Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group
Steve Chapman
President
Consulting: As we close out 2015, where is your firm today?
Chapman: 2015 was another strong year for the firm. We experienced diversified growth across our financial services client base including the addition of four new financial institution clients. Our consulting workforce grew by over 30 percent with a majority of that growth in some of our largest offices including Charlotte, Dallas and NYC. The biggest surprise was having such a strong year in the midst of our midyear acquisition announcement with NTT DATA. It is the synergies and complementary strengths of our two companies that make the acquisition powerful.
Consulting: How would you describe your firm's outlook for 2016?
Chapman: Given the combined go-to-market strength of NTT DATA and CG, we see another strong year on the horizon. The combined firm offers clients access to services and solutions they won't find anywhere else—and from companies they already know and trust. Within the financial services industry our clients continue to face challenges in the areas of corporate risk, regulatory response, platform rationalization, cloud computing and data. These will continue to be areas of focus for the firm as our clients see real value in the services we provide.
Consulting: What signs suggest an increase or decrease in demand?
Chapman: We know that many of our clients are challenged with top line growth and a difficult interest rate environment. In spite of that, we've seen a dramatic upswing across our entire business the 2nd half of 2015. We don't see the demand for our services decreasing as we move into 2016. If anything, we see the need for our services increasing.
Consulting: How do you see the profession evolving in 2016?
Chapman: Clients are more sophisticated in their buying and procurement processes for consulting services and are separating commoditized "consulting" from true specialty advisory and delivery consulting. As such, demonstrating and delivering deep experience at a firm and individual consultant level is an imperative.
Consulting: What do you see as the biggest opportunities in 2016?
Chapman: Our biggest opportunities will come from leveraging the combined capabilities of NTT DATA and CG. As a consolidated firm we now have the ability to offer our clients a broader range of business and technology consulting services. Our biggest challenge will be maintaining our pattern of strong growth while successfully completing our integration activities.
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