The Future of the Management Consultants Tool Stack
The ancient technical weapons of choice in Management Consulting still prevail. While OGs like Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint remain in popular demand, we have recently seen proprietary video-telephony software programmes such as Zoom and Teams and other time-saving digital tools such as Alteryx, Tableau, and Power BI on the rise. A first or second-year consultant will often spend up to 5 hours a day in Excel alone, amounting to over 50% of their working day in a single desktop application. Thanks to tools such as Alteryx, most of these mundane tasks can be automated. Reduce the time spent on low-value administrative tasks, and divert more attention to other value-add client services.
As the advancement of these technologies continues, the knowledge gap between ‘where’ and ‘when’ to apply these new tools is growing. To stay competitive, firms must commit to investing in the fundamentals and the future of consultancy work.
Here we look at some of the standard technologies gradually making their way into the mainstream Consulting landscape:
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BI Tools and Big Data
Popular Choices include: Tableau, Microsoft Power BI
As big data gets bigger and becomes more available, the need to clean, process and present it becomes increasingly important, and what better way to do that than with the likes of Tableau and Power BI?
Possession of data is no longer a competitive advantage, but the skills needed to exploit, protect and present the data are. Learn more with Kubicle’s enticing courses on Tableau and Power BI!
Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence?
Popular Choices: Python, Alteryx
It’s not enough to invest in cutting-edge technologies and algorithms; you need to rewire decision-making and operations to extract value—and invest in human capabilities to make it stick.
Consultants must create, combine, clean, analyze and interpret data regularly. Pre-Alteryx and Python times, the ETL (extract, transform and load) process alone would have consumed up to 50% of a client engagement.
Alteryx can automate these workflows and infer rules from data, meaning processes only need to be configured once to manage what used to be cumbersome repeated tasks.
Robotics & Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Popular Choices: UiPath, Power Automate
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Robotic Process Automation consultants use proven technological developments to manipulate application software to perform processes similar to a human.
In a recent webinar with UiPath and EY titled “A Robot for Every Person”, it was noted that EY was utilizing UiPath on over 120,000 desktops within its organization. Seven out of twelve of the recent UiPath awards for RPA capabilities (Partner of the Year) went to Consulting companies. Deloitte, EY, and PwC, to name a few.
Collaboration
Popular Choices: Miro, OneDrive, Slack, Monday, Powerpoint, Excel, Word
Management consultants many a time work in distributed teams. Thanks to the many tools that enable consultants to collaborate effectively, the online collaborative tools enable remote/distributed teams to work together whenever and wherever—tools like real-time access to communications and information help keep track of your project status.
Research
Popular Choices: Statista, AskBrian, Crunchbase, LexisNexis, Factiva
Data and information enable the consultants to discover vital strategic insights on their project topics and deliver quality recommendations to their clients. Tools like the ones listed above allow consultants to collect, analyze, organize and present data to their clients, underlining strategic insights on their project topics and delivering quality recommendations.
Did we miss anything here? Let us know in the comments.
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