This week in consulting

This was another promising week in the consulting world. The big outsourcers have made strong strides in quarterly profits, while others have made some key acquisitions and leadership changes. Industry growth is on the horizon, and consultants are making their voices heard.

IT outsources made a strong showing this quarter, with the top three—Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro—all drinking in better-than-expected fourth-quarter profits. Infosys has taken it a step further, having been heralded the No. 1 large-cap IT stock. The firm is forecasting a 16-18% jump in profits from last year, and its outsourcing work has risen about 5.2% for January-March, compared to just 4% that Wipro and TCS saw. It has also brought in more clients than the other two firms.

Deloitte has acquired Swiss management consultancy Exsigno to broaden its advisory business. Exsigno specializes in public sector and health care consulting. The purchase will make Deloitte one of the largest management consulting businesses in Switzerland, housing 300 employees and revenue of close to $80 million.

Unisys has named a new president for its global outsourcing and infrastructure services business. Ron Frankenfield has held a number of management roles at Unisys, including GM of the company's ANZ and AP businesses, and leader of sales and services for the technology business.

Grant Thornton has estimated that South Africa will see about 110,000 fewer visitors for the World Cup than it originally anticipated, primarily due to the high prices and failure of distribution of tickets throughout Africa. The firm now believes that 77% fewer African ticket holders will come to the event, and projects approximately 373,000 total visitors (compared with its previous estimate of 483,000).

Towers Watson has released results of a new study showing that the economic unrest of the past couple years has sparked attention on incentive plans, and companies are continually finding new ways to fund their bonus plans. Some interesting findings: Few companies now offer executive-only incentive plans; many companies are now moving to a results-based models (measuring cash flow and operating income) to fund incentive plans; companies are also altering their performance expectations—now many base their goals on "expected business conditions."

Capgemini has signed an outsourcing agreement with Kraft Foods to support the company's procurement operations in North America. Capgemini will be responsible for the strategic sourcing and spend management of a number of purchasing units.

And finally, this is the last plug for the 2010 Vault Consulting Survey! The survey will be open for just another few days, so this is your last chance to give us feedback on your firm. The responses will be used to compile our annual industry rankings and company profiles for our guides and website. We'd love to hear from you! Here is the list of firms included in our survey. If you work at one of those firms, we want your feedback! You may have already received a request from your company to participate in this survey. But if you haven’t, please contact us and we’ll be happy to send you the survey link.