Making consultants 3–5× more productive on the research behind their work

Client

Date

$30B+ Global IT Services and Consulting Group

08/2026

The challenge

The design and innovation practice of a $30B+ global IT services group runs discovery, market landscaping and idea-to-concept work by hand, and a concept could take weeks of senior consultant time. Keeping a current read on every market it sells into was manual too, so it happened when an engagement paid for it rather than continuously.

The solution

FifthRow runs inside the practice's own business across its European and US operations, doing two jobs. It carries the research load on live client engagements – a brief goes in, citation-backed research and finished concepts come out. And it runs always-on radars over the industries and areas the practice sells into, so the same consultants can open a client conversation with what changed in that market this week instead of waiting to be asked.

3–5×

productivity on consulting delivery

51

full-time analysts of research capacity added across the practice

Consulting delivery productivity3–5×, measured by the client's own delivery leads

Idea to conceptHours

Sector coverage between engagementsStanding weekly radars across the sectors the practice sells into

Analyst-hours displaced177,001 hours, the equivalent of 51 full-time analysts over the period

01 — RESEARCH INSIDE CLIENT ENGAGEMENTS

The system was put straight into paid client work rather than a sandbox: discovery, landscaping and idea-to-concept on engagements with a client waiting at the end of them.

Core Activities

Ran discovery and ideation on live client work instead of test cases
Took an idea to a costed concept in a single pass, concept and business model together
Produced pre-meeting client diagnostics and business development preparation
Synthesised interview transcripts and qualitative research into structured insight
Generated point-of-view and thought-leadership drafts for named audiences

The Results

Over ten months the research load inside 26 live engagements displaced 37,235 analyst-hours, the equivalent of 23 full-time analysts. The practice's own delivery leads put the productivity gain at 3 to 5 times.

37,235

analyst-hours displaced inside 26 live client engagements, the equivalent of 23 full-time analysts

02 — ALWAYS-ON SECTOR FORESIGHT

Standing foresight over the sectors the practice sells into, so a consultant walks into a client meeting with what moved in that market this month rather than a request for a brief.

Core Activities

Tracked six defined megatrends and the technology moving inside them, continuously
Ran weak-signal monitoring against the practice's priority sectors
Scheduled a recurring market intelligence digest and newsletter
Produced strategic narrative and proposition inputs for client pitches
Ran deep dives on individual sectors where a pitch was in flight, taking each from a standing radar to an engagement-ready read

The Results

Standing briefs arrive on a weekly cadence whether or not anyone is between engagements long enough to write one. In a hundred days a team of six displaced 83,847 analyst-hours, the equivalent of 20 full-time analysts, most of it feeding pitch narratives and proposition work.

83,847

analyst-hours displaced in a hundred days, by a team of six

03 — STANDING SECTOR OBSERVATORIES

Rather than speeding up individual engagements, this is standing coverage: permanent observatories over the industries it sells into, so it can go to a client with a view before the client thinks to ask for one.

Core Activities

Tracked one target industry week by week: regulatory shifts, new entrants and the technology moving inside it
Delivered a weekly executive brief on a second industry, sized for an executive to read in one sitting
Gave the product engineering team standing digital-innovation signal monitoring in place of manual research
Ran weekly evidence monitoring on a fast-moving technology the practice advises on
Ran an advisory portfolio intelligence programme off the same standing feeds

The Results

Four standing observatories publish on a weekly cadence without anyone starting them, giving the practice a current position on each of its target industries at any moment rather than only when an engagement funds the research. 328 research runs, 52,745 sources and 24,209 analyst-hours displaced in under four months, from a team of four active users.

81%

of the practice's scheduled output publishes with nobody starting it

04 — PITCH AND DEAL PREPARATION

Here the system sits on the front end of the business, on the work that wins engagements rather than the work that delivers them: the research behind a pitch, a target account, an acquisition screen or an investment memo.

Core Activities

Ran company deep dives and competitive landscape analysis on target accounts
Produced whitespace and sector landscape analysis for new market entry
Screened and shortlisted acquisition targets
Synthesised voice-of-customer inputs into structured findings
Generated investment memos and pre-event networking profiles

The Results

481 research runs and 34,610 sources across 15 apps, spread across a consulting and venture team rather than concentrated in two or three power users. That produced 31,710 analyst-hours displaced, the equivalent of 10 full-time analysts against 15 active users – the closest thing in the account to a per-person return. The pattern here is breadth: many consultants running a few things each, which is what research support looks like when it is part of how a practice works rather than a specialist tool a few people own.

consultants running their own client research instead of queuing for a specialist

What it proved

Four country practices now run their client work this way, with 30 consultants active across them. The idea-to-concept work that used to take weeks of senior consultant time comes back in hours. Alongside it, standing observatories over the industries each practice sells into publish weekly without anyone starting them – two of the four practices now run more than 85% of their app volume unattended. Across all of it the platform records 177,001 analyst-hours displaced, the equivalent of 51 full-time analysts over the period.

What the practice holds is a different way of selling and delivering. Inside an engagement, the discovery and landscaping load is carried by the system, so senior consultants spend their hours on judgement and the client sees work sooner – the practice's own delivery leads put the gain at 3–5×. Between engagements, the sector radars mean a consultant can open a client conversation with what changed in that client's market this month, which turns business development from responding to briefs into arriving with a point of view.

Results

MetricBenchmarkResultImprovement

Consulting delivery productivity

Benchmark: Manual baseline before the pilotResult: 3–5×

3–5× better

Idea to concept cycle

Benchmark: Weeks, per the client's own descriptionResult: Hours

Weeks to hours

Sectors under standing coverage

Benchmark: Research started when an engagement funded itResult: Weekly observatories across the industries the practice sells into

New capability

Analyst-hours displaced

Benchmark: Every research task took significant senior timeResult: 177,001 hours across four tenants

51 full-time analysts of capacity

PRACTICE-BUILT SYSTEMS

Each practice builds its own systems around the sectors it sells into, so what transfers between countries is the method rather than the configuration.

COSTED CONCEPTS

An idea comes back as a costed concept with its business model attached, in a single pass rather than across successive rounds of senior consultant work.

STANDING SECTOR COVERAGE

Sector radars publish on schedule with nobody starting them, so the practice holds a current view between engagements rather than only when one funds it.

CROSS-FUNCTION REUSE

The same system carries the research behind a pitch and the research inside a delivered engagement, so one capability serves both ends of the business.

BROAD-BASED USE

Research runs across a whole consulting team instead of a few power users, so it sits inside delivery rather than beside it.