Specialist consulting platform XpertiseNow prepares for first major technology release

Start-up consulting sector platform XpertiseNow has added several senior leaders from major consultancies and industry to accelerate growth in Hong Kong, the US and Singapore as it expands its global footprint that includes Australia and Indonesia.  

Former Global Head of Financial Services at Deloitte Chris Harvey has joined as a strategic advisor and CEO of Hong Kong. Dallas-based former KPMG partner Chris McLaren is CEO in the US where XpertiseNow will be launching in January 2022.  

Telecommunications industry expert Robert Jones, founder and CEO of Bluefire — a consultancy with offices in Singapore and London — has agreed to be CEO in Singapore where XpertiseNow is already facilitating its consultancies to undertake projects with major companies. 

In recent months, former Minter’s Chief Client Officer Lawrence Owen, who also held senior international roles at IBM and PWC has signed-up in the same role, running the Sales and Engagement team. Nicola Mansfield, formerly of Deloitte Digital in Australia and founder of The Design Thinkers has joined the group as Brand Advisor and heading Brand, Marketing and Content. 

“Being able to attract such high calibre people to help guide the company is a testimony to opportunity that XpertiseNow represents in a market where businesses are looking for real expertise to help them in their digital transformations. There is a real trend in the market for senior consultants to leave bigger consulting firms so they can do more of what they love – directly advising business leaders – leaving behind management roles that left them often disengaged with clients,” XpertiseNow co-founder and CEO Fraser Ross said. 

“There is no easy way for businesses and specialist consultancies to find each other collaborate and manage their work together online. Using our unique business model that bridges a gap in the market, XpertiseNow aims to be a key player in the ongoing disruption of the consulting sector.

“Profitable growth for specialist consultancies is hard. Their resources are spread thinly finding and competing for new opportunities. As well, talent shortages and managing overheads make it hard to build out capabilities. Disconnected business tools make it hard to manage operations.”

XpertiseNow is building an end-to-end platform that provides a network of specialist consultancies with a range of tools to help them win more work, deliver smarter and improve profitability. A key component of the platform is the ability to seamlessly collaborate with fellow specialist consultants to work on tough business problems for their clients. XpertiseNow’s platform will connect business with the best expertise and fast-emerging technology solutions to deliver with timely, value-driven results for their client’s digital transformation initiatives. 

“The XpertiseNow platform seeks to solve the frustrations that businesses have with larger consultancies which are slow to mobilize and adapt to change. Projects are shifting from large to shorter, sharper programs of work. With little investment in infrastructure, management consulting is inefficient and inflexible,” XpertiseNow co-founder and CTO Sundi Balu said.

XpertiseNow is adding more specialist consultancies to its network in five countries each week and is already facilitating major projects in Singapore and Indonesia for a growing number of specialist consultancies in its network and are in advanced talks with business and government agencies for projects in Australia.

“We are building best-in-class, user-centric technology and are planning the first release of our Professional Services Platform in January 2022 that will focus on helping our specialist consultancy clients win more work. Subsequent releases planned for the first half of 2022 will offer smarter delivery and help consultancies improve their profitability,” Balu said.

The consulting industry landscape is changing rapidly with incumbents seeing their competitive positions eroded by new digital solutions, alternative staffing models, growing internal expertise and the flight of top talent.

The global consulting industry is worth almost US$300 billion and is expected to continue growing at a rate of 4-5 percent, according to Beroe Inc., a procurement intelligence firm. The Asia Pacific market is growing at 6–7 percent annually and is valued at US$44 billion.