Upside
Psst. Want some advice on how to make money on the Internet? Give advice. For Internet advice-peddlers, the gold rush is on.
The U.S. Internet consulting services market, including business strategy consulting, is expected to bring in $710 million this year, according to Framingham, Mass.-based research firm International Data Corp. (IDC). The market will swell to $4.38 billion in 2003, IDC projects. The stakes are actually much higher, though, considering that many firms use strategy consulting as the front door into the multibillion-dollar market for designing Web sites, developing applications and tying the new technology into legacy systems.
The race is on to fill a yawning marketplace gap with consultants who can provide "technically enlightened strategy," says analyst Stan Lepeak of Meta Group Inc., Stamford, Conn. "The people who understand the Web are in the boutiques. But they don't have enough vertical industry experience to provide real strategy," Lepeak says. "The people who provide high-end strategy don't understand the technology well enough yet."
Knowing that the corporate world will give much more than a penny for their thoughts on how to leverage the Web, an assortment of companies with varying backgrounds and expertise are charging into the e-business advice arena. They're filling gaps in their skills and knowledge by reorganizing their firms, making acquisitions, arranging partnerships and attracting talent.
The result is a complex, competitive market divided by business heritage and approach. On one front, there's rivalry between the newer Web-focused firms--the so-called boutiques--and the older, traditional business consultants and system integrators. On another, there's competition between the firms that deliver only business advice and others that view strategy consulting as one component of a broader set of offerings, including implementation.
A growing field
More than three dozen companies can be considered players in this market. The melange comprises Web pure-play firms, including US Web/CKS of Santa Clara, Calif.; Proxicom Inc. of Reston, Va.; and Viant Corp., Boston; system integrators with more diverse backgrounds, such as Cambridge Technology Partners Inc., Cambridge, Mass.; Sapient Corp., also of Cambridge; and Computer Sciences Corp., El Segundo, Calif.; Big Five firms, such as Andersen Consulting, Palo Alto, Calif.; and Deloitte Consulting LLC, New York; business strategists like The Boston Consulting Group Inc., Boston; and Booz, Allen & Hamilton Inc. of McLean, Va.; and IT services stalwarts like IBM Global Services, Somers, N.Y.; and Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS), Plano, Texas. To a degree, marketing-oriented firms like Modem Media.Poppe Tyson Inc. of Norwalk, Conn., also fit into the mix.
But the firmament is far from fixed, as firms that fold strategy into their Web portfolios attract capital and people in record time. Just look at Zefer Corp. of Boston. In May, one year after a group of Harvard business school students created the Web integrator, it landed $100 million in financing from GTCR Golder Rauner LLC, a Chicago-based private equity investment firm. Consider the latest of several acquisitions by USWeb/CKS. In July, it announced plans to buy New York's Mitchell Madison Group, a strategy consulting firm founded by alumni of McKinsey & Co. And observe Lante Corp. of Chicago. In June, Rudy Puryear, e-business industry luminary and Andersen Consulting global managing partner, joined the former Lotus Notes reseller and now self-proclaimed "dot-com business builder" as president and CEO.
**Reprinted from Upside, September 22, 1999