Magic Quadrant for Global Financial Management Consulting Services

This Magic Quadrant focuses on the global financial management consulting services (FMCSs) for North America, Europe, Asia/Pacific, Japan and Latin America.

With an increased focus on strategy, performance management use of business intelligence (BI), and analytics for the finance function, this year's evaluation of FMCS providers concentrates on how consultants are able to provide a strong holistic solution for the finance organization. We have especially focused on their ability to include and link strategy to performance management services as well as the ability to ensure the enactment of their project recommendations. Strategy remains the main rationale for buyers to engage in FMCS initiatives. As a result, many of the consultants are in different positions this year, mainly due to this difference in perspective. This Magic Quadrant does not evaluate implementation and outsourcing services. This Magic Quadrant is not on performance management services.

We evaluated the set of offerings from the perspective of a consulting life cycle of assess and design, which may lead to "build" for FMCSs. We have expanded the scope of consulting services, and the offerings available from each vendor may not be mutually exclusive and may often overlap. We have included the following categories in an attempt to describe the scope of services normally used to describe the FMCS from each of the vendors:

• Finance advisory services — Providing strategic advisory services in relation to organization, operation models, governance, postmerger integration, finance risk strategy and so forth.
• Finance transformation strategy — Helping organizations improve finance efficiency and effectiveness, as well as moving to an improved cost structure, which leads to financial processes using best practices from both a cross-industry and industry perspective. This can impact the overall financial organization, as well as lead to a move to shared services or outsourcing of a set or all of financial processes.
• Change management — Assisting an organization in its move from one set of practices to another while considering changes in organization, people, processes and supporting systems that will be required.
• Financial performance improvement — Helping improve the performance of the finance organization through cost reduction and moving to industry best practices, as well as helping the finance organization provide more value to the enterprise.
• Business process improvement/best practices in the finance function — Similar to finance transformation strategy, but with more of a tactical focus on financial processes.
• Governance, risk and compliance (GRC) in the finance function — Providing guidance on how to improve the finance organization's response to regulatory issues on a local and global basis.
• Finance and accounting (F&A) shared services/outsourcing advisory services — Providing guidance on how to move to shared services and/or outsourcing of certain finance functions.
• Financial management business applications and corporate performance management (CPM) implementation services — The ability to support the implementation of business applications as well as business analytics, BI and CPM. This may include consulting services around system configuration, process management and change management.

FMCSs target the underlying processes that are overseen by the office of finance as well as the connectivity of the finance function to the rest of the enterprise. FMCSs include the relationships of operational processes to financial processes that may be improved by the implementation of technology. These may also include performance management consulting services for financial reporting; budgeting, planning and forecasting; and process optimization. We view FMCSs as a subset of a broader set of services delivered to the finance function, in which financial management business processes can be optimized by technology. The full set of FMCSs covers the entire service life cycle — assess, design, build and run — which is more inclusive than the set of services we evaluated in 2011.

In this Magic Quadrant, Gartner is focused on FMCSs that encompass any type of consulting directed at improving or enhancing the finance function and its performance. This research evaluates service providers only on their FMCSs; however, those vendors that have an increased scope of services have the potential to fare better than those that are more singularly focused. This research does not evaluate providers on their managed service or outsourcing projects or stand-alone IT Implementation projects, which exclude the assess phase of a consulting life cycle. This Magic Quadrant also does not evaluate them in areas of corporate finance, such as tax and treasury strategy, finance strategy, capital markets, and acquisitions and divestitures activities, unless technology is involved in the project and advisory services would have an implication on technology. However, a provider's capabilities in these areas may affect overall client satisfaction with the consulting services; thus, broader scopes of service delivery have the potential to score higher if there is better execution.

It should be noted that this is a fairly mature market, with vendors that have a minimum of $250 million in annual revenue. There are no Niche Players in this Magic Quadrant, given the scope of global services and the revenue size that would be required to meet the criteria.

Source: Gartner (November 2012)

Vendor Strengths and Cautions

Accenture

Accenture's Finance and Enterprise Performance (F&EP) business includes strategy, finance optimization and business process services. Accenture's global reach is wide; its strength in innovation — especially in the area of analytics — is consistently cited by its clients. Accenture's management consulting philosophy is embedded into its F&EP practice and is exemplified by the following: value proposition, partnering model, client experience, and assets, talent and culture. Accenture is also recognized as a provider of related services, in the role of a partner across many functions to the consultants assessed in this Magic Quadrant. These functions include advice on risk management, tax and treasury and providing implementation services.

Approach

Accenture's F&EP offerings include corporate finance, enterprise performance management and finance operations. Accenture's finance transformation assessment framework covers strategic alignment, organization, delivery, talent, technology, process and data. Accenture leverages its Client Value Labs, its extensive global delivery centers, and its centers of excellence in finance and risk to draw on additional resources. The Accenture Academy for the Finance Workforce offers an online resource for frameworks, courses and education solutions, in the areas of enterprise performance management, corporate finance and accounting operations. These can be customized for its clients. Accenture also connects with its CFO community through its CFO Circle Network and ongoing CFO research.

Finance and BI Technology and Partners

• Accenture generally has capabilities in-house, but will team with other entities for finance and BI technologies as needed, depending on the nature of the work.
• Key acquisition of finance and BI solutions in the past three years: CadenceQuest.
• Technology: Various proprietary toolkits, frameworks and health-check diagnostic tools (such as Real Estate Value Framework, Accenture Benchmarking Solutions, Finance Merger Integration Toolkits), Shared Services Methods, and Enterprise Performance Management Methods.

Suitability

Accenture is best-suited for large organizations needing a consultant with strong project management capabilities to provide a full suite of F&A services ranging from strategy advice to business process services. Accenture can also engage in related assignments in the finance function due to relationships with other consulting firms. In tax and audit, Accenture can work in a multisourced engagement. Accenture is also generally open and flexible with organizations seeking cost-plus and gain-share contracting models.

Strengths

• Market understanding — Accenture's F&EP management team aggressively reviews its competitive positioning regularly. Client references rated Accenture very high from a performance perspective. Its relationship management also scored high due to its ability to help influence senior management, as well as its ability to manage alliance partners when additional resources are required.
• Sales execution and pricing — Accenture's flexibility to use gain-share and cost-plus contract models regularly provides alternative pricing models that clients have found helpful, influencing their choice of engaging with Accenture.

Cautions

• Operations — Clients cited the quality consistency of consultants as an area for Accenture to improve upon. Gartner is aware that Accenture is trying to ramp up its training of consultants; however, talent shortage is a problem globally among all consultants.
• Customer experience — Accenture's client references cited some issues with Accenture's inconsistencies in change management. In addition, Accenture clients often cited an overly rigid approach in its methodology and consultants too rooted in theory.

Capgemini

Capgemini's FMCS business projects a strong focus on finance optimization and business process services. Gartner estimates that Capgemini's FMCS revenue is in the lower one-third revenue band of the consultants assessed. No Capgemini reference accounts were made available to Gartner for this study, per the methodology.

Approach

Capgemini's strong focus on business consulting is supported by comprehensive models, methodologies and approaches, such as its Accelerated Solutions Environment. It leverages its global best-shore capabilities and F&A centers for expertise and resources. Capgemini has a formal CFO community program in place that is global and has been of value to many of its clients.

Finance and BI Technology and Partners

• SAP, Oracle, Innogence, BWise, Hyperion, Cognos, Opera, Board M.I.T, IBM, APQC benchmarking, HP and Finantix are Capgemini's major finance and BI technology partners.
• Key acquisition of finance and BI solutions in the past three years: BI Consulting Group.
• Technology: Various proprietary toolkits, frameworks and health-check diagnostic tools, such as Global Process Model, APQC benchmarking, and Finance and Accounting Fundamentals solution book.

Suitability

Capgemini is best-suited for companies looking for a consultant in the specific geographies in which Capgemini is based (especially Europe-based companies), as well as those moving out of Europe into new geographies and requiring a provider with a strong European business culture. Capgemini is able to support large to midsize enterprises — especially those seeking strengths in finance strategy and performance management capabilities — with a complete suite of financial management services.

Strengths

• Innovation — In Europe, Capgemini is recognized for its strength in building new innovation through technology solutions (for example, its finance blueprints [Capgemini Global Process Model]), as well as digital transformation in the finance function. Its expertise in analytics in Europe has received positive traction, in tandem with Capgemini's buildup of its cloud capabilities. However, Capgemini's strength in innovation is lesser-known outside of Europe.
• Business model — Capgemini has a good focus on advising and implementing performance management services alongside finance strategy; however, it is somewhat limited in its global geographic penetration.

Cautions

• Geography — Capgemini's footprint is leaner in markets outside the European region. While it has been building presence during the past year in Latin America, the Middle East and Vietnam to improve its standing, Capgemini needs to aggressively improve its locally based consulting presence by building (and training) its on-site resource base, or else it should strategically partner in new markets. This need is especially acute, because European clients have a renewed focus on moving deeper into regions such as Asia/Pacific and the Middle East. Risk consulting resources also need to be built up globally, as it is still shared between Capgemini's financial services vertical sector.
• Marketing strategy — Capgemini must build a stronger marketing message outside of Europe to ensure existing and new clients that the overall corporate tendency toward digital transformation will not distract Capgemini from fully advising the CFO and the finance function. In addition, elevating the Capgemini branding outside Europe, by creating brand awareness of its innovation capabilities, will attract new clients.

CSC

CSC's FMCS emphasis centers on finance strategy and analytics. Gartner estimates CSC's FMCS revenue in the lower one-third revenue band of the consultants assessed.

Approach

CSC's FMCS offerings cover the financial management process areas of general accounting, client flows, supplier flows, audit and control, regulatory reporting, compliance, analytical reporting, budgeting and decision support, among other finance-related services. CSC's overall corporate value proposition for finance advisory services has a strong emphasis on business transformation and technology through its CFO Align2Transform methodology and Catalyst framework and use of its proprietary repeatable business solution blueprints. CSC educates and promotes its finance analytics implementation services (which include enterprise performance management) to its CFO clients. CSC connects with its FMCS clients — in part, through its CFO roundtables — and extracts hot topics from its annual CFO Barometer research survey.

Finance and BI Technology and Partners

• CSC's main finance and BI technology partners are IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, MicroStrategy, SAS, Teradata, Informatica, Brainware and Enablon.
• Technology: Various proprietary toolkits, frameworks and health-check diagnostic tools, CFO Cloud (including Concur, ARIS and Brainware).

Suitability

CSC is best-suited for companies looking for a consultant with a strong lean toward cloud services and analytics. In addition, it is suitable primarily for companies needing a consultant with deep experience in business transformational activities — particularly in a federal or government environment in the U.S. and in various commercial entities, especially financial institutions in continental Europe.

Strengths

• Innovation — CSC has the distinct advantage of driving differentiation through its cloud-based activities, including performance tracking. CSC works with CFOs to develop new business models to reduce costs and shift from capital to operating expenses. CSC ensures that key financial risk indicators are integrated in financial reporting for mitigation and compliance.
• Marketing execution — CSC's messaging is strong in business transformation and expertise in cloud and technology to support the CFO and the finance function.

Cautions

• Sales execution/pricing — CSC's clients cited above-average likelihood to switch to a lower-priced consultant with similar offerings. Additionally, CSC client references rated CSC lower on finance vision compared with its peers. As such, given its tactical focus, CSC risks having the value of services being viewed as a commodity.
• Customer experience — CSC must strengthen the business optimization capabilities of its global consulting team. CSC received lower client satisfaction ratings related to its consultants' strength and depth of business process capabilities, as well as its ability to define project scope according to clients' needs. However, Gartner is aware that, in Europe, CSC has been building up its financial services business and branding, especially in the markets of continental Europe.

Deloitte

Deloitte's FMCS capabilities span deep finance strategy, organization, systems, process optimization and implementation capabilities. Deloitte's FMCS business is the largest among its competitive peers, with a resource base of 9,300 to 9,600 full-time equivalents (FTEs).

Approach

Deloitte is able to draw from its audit, consulting, tax, risk and treasury resources and research capabilities. As a company, Deloitte is an advisor to financial and risk regulators globally. Via acquisitions, it has also built up a strong digital and analytics business throughout the years and leverages its global center of excellence and global delivery centers to bring those capabilities to its clients. Deloitte has targeted midmarket finance offerings in some country markets while continuing to excel among large organizations. It also has CFO-specific networks and initiatives, such as forums, a biweekly CFO Insights series and CFO conferences, which support its strength as a leading FMCS provider.

Finance and BI Technology and Partners

• SAP, Oracle, IBM, Lawson, SAS, Teradata, Sun and HP are Deloitte's major finance and BI technology partners.
• Key acquisitions of finance and BI solutions in the past three years: Oco, ReportSource, Atom Consulting and Technologies, and Pathfinder Solutions.
• Technology: Various proprietary toolkits, frameworks and health-check diagnostic tools, including Responsive Finance (a joint solution with SAP to enhance the client's value of finance system implementations).

Suitability

Deloitte is best-suited for companies looking for a consultant with strong comprehensive methodologies and maps, in addition to those needing a sounding board for implications on finance, tax, treasury controls and accounting principles. Deloitte has strong project management skills that it is able to draw into its innovation analytics centers. It is also a firm open to engaging with both large and midsize organizations and is receptive to cost-plus and gain-share contracting models.

Strengths

• Market understanding — Deloitte has deep, comprehensive financial management value maps and methodologies that Deloitte's clients highly value, describing them as "disciplined." These methodologies include its Four Faces Framework, Finance Transformation Assessment Wheel, FAST methodology, Finance Transformation Diagnostic Lab and Finance Transformation Capability Maturity Model.
• Services — Besides being competent in its approach, Deloitte is able to demonstrate good project management skills; clients also cited Deloitte's strength in ERP resources. Clients have noted that Deloitte has strengths in linking business applications to finance and enterprise strategy, in addition to bringing in experts from multiple disciplines on a project, including its audit and tax practices.

Cautions

• Operations — Deloitte's clients cited inconsistency with the skills across all levels of Deloitte's consulting personnel; however, as talent resources are a global challenge, this concern is also seen across many of the consultants assessed.
• Customer experience — Deloitte's clients emphasized that the company needs to improve on its customer intimacy and the need for tighter relationships at senior levels.

Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young's (EY's) FMCS offerings, as well as its capabilities to address the full scope of large global complex technology-enabled financial management, include a focus on the finance operating mode and benchmarking services for performance management. EY is an advisor to financial and risk regulators globally. Furthermore, EY has been growing its enterprise intelligence and analytics capabilities rapidly during the past two years, with a strong focus in finance. EY has improved in its ability to design and implement in the BI area, such as SAP BusinessObjects BI, IBM Cognos, Oracle Essbase and OBIEE.

Approach

EY sometimes leverages multiple providers on projects, which allows clients a degree of flexibility. EY often engages as a prime contractor overseeing multiple FMCS projects, collaborating with the client's system implementation resources that are often other firms' independent contractors or in-house resources. EY is able to grow its accounts through cross-selling its services into internal audit, accounting, tax, risk and treasury practice clients. EY has developed specific CFO programs, such as Tapestry Networks and Global Performance Think Tank for CFOs to draw upon EY's insights and leverage its global talent hub and finance centers of excellence (specifically in the areas of shared services, business process management, benchmarking and finance analytics).

Finance and BI Technology Expertise Areas

• SAP Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), SAP Business Planning Consolidation (BPC), IBM Cognos TM1 and Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) are some of EY's major areas of finance and BI technology expertise.
• Key acquisitions of finance and BI solutions in the past three years: Hacktics (cyberoffenses), ISA Consulting, Cataphora, Partake Consulting, EnteGreat, True Partners Consulting, Global Analytics, Q-Core Consulting (financial services analytics firm in South Africa) and Beco Group (corporate social responsibility and sustainability consulting; based in the Netherlands and Belgium).
• Industry-specific application and EY proprietary toolkits: SAP Upstream Oil & Gas PRA Roadmap, Bank Analyzer, Guidewire, Power & Utilities Maturity Model and Architecture, Pharma 3.0 Method, Operational Transfer Pricing, SAP Value Pathway, SAP Major Program Transformation Method, ARIS process toolkits, iRise Visualization, GRC Solution Enablers, and Finance and Enterprise Intelligence Innovation Centers.

Suitability

EY is best-suited for companies looking for a consultant that demonstrates flexibility, a strong ability in enterprise intelligence, strong project management skills and a willingness to invest in the relationship through gain-share contract models. EY is also a firm that should be considered when there are tax, treasury controls and accounting requirements in the project.

Strengths

• Market understanding — Gartner has seen EY gain market traction year over year, largely due to good project methodology and project management skills. EY's clients cited its innovative approaches to benchmarking best practices over their competitors.
• Offering/strategy — EY's leaders are aggressive about refining their FMCS positioning, especially in areas such as the growth of its Enterprise Intelligence group's strengths in performance management and financial analytics. This group is now able to directly go to market with its analytics offerings at the enterprise and finance organizations.

Cautions

• Service — Although EY has in place a "two-provider" model to bridge the gap of implementation capabilities, its clients still cited a need for the firm to improve on its technical implementation capabilities.
• Operations — EY's clients cited that relationships with senior executives and quality consistency of consultants could be improved. As with most consulting firms, quality consistency across levels of consulting resources can be a global challenge.

IBM

IBM's FMCS offerings include finance transformation, BI and performance management, risk and compliance, and finance enterprise applications. During the past three years, IBM has been on an acquisition path of asset-based firms to grow its centers of innovation and labs.

Approach

IBM's FMCS business focuses on a broad set of offerings — from strategy to implementation and management services. IBM's support of the implementation of many business applications has increased IBM's footprint in the finance organization. IBM has strategic methodologies and frameworks to help organizations move from finance health checks and performance management diagnostic tools to identifying finance accelerators, finance strategy and maturity models. IBM leverages its extensive global delivery centers, analytics solution centers, centers of competence, global practices and F&A business process outsourcing centers to draw in specific resources and expertise. Additionally, it conducts an extensive biannual CFO study for thought leadership and CFO forums.

Finance and BI Technology

• Key acquisitions of finance and BI solutions in the past three years: Cognos, Clarity Systems, OpenPages, SPSS, Algorithmics and Varicent Software.
• Technology, accelerators and toolkits: Various proprietary toolkits, frameworks and health-check diagnostic tools, such as Finance Transformation Workbench; Enterprise Risk Management Workbench; Finance Maturity Model Tool; Country Financial Risk Scorecard; Analytics Signature Solutions for CFO Performance Insight (CFO Dashboard);and Anti-Fraud, Waste and Abuse.

Suitability

IBM is best-suited for companies looking for a consultant with a strong focus on technology, innovation, analytics skills and solutions with geographical reach. IBM is also open to flexible pricing models, including gain-share and milestone-based contract models. It has demonstrated financial flexibility by being able to assist organizations from the IBM financing division.

Strengths

• Innovation — IBM's technology skills and R&D from its software labs are strong compared with many of its competitors. It has produced enterprise management solutions, such as the Finance Transformation Workbench, Enterprise Risk Management Workbench, CFO Dashboard, Finance Maturity Model Tool and Country Financial Risk Assessment. In its latest branded and packaged Smarter Analytics Signature Solutions, it effectively offers a Cognos and SPSS based solution that integrates all enterprise business functional data into a single system and single platform.
• Services — IBM's strengths are recognized in offering complementary design and implementation services and software to the finance function. These include analytics, big data, BI and performance management. While IBM owns the Cognos brand — a leader in business analytics, BI and performance management — it is one of the largest implementers of other Tier 1 products, such as Oracle Hyperion and SAP BusinessObjects.

Cautions

• Sales execution/pricing — IBM client references repeatedly cited IBM's pricing was "expensive" as compared with some of its competitive peers.
• Market responsiveness and track record — While IBM has built a strong demand for finance transformation as an implementer of technology and strategy, it still needs to continue to improve its ability to be brought in by the CFO in more strategy-only engagements.

KPMG

KPMG's FMCS business broadly includes finance strategy, finance operations and decision support. (The latter includes BI, which is a solution network jointly managed by KPMG's IT Advisory and FM practices.) KPMG is recognized as an advisor to various finance and risk regulators.

Approach

KPMG's approach to the marketplace is supported by its Value Delivery Framework (VDF) with integrated financial management methodology components. KPMG is able to draw from its external and internal audit, accounting, tax and treasury resources, and research. KPMG also utilizes its best practices from its finance-related divisions and its sourcing group (which resides inside its consulting business). KPMG's CFO community outreach programs include research insights and forums through its Finance and Risk Alignment initiative, BI Solution Network, Finance and BI Academies, and Finance Strategy and Transformation surveys.

Finance and BI Technology and Partners

• Oracle, SAP, IBM, HP, QlikView, SAS, Tagetik, BlackLine Systems, Trintech, BWise and QPR are KPMG's major finance, ERP and BI/analytics vendors.
• Key acquisitions of finance and BI solutions in the past three years: KPMG acquired Analitica, Optimum Solutions (which expands KPMG's Oracle ERP and BI capabilities) and WiseWindow (a developer of leading mass-opinion BI capabilities).
• Technology: Various proprietary toolkits, frameworks and health-check diagnostic tools, including EquaSiis Tool (which has the ability to capture financial data for client engagement and is used to develop the health of vertical supplier networks).

Suitability

KPMG is best-suited for companies looking for a consultant with strong vision in finance strategy and with strong project management skills, and for those needing a sounding board with implications to finance, tax, treasury, controls and accounting principles.

Strengths

• Market understanding — KPMG's clients recognize KPMG for its thought leadership and good methodologies, such as its VDF.
• Customer experience — KPMG's clients cited the company's consultants as having strong project management skills and described KPMG's consultants as "responsive," "creative" and "adaptable to changes."

Cautions

• Services — KPMG needs to build up awareness of its capabilities in BI and analytics for the finance function. KPMG acquired Analitica, WiseWindow and Optimum Solutions; hence, capabilities exist. However, a more aggressive plan to expand into building up new solutions or analytic capabilities for the finance organization will be highly beneficial, especially with new clients.
• Sales execution/pricing — KPMG's client references regularly cited a perception that it can be a tough negotiator and also an expensive provider. Among the consultants assessed, KPMG's client references provided a lower rating for KPMG on value of money for contracted services.

McKinsey & Co.

McKinsey & Co.'s FMCS business is focused on finance advisory services and, to a lesser degree, on finance optimization services. No McKinsey & Co. reference accounts were made available to Gartner for this study, per the methodology.

Approach

McKinsey & Co. is a strategy firm with deep corporate finance advisory services for the CFO in the areas of value creation, financial and performance analytics, and merger and acquisition transactions. Year after year, clients have told Gartner that McKinsey & Co. is very good for independent strategic financial advice. McKinsey & Co.'s finance service vision and thought leadership are clearly articulated through its established methodology.

Finance and BI Technology

• McKinsey & Co. neither offers implementation services, nor has established alliance partnerships with implementers.
• Technology: McKinsey Solutions provide performance measurement through analytic tools, specifically in certain areas such as banking.

Suitability

McKinsey & Co. is best-suited for companies needing a consultant that will offer strong, strategic, independent advice steeped in corporate and finance culture, which might lead to performance management services. Companies that have a contract with McKinsey & Co. want to manage their own solution implementers.

Strengths

• Market understanding — As a long-standing management consulting provider, McKinsey & Co. has superior vision and thought leadership in finance at a strategy level, but it will not provide implementation services.
• Offering strategy — McKinsey & Co. was ranked at the top of all competitors when clients were asked to rate a comprehensive list of consultants on their objective advice and independent services.

Cautions

• Services — McKinsey & Co. is very clear in its messaging: It does not implement technology. There is a gap in the full finance service experience, and strategic partnerships are sometimes needed to see through the fruition of McKinsey & Co.'s vision for the project.
• Sales execution/pricing — McKinsey & Co. is one of the highest-priced consultants assessed in this Magic Quadrant. Clients that rejected McKinsey & Co. in a bidding situation often cited the company being too expensive as the top-of-mind reason.

Protiviti

Protiviti's FMCS business relating to compliance and risk is especially strong. Gartner estimates Protiviti's FMCS revenue in the lower one-third revenue band of the consultants assessed. No Protiviti reference accounts were made available to Gartner for this study, per the methodology.

Approach

Along with Protiviti's global offices, Protiviti also draws on resources from parent company Robert Half to stretch its consultant base and geographic presence when needed. Protiviti is also able to leverage its presence in internal audit. Protiviti's approach to finance and risk is comprehensive. Protiviti's FMCS offerings include finance remediation and reporting compliance, finance optimization services, and performance and information management services. Its PRIM2 methodology framework is a deeply entrenched component of its FMCS offerings.

Finance and BI Technology and Partners

• SAP, Oracle, IBM, Accenture, Approva, Winshuttle, NetSuite, Paymetric, ClusterSeven, Cimcon, Akili and SAS are Protiviti's major finance and BI technology partners.
• Technology: Various proprietary toolkits, frameworks and health-check diagnostic tools, including proprietary Governance Portal, Internal Audit Portal, Spend Risk Assessor, Assure Suite of Tools, Compas, KnowledgeLeader, Audit Command Language (ACL), Resolver Ballot and Protiviti Solutions Portal.

Suitability

Protiviti is best-suited for companies looking for a consultant with strong insights into strategic finance risk, compliance and internal audit.

Strengths

• Offering/strategy — Clients have noted that Protiviti's PRIM2 framework is strong and has specific depth in risk. Moreover, Protiviti's strength is in tying risk to performance management objectives.
• Sales execution/pricing — Protiviti's pricing for consultants is in the midrange, and Protiviti generally provides good cost to value service.

Cautions

• Services — Protiviti needs to increase client penetration and build a deeper capability in the areas of implementing performance management services, such as BI and analytics, as well as in finance transformation services, such as shared-service implementation. Gartner is aware that Protiviti is working closer with SAP to bridge its BI capabilities.
• Geography — Although Protiviti has operations in more than 70 cities and in more than 20 country markets, it is relatively small in terms of geographic reach.

PwC

PwC's FMCS business includes strategy to implementation services, as well as often utilizing alliance partners to provide implementation services, where necessary, for an FMCS project. PwC is recognized to be an advisor to regulators and public sectors in the areas of finance and risks.

Approach

PwC services both global and midmarket clients, with PwC being particularly strong among midmarket clients in specific European markets. PwC is able to draw on its resources and best practices from its tax and audit divisions. PwC's holistic enterprise methodology, through its Transform Framework, includes elements of strategy, structure, processes, people, change management and program delivery. PwC has also centralized its acquired PRTM (operations management consulting) and Diamond Management and Technology Consultants (CPM) capabilities, providing internal outreach training programs so that the rest of the PwC organization is able to leverage these key resources. PwC's support programs to its CFO community includes its Finance Effectiveness Benchmark Study and Finance Leaders' Summit.

Finance and BI Technology and Alliances

• SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, HP, QlikView and Tagetik are some of PwC's major finance and BI technology alliance partners.
• Key acquisitions of finance and BI solutions in the past three years: PRTM, Diamond Management and Technology Consultants, Avantis (BI and analytics implementation, especially in SAP's BusinessObjects), and Logan Tod & Co. (investigation of online and offline data).
• Technology: Various proprietary toolkits, frameworks and health-check diagnostic tools, such as Change Readiness Assessment, Saratoga, and Shared Services and Outsourcing Diagnostic process.

Suitability

PwC is best-suited for companies looking for a consultant with a holistic enterprise approach, as well as those needing to understand the implications in regard to finance, tax, treasury, controls and accounting principles. PwC is open to engaging with both large and midsize organizations. In addition, it is open to cost-plus contract models.

Strengths

• Market understanding — At the beginning of 2012, PwC enhanced its methodology to be more holistic across the enterprise. PwC's clients provided strong validation of PwC's strengths in methodologies, frameworks and project management skills. PwC's clients also cited PwC as strong in "cultural bridging" and relationship skills.
• Pricing/strategy — PwC clients are least likely to switch to a lower-priced provider with the same set of offerings, despite regularly citing that PwC's "high costs" are an area for improvement. PwC is open to engaging in cost-plus models.

Cautions

• Operations — PwC clients cited that the consistency of PwC's consulting across different geographies could be improved; however, this is a notable global challenge among the consultants assessed.
• Innovation — As a Leader, PwC needs to drive more new global innovation solutions from its acquisitions, through its global operations.

Vendors Added or Dropped

We review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes as markets change. As a result of these adjustments, the mix of vendors in any Magic Quadrant or MarketScope may change over time. A vendor appearing in a Magic Quadrant or MarketScope one year and not the next does not necessarily indicate that we have changed our opinion of that vendor. This may be a reflection of a change in the market and, therefore, changed evaluation criteria, or a change of focus by a vendor.

Added

No vendors were added.

Dropped

No vendors were dropped.

This research evaluates service providers only on their project-based FMCSs. These service providers should have the following:

• Evidence of strategies and methodologies that have been applied in client engagements:
  • Between seven and 15 referenceable FMCS deals
• A minimum threshold of at least $250 million in overall financial management consulting global revenue
• A global company, with a commitment to the F&A marketplace in FMCSs:
  • Market share and clientele with presence in more than two major regions (for example, North America, Western Europe, Japan, Asia/Pacific or Latin America)
  • The capabilities to serve clients globally
  • A physical financial management consulting practice present in more than two major regions (for example, North America, Western Europe, Japan, Asia/Pacific or Latin America)

Evaluation Criteria

Ability to Execute

Gartner analysts evaluate consultants on the quality and efficacy of the processes, systems, methods or procedures that enable the consultant's performance to be competitive, efficient and effective, and to positively impact revenue, retention and reputation. Ultimately, consultants are judged on their ability and success in capitalizing on their vision.

Source: Gartner (November 2012)

Completeness of Vision

Gartner analysts evaluate consultants on their ability to convincingly articulate logical statements about current and future market direction, innovation, customer needs, and competitive forces and how well they map to the Gartner position. Ultimately, consultants are rated on their understanding of how market forces can be exploited to create opportunity for the provider.

Source: Gartner (November 2012)

Quadrant Descriptions

Leaders

Leaders are performing well today, with a clear vision of market-building competencies to sustain their leadership position in this space. The consultants in this quadrant generally share superior market understanding, vision, holistic and comprehensive methodologies and road maps. They have the extensive global geographic reach to support their on-site clients and have globally well-communicated and well-marketed sales offerings. They are also in the position to advise regulators and assist financially stricken leading businesses in crisis. Furthermore, they have a sizable performance management and BI/analytics capability.

Challengers

Challengers execute reasonably well today, but they have yet to capitalize on their vision. For consultants in this quadrant, increased attention to sales and marketing, increasing their finance portfolio of offerings, and building up the number of on-site finance consultants will help improve future alignment to existing clients and new prospects. Furthermore, the firms must invest in good marketing activities to communicate their abilities.

Visionaries

Visionaries have a clear vision of strategic market direction and are focused on preparing for that, especially with innovative technology solutions, but they still can improve the scale and scope of service delivery. For consultants in this quadrant, attention and accountability to executing visionary service and delivery plans will help them capitalize on their vision with new prospects.

Niche Players

Consultants in this quadrant typically focus on particular market segments, such as midmarkets or specific region-based clients, public-sector clients or manufacturing sectors and often support only those services that apply to those targeted segments. For this Magic Quadrant, there are no Niche Players, as they did not qualify for the inclusion criteria.

The relative positioning of providers in this Magic Quadrant is based, in part, on FMCS consulting projects that may require a mix of strategy and transformation capabilities for the finance function. We specifically evaluated consultants on their approach to the marketplace, their ability to define what needs to be done, their design and architecture of the project, oversight of the project management, control over implementation resources and accountability for their vision of the FMCS project.

When considering FMCS providers for a request for information or request for proposal, do not limit your evaluation to those in the Leaders quadrant. All consultants evaluated here have their strengths and weaknesses, and the question of the consultant's ability does not just lie in its position in the Leaders quadrant. Consultants should be evaluated on their cultural fit and specific requirements to your FMCS project. This analysis is for the consulting services required for discrete project work only and excludes multiyear contractual engagements typical of outsourcing agreements. This Magic Quadrant is a point-in-time analysis, and the view covers key competitors with the breadth and scale of offerings across a large array of criteria.

For this analysis, we obtained more than 74 client references provided by the seven FMCS providers to supplement our views based on daily interactions with Gartner clients.

A multitude of service providers typically support a client buyer on its FMCS initiative. Gartner asked client references to provide information on what activities their consultants were providing — as opposed to activities provided by other service providers — to support their FMCS initiative. The main findings are as follows:

• Consultants evaluated in this Magic Quadrant predominantly provided most of the change management, business process improvement, project management, scope of solution and training of solution activities for their clients' FMCS initiative.
• In the area of setting up internal finance shared services, there are equally as many consultants that are the client's prime contractor for the shared-service initiative, as there are subcontractors/partners supporting the client reference's initiative.
• Specialized services, such as internal audit, tax, treasury and risk management services, have the highest propensity to be supported by other service providers, apart from the primary consultant to the initiative. This is because either the main consultant assessed did not have strengths in such capabilities or the consultant just was not contracted for that purpose.
• Strategic finance advisory services, such as organization design and finance advisory, are still predominantly provided by the main consultant of this initiative, but about one-third of these activities are also supported by other service providers in the role of subcontractors or partners.
• Implementation services, such as ERP, BI and CPM, have a larger propensity to be provided by subcontractors or partners. Accenture has a large number of responses for supporting implementation services for the initiative.