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

FTEs of capacity added

Consulting delivery productivity3–5×, per the client's delivery leads

Idea to conceptHours

Sector coverage between engagementsStanding weekly sector radars

Analyst-hours equivalent177,001 hours, 51 FTEs

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, not test cases
Took an idea to a costed concept in one pass, business model included
Produced pre-meeting diagnostics and business development prep
Synthesised transcripts and qualitative research into structured insight
Drafted point-of-view and thought-leadership for named audiences

The Results

Over ten months the research load inside 26 live engagements saved 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 equivalent, 23 FTEs

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 megatrends and the technology inside them, continuously
Ran weak-signal monitoring on priority sectors
Scheduled a recurring intelligence digest and newsletter
Produced narrative and proposition inputs for client pitches
Ran deep dives where a pitch was live, taking a 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 saved 83,847 analyst-hours, the equivalent of 20 full-time analysts, most of it feeding pitch narratives and proposition work.

83,847

analyst-hours equivalent, sector foresight

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 weekly: regulatory shifts, new entrants, technology moves
Delivered a weekly brief on a second industry, sized for one sitting
Gave product engineering standing digital-innovation monitoring instead of manual research
Ran weekly evidence monitoring on a fast-moving technology
Ran advisory portfolio intelligence off the same 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 saved in under four months, from a team of four active users.

81%

of scheduled output publishes unattended

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 deep dives and competitive analysis on target accounts
Produced whitespace and sector 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 saved, 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 research

What it proved

Four country practices now run client work this way, with 30 consultants active. Idea-to-concept work that took weeks of senior consultant time comes back in hours. Standing observatories over each practice's industries publish weekly with nobody starting them – two of the four now run more than 85% of their app volume unattended. The platform records 177,001 analyst-hours saved, the equivalent of 51 full-time analysts.

The practice sells and delivers differently now. Inside an engagement the system carries discovery and landscaping, so senior consultants spend their hours on judgement and clients see work sooner – delivery leads put the gain at 3–5×. Between engagements, sector radars let a consultant open with what changed in that market this month, turning business development from responding to briefs into arriving with a point of view.

Results

Metric	Benchmark	Result	Improvement
Consulting delivery productivity	Manual baseline	3–5×	3–5× better
Idea to concept cycle	Weeks, per the client	Hours	Weeks to hours
Sectors under standing coverage	Research only when funded	Weekly observatories per industry	New capability
Analyst-hours saved	Manual senior consultant time	177,001 hours, four tenants	Equivalent of adding 51 full-time analysts

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.