with a focus on SCM and Outsourcing, especially in areas where information integration is the key challenge. Competencies in the areas identified should be acquired through internal or external sources.