The global consulting and advisory services industry is undergoing significant transformation. The key success factors and market landscape are evolving because of changes in enterprise demand and buying behavior, the number and nature of providers, business process outsourcing (BPO) and shared services market development, offshore labor arbitrage, global price stabilization, and changes in the ways consulting services are priced, sold, and delivered. IDC's Consulting and Advisory Services research monitors and analyzes these changes, examines key trends and business imperatives, and offers predictions for consulting and advisory services players. This research also provides strategic guidance to assist consulting and advisory services firms in competing more effectively today and preparing for the future competitive landscape in the years to come. Subscribers to this service receive direct access to IDC's top industry experts, who can supply competitive analysis and positioning advice, identify strategic partnering opportunities, assist with speaking to the investment community, provide press quotes, and more.

This service covers the following segments of the worldwide and U.S. consulting services market:

• Business/management consulting
• IT consulting
• Advisory services
• Business transformation consulting

Throughout the year, this service will address the following topics:

• Global business and IT consulting spending review and forecast by region, company size, and vertical industry for 2006-2011
• Top 10 business and IT consulting players
• Performance metrics for the consulting and advisory industry
• Consulting work as part of outsourcing engagements
• Coverage of major market news and events
• Reemergence of advisory firms (such as so-called Big Four firms) as serious players in the business and IT consulting spaces
• Analysis of the distinct business and IT services being offered by advisory firms

Our research addresses the following issues that are critical to your success:

1. How can vendors win the next consulting bid?
2. What are the new market opportunities for consulting and advisory services vendors?
3. How will the changes in consulting market dynamics and the competitive landscape affect the services industry?
4. How do consulting and outsourcing businesses interrelate?
5. What are the winning strategies for business development, sales, and marketing related to consulting services?
6. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the leading consulting and advisory firms?
7. What are current buyer needs and preferences?

IDC's Consulting and Advisory Services research examines how consulting services players are positioning themselves to compete in the worldwide and U.S. consulting services market. This service reviews the strategies, market positioning, and future direction of several providers in consulting services, including:

Accenture, ACS, Answerthink, A.T. Kearney, Bain & Co., BearingPoint, Booz Allen & Hamilton, The Boston Consulting Group, Capgemini, CGI, Convergys, CSC, Deloitte, EDS, Ernst & Young, Fujitsu Consulting, Hitachi Consulting, HP, IBM, Infosys, Intel, KPMG, McKinsey & Co., Mercer Management Consulting, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Perot Systems, PwC, SAIC, SAP, Sapient, Satyam, Siemens Business Systems, Sun Microsystems, Tata Consultancy Services, Unisys, and Wipro.

Throughout the year, this service will offer insight into the latest trends impacting the market. Studies include:

This document provides an in-depth look at customer spending on business consulting services. It analyzes spending by geographic region, company size, vertical industry, and service segment. It provides an update on the competitive landscape and trends by business consulting service segment. It also presents market drivers, inhibitors, trends, recommendations, and predictions.

This document covers both the total and discrete IT consulting segments. It provides an in-depth analysis of customer spending on IT consulting services by geographic region, company size, vertical industry, and service segment. It maps out the competitive landscape and identifies major market trends, drivers, and inhibitors. It provides an analysis of the interrelations of IT consulting with other IT services and solution services and offers recommendations and predictions.

Periodic documents highlight and analyze key trends in consulting and advisory services and focus on pressing issues for providers and buyers alike. Examples of topics covered include pricing, sales channels, best practices, verticalization, emerging opportunities, and more.

This quarterly document monitors and analyzes major consulting performance characteristics, such as number of consultants, revenue, net income, hourly billing rate, capacity utilization, ebusiness as a percentage of business, bid-winning rate, average project size, customer satisfaction, and backlog volume. The metrics are classified by the type of consulting company. The data is supported by qualitative analysis.

IDC offers a complete market intelligence solution customized to meet your business requirements. The array of products and services available to you includes:

• The opportunity to have your specific questions answered through personal interaction with industry experts who cover the topics and markets in your service
• Around-the-clock access to our market intelligence on idc.com, IDC's personalized Web experience
• A view of the market's future with 12 months of continuous intelligence about its direction and the reasons behind it, along with actionable advice for taking advantage of existing and emerging opportunities
• Special client discount pricing on purchases of research from other services
• Complimentary admission to IDC's annual Directions conference, where you'll hear our latest forecasts and network with IDC analysts and other industry professionals
• Complimentary invitations to monthly executive telebriefings, interactive forums designed to provide you with insights about research and strategies directly from IDC analysts

To find out how our flexible packaging options can meet your specific business needs, please contact your IDC sales executive.

As a privately held company, IDC believes that our customers are our primary constituency. A large percentage of every revenue dollar is reinvested back into our products, including more analysts, more geographic coverage, and extensive primary research.

Our steady growth over the past 10 years reflects our commitment to investing in our customers.