Market bounces back from 2012 contraction…
After the French consulting market contracted by 2.5 per cent in 2012, a new report has found that the market has started to recover (up 0.8 per cent to €3,75bn) in 2013 as regulatory work in the Energy and Resources Sector (up 3.5 per cent to €471m) and in Financial Services (up 1.2 per cent to €1.2bn) helped the market return to growth.
The Source Information Services (Source) report released today (14th May 2014) says that French consulting clients are very slowly growing in confidence and that the talk from the French government, which appears to be more favourable to businesses, is helping to change French clients’ attitudes to the use of consultants. The financial services sector in particular shows good prospects for growth, with Source finding that a third of financial services clients saying their spend will increase in 2014, and nearly all the rest expect their spend will stay the same.
B.J. Richards, Senior Analyst at Source and author of the report commented:
“In a country where consultants often find themselves fighting against cultural and political reluctance to use them, the striking news is that French clients are now more likely than the average client elsewhere to say they expect to use consultants to help with the initiatives they are working on.
Complying with regulation has played an important role in the financial services sector – but Banks in particular are also transforming their businesses to make them better aligned to the needs of customers in a digital, multi-channel age.”
Georges Vialle, Senior Partner, Oliver Wyman, who was interviewed for the Source report, added: “Financial services is a very important part of the French market, for two reasons: there is the impact of digital on the retail or consumer part of the business, and there is also the regulatory side of the business that is important – as a result the market will stay very active in 2014.”
Operational improvement remains top of the agenda
The Source report also found that from a service perspective operational improvement (€820m – growing by 1.3 per cent) remains top of the agenda. It says French clients, like their international counterparts, remain preoccupied with efficiency and productivity, and measures to improve both are still driving a lot of consulting work.
Technology Consulting - the biggest service in France grows to almost €1.2bn
The report says that it is hard to find any business initiative that isn’t underpinned by technology of some description and this remains one of the stronger parts of the French consulting market. As a result, technology consulting grew by 1.1 per cent to almost €1.2bn with clients requiring advice on digital technologies. Source predicts modest growth in 2014, though it believes digital services are primed for dramatic growth within the next few years.
B.J. Richards from Source concluded:
“Although they face serious challenges in France because of mandatory audit rotations and the threat of EU legislation separating audit from consulting, our report finds that the advisory practices of the Big Four accounting firms continue to outgrow the market as a whole.”
For more information on Source reports contact Alice Noyelle or telephone +44 (0)20 3700 5462/visit www.sourceforconsulting.com.