Originally appeared in the article, “SPIResearch: Revenues and Jobs Soar for the Best-of-the-Best Professional Services Organizations” in BusinessWire.
SPIResearch, the leading independent technology services research firm, today named the 2017 Best-of-the-Best professional services organizations (PSO). SPI’s extensive annual survey, the PS Maturity™ Benchmark, revealed top performers grew both revenues and new jobs at more than twice the rate of average firms. The Best-of-the-Best augmented their consulting workforces by 16.9% compared to 5.9% headcount growth for average firms.
This past year, the top 21 firms out of 416 organizations who participated in the survey, outperformed their peers and the benchmark average with not only significantly higher profits, but also larger projects and more satisfied clients.
The Best-of-the-Best excel across five critical service performance dimensions: leadership, client relationships, human capital alignment, service execution, and finance and operations. The Best-of-the-Best recognition is significant because it measures PSOs not only on bottom line financial results such as profit margins but also on a breadth of leadership metrics to reveal exceptional, holistic performance.
For the past eight years, SPIResearch has conducted in-depth analyses of the top five percent of PS Maturity™ benchmark participants to uncover the reasons for their superlative performance. Top performers tend to be more specialized than average firms. They concentrate on high-growth segments (Cloud, Security, Talent and IT) or vertical industries like healthcare where they are often the market leader. Because of their sterling reputations, a significant portion of their business comes through referrals.
Best-of-the Best Comparison to Average Consulting firms:
Measurement | Top 20 Firms | All Others | Advantage |
Net Profit (EBITDA) | 19.2% | 13.6% | 41% |
Size of PS Organization (employees) | 315 | 509 | -38% |
Year over year PS headcount growth | 16.9% | 5.9% | 186% |
Year over year PS revenue growth | 20.4% | 8.4% | 143% |
Average revenue per project (k) | $255 | $157 | 62% |
Annual revenue per employee (k) | $206 | $160 | 29% |
Reference clients | 81.7% | 70.9% | 15% |
Projects delivered on-time | 89.3% | 77.4% | 15% |
The 2017 Best-of-the-Best are:
The annual benchmark from SPIResearch draws on a database of over 2,482 PS organizations to provide in-depth analysis of PS metrics and performance. For the 2017 report, 416 companies representing more than 200,000 consultants provided input. The complete 2017 PS Maturity™ Benchmark report is now available for purchase.