Human resource consulting is a $18.4 billion industry [1] that has emerged from management consulting, as clients' needs have become more complex and specialized, widening the gap between HR needs and work force capabilities, and thus accentuating the ability of HR management consulting firms to fill this gap.[2] While the multi-faceted nature of business sometimes causes overlap in consulting industries (i.e., with regards to human resources, general management, and information technology), the following are core fields around which most HR consultancies are based: * Human Capital, including remuneration (also called total rewards), employee rewards and incentive programs, and talent acquisition and management * Health & Benefits; i.e., orchestrating optimal employee health plans with the carriers themselves * Mergers & Acquisitions, examining fit across culture, job-type, transaction costs, etc. * Communication, including surveying employee attitudes, satisfaction, engagement, and other employee behaviors * Retirement * Outsourcing Services may also include legal counseling, global initiatives, investments consulting, and the implementation of HR technologies to facilitate human capital management. The HR consulting industry also employs more actuaries than any other in order to assist in their services. Companies in the field HR consultancies vary in their ranges of services and sizes, with many consultants and academicians breaking off to form their own practices. A 2007 Workforce Management study identifies the top five revenue producing HR consultancies as Mercer ($2.4 billion), Deloitte ($1.6 billion), Watson Wyatt ($1.4 billion), Aon ($1.3 billion), and PricewaterhouseCoopers ($1.1 billion). Other major players include Towers Perrin, Hewitt Associates, Hay Group,[1] and Buck Consultants [3]. Qualifications and certifications Many human resource consultants have specialized qualifications or certifications, such as: * Accountancy: ACCA, CA, CPA, CCA * Actuarial: EA, ASA, FSA, MAAA * Educational: MSc in Management/HR, MBA, Ph.D. in Management, DBA, J.D. * Finance: CFA * General consulting: CMC * Health and benefits: CEBS, CCP, CBP * Human resources: Various SHRM certifications (e.g. PHR, SPHR, GPHR); MCIPD Information technology consulting (IT consulting, Computer consultancy, Computing consultancy, technology consulting or business and technology services) is a field that focuses on advising businesses on how best to use information technology to meet their business objectives. In addition to providing advice, IT consultancies often implement, deploy, and administer IT systems on businesses' behalf. The IT consulting industry can be viewed as a three-tier system: * Professional services firms which maintain large professional workforces and command high bill rates. These firms are increasingly sourcing their employees from low-cost nations. * Staffing firms, which place technologists in businesses on a temporary basis. These firms are pejoratively known as "body shops". While they are geographically limited by their customers, they can exploit global cost differences by bringing guest workers to their host country. Body Shops are typically distinguished from Consultancies by their commercial practice of pricing service by the day (the input), rather than by the results of their work (the outputs, or deliverables). * Independent consultants, who function as contractors (in the U.S, on "1099"), employees of staffing firms (in the U.S, employed on "W-2"), or as subcontractors in their own right. There is a relatively unclear line between management consulting and IT consulting. There are sometimes overlaps between the two fields, but IT consultants often have degrees in computer science, electronics, technology, or management information systems while management consultants often have degrees in accounting, economics, Industrial Engineering, finance, or a generalized MBA (Masters in Business Administration). According to the Institute for Partner Education & Development, IT consultants' revenues come predominantly from design and planning based consulting with a mixture of IT and Business Consulting. This is different from a Systems Integrator in that you do not normally take title to product. Their value comes from their ability to integrate and support technologies as well as determining product and brands. List of major IT consulting firms The following is a list of the largest IT consulting firms in the world, along with their corporate headquarters location and the total number of consultants they have. Many of these serve primarily as third-party consultants. Many enterprise software companies, such as SAP and Oracle, employ their own consultants for services related to their own products. Among the corporations listed below, the number of consultants listed is less than their total number of employees. Management consulting grew with the rise of management as a unique field of study. The first management consulting firm was Arthur D. Little, founded in 1886 by the MIT professor of the same name.[citation needed] Though Arthur D. Little later became a general management consultancy, it originally specialized in technical research. Booz & Company was founded by Edwin G. Booz, a graduate of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, in 1914 as a management consultancy and the first to serve both industry and government clients.