Professional services and businesses are undergoing a profound transformation. Markets are changing and the old ways of business are becoming obsolete. More and more professional services and businesses are following The Golden Rules of professional services marketing and, as a result, that is enticing more paying customers. As well as this, we are now seeing that the professional services customers are paying for are becoming sophisticated and more discerning. As well as this, with technology advancing with each passing day, digital technology has now transformed virtually every industry, affecting the way companies serves customers, manufacture products, interact with stakeholders, manage operations and engage their workforce.
What has changed for the European businesses is that it edges around the old distinction between consulting, staffing and outsourcing is beginning to fade. The mix of management and IT consulting is a more adequate way of going about your business as it brings together strategy, people, process and technology. One of the major evolutionary trends in the progressive development of new collaborative frameworks is the allowance of a mixture between large and small organisations coming together across specializations to create value for their clients. This unique bond between the two has become ubiquitous. You can notice there are long-standing one-to-one alliances, which is evident between technology and vendors/business consultants. That said some of them are new structures of multi-party collaborations to gain global coverage and capabilities in research, sales and delivery of products and services.
A new development within the European sector is the Ecosystem which is the latest evolution in modelling alliance management:
| Traditional Alliance Partnership Model | New Alliances Partnership Model |
| Fixed Alliance Framework (Closed System) | Dynamic Alliance Framework (Open System) |
| Internally Focused (concern with Brand, Meetings, and Politics…) | Externally Focused (concern with Clients, Markets, and Deals…) |
| Similar Companies Trying to Find Commonalities (strength in numbers) | International Ecosystem of Unlike Firms Defining New Markets and Services (new ways of working) |
| Standardized Model Across All Geographies | Clear Articulation of Global – Local Paradigm |
| Push to Oneness in Business Processes and Policy | Encouragement of Best Practices with Local Adaptations |
| Few Firms Working to Create One Group or Alliance Partnership | Multiple Firms Working Together to Go-To-Market to Serve Clients |
| Knowledge Sharing as an End Game to Build a Central Repository | Knowledge Sharing as a Means to Build Service Offerings |
Digital take over:
Yet, at a time when the majority of the business world has rapidly embraced this digital influx we are seeing, most business process outsourcing engagements continue to exist in an environment of low expectations when it comes to technology innovation. That said, we are now seeing an essential focus on personalised and segmented data. With companies segmenting their audience into smaller factions, rather than having customers contained in a one big group is allowing them to be more effective as a brand because they are able to deliver content that will resonate better. An example of this can be seen in social intelligence- social intelligence can play a big part as it can help you research your audience, thus giving you a better understanding on what type of content is becoming most engaging.
If you’re starting up, or maybe you’re thinking of moving you’re business to the European continent, make sure that if any EHIC renewals are needed, that they are renewed. Your EHIC card is very important as it can cover any injuries that can occur reducing you to spending high fees.
