Big4 IT Consultants and The Road Ahead


by Neil More - Date: 2005-12-08 - Word Count: 617 Share This!

b>Demand for Big 4 IT Consultants: "A Big 4 Accounting firmis seeking IT Auditors," "Big4 experience in IT Audit, SOX 404,Business Process controls, internal controls" "Big4 ERPconsultant with Big 4 experience," "Strong Big4 experience inthe SAP market," "Big 4 firm seeks senior level Oracle, JDEdwards or PeopleSoft Management/Business Consultants" ... therequirements list for Big4 IT consultants is limitless!

Big4 IT Saga: Apart from being extraordinary performers,the Big Four firms and their clients have the knack ofachieving success during uncertain periods. According toDeloitte Technology Fast 500, IT and Software firms consistentlylead the Fast 500 list. The latest Trendsetter Barometer surveyfrom PricewaterhouseCoopers strengthens Deloitte's reports. Thesurvey avers that the fastest growing companies in the U.S.allocate more than 60% of the budget for Information Technology.

What drives the Big 4 IT Firms? IT is an ethereal marketthat demands business and technology improvements at the drop ofa hat. Managing risks and handling change are important tasksfor IT professionals at the Big4 firms. Today, there are threesignificant requirements that drive the Big 4 IT firms.They are-

Innovative Management

Dynamic Staff and

Efficient Team Dynamics.

Organizational performance at Big 4 IT firms is drivenby the fact that the Information Systems Audits, Controls,Business Planning and Development are handled exceptionally.Typically, Big4 IT firms choose professionals forInformation Systems Audits, Disaster Recovery, SystemsDevelopment and Information Security. http://www.big4.com- a website catering to Big4 alumni - receives periodic updates on the latest news and trends at the BigFour IT firms. The training budget per IT employee at Ernst& Young was U.S.$2,100 for the year 2003.

Big4 and ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is amajor bet for Big 4 IT professionals. Big 4 ITsoftware job market is dominated by ERP technologies fromOracle, SAP, PeopleSoft, Siebel and Great Plains.Salesforce.com, the Hosted CRM services leader, competes withall the top "Install and Customize" ERP technologies providers.With a 300,000 subscribers list, Salesforce.com expects to reacha U.S.$ 300 million profit in 2006.

Post Oracle-Siebel Union, Enterprise Software Technology giant,SAP, is also planning to offer hosted CRM Services. Budging fromits conventional Enterprise Software Technology market, SAP iscompeting against industry bigwigs like BEA, Oracle, PeopleSoftand Siebel to earn top honors in hosted CRM services.

Big4 Firms rely on E-business and Security: E-businessand Security are playing important roles in driving the successrate of Big Four firms. In June 2005, Sapient Corp.acquired BIS (Business Information Solutions,) a SAP-relatedservices firm. With this acquisition, the demand for BusinessIntelligence and value Optimization Services increasedtremendously.

Another Big4 stalwart, PricewaterhouseCoopers, helpsclients by offering IT cost and performance optimizationservices. PwC enables organizations to focus on IT businessrisk, IT spending, IT governance, IT risk management andcompliance. In the Information Security arena, Compliance is aforerunner. Business Process Controls, Internal Controls, SOX404 are potential players in improving the business performanceof the Big Four IT firms. As per a Deloitte Researchreport, a security loophole in a shipping container can amountto U.S.$ 1 trillion loss. Companies worldwide lose U.S.$ 12.5billion due to computer hacking and spamming. Additionally, thereport also suggests that global companies consider businessdisruption, poor regulatory compliance, erratic surges ininterest rates, terrorist activities as factors affectingSecurity.

Performance of Service Companies and Product-relatedcompanies: As a matter of fact, service companies areperforming better and reaping higher revenue than theproduct-related companies. The analysis made by thePricewaterhouseCoopers' Trendsetter survey compliments theperformance of IT services industry. As per the survey, 62% ofe-business budgeting caters to Information Technology. Servicecompanies bestow 57% of the e-business budget towards ITpersonnel, while their counterparts, the product sector firms,allocate 44% for IT personnel.

Big4 Firms and IT Compliance - The Road Ahead: SarbanesOxley and IT Compliance measures have had a positive effect onthe overall health of the Big Four firms. With ITauditors and financial auditors standing guard and streamliningthe Security measures at Big Four firms, does that meanBig Four IT professionals with desired attributes are ahotcake? You bet!



Neil More webmaster@big4.com is an Alumni Member and StaffWriter with http://www.big4.com He writes articles on issuespertaining to the global Big4 firms- Deloitte, Ernst & Young,KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers. Neil's articles focus on latestnews and happenings in Big4 Accounting, Big4 ManagementConsulting, Big4 Information Technology, Big4 Tax and Big4 Legaldomains.

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