29 April 2025

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In this edition, we track the latest public sector sales, M&A and executive talent activity.

We've also launched a couple of other initiatives:

• We've just launched a Microsoft Teams community sharing done-for-you AI automations and templates to help with business development and thought-leadership. Sign up at pilla.ai/community

• Our report on “2024’s Executive Talent Flows” can be found here pilla.ai/report

Ejaaz - Founder @ KnowPro

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2025’s Public Sector Award Tracker

Analysis refers to the period dated 1st Jan to 25th April. Updated weekly.

We’ve tracked 81 management consultancy-related contract awards (across management, tech and research consulting) awarded by government departments and public bodies since the start of 2025, valued at an aggregate of £294M.

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The departments & public bodies that awarded consulting-related contracts, by award value, in 2025👇

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A Summary of 2025 Public Sector Activity:

• Last week saw Tecknuovo, the digital transformation firm, awarded a £15.6M award to provide HMRC’s Chief Digital and Information Officer with tech services (spanning data engineering, DevOps and testing). Tecknuovo reported 2023 revenues of £31.4M, surpassing Modular Data in being the highest awarded SME consultancy of 2025 so far.

• BCG was awarded an £890k contract to provide evaluation and strategic planning services to advance the commercialisation of NHS Blood & Transplant activities, within the ATMP sector.

• PwC was awarded a £18.2M contract to support the MHCLG with management consulting services related to policy development and implementation.

• Accenture has secured three contracts in 2025. The firm received a £1.5M contract this month to help the DWP with data lakehouse architecture, construction, and data migration. They also won a £252K DWP contract for program and project management of high-risk initiatives. Their largest award was a £139M NHS contract for digital transformation and hosting of two patient-facing applications: e-RS and Wayfinder.

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Top Consultancy Providers By Total Awarded Value

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• KPMG was awarded a single £17M contract by the Ministry of Defence, for assistance with it’s Next Generation Assurance Partnership (NGAP).

• Modular Data, a small data consultancy, was awarded a three-year, £9.9M contract by the MoJ for the support of HMPPS data hubs. Modular Data was established in 2021 and has a team of c10.

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A Big 2025 for SME Consultancies: £61.0M in Contract Awards

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• Deloitte has been awarded four contract awards in February: two from DEFRA totalling £162K, one from the Home Office, and one from the DBT. These awards brought their total awarded contract value to £567K.

• Methods has been awarded 5 contracts since the start of 2025: a £798K award from the MoD last week, to provide cloud consulting support, three from DEFRA to support the department with business case development and change management support, and one standout £7.7M contract to support the DfE with post-16 educational policy and data analysis.

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Of the 81 contracts tracked, technology consulting remained the largest spend area for government departments and public bodies 👇

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Big Deals (in April)

A recap of large, mid, and SME consultancy deals in April.

Here are some recent deals concerning UK HQ’d firms or those with a noteworthy connection to the UK market.

FSP, a leading UK digital transformation and technology consultancy with £23M in revenues, has acquired Stratia Cyber, a specialist provider of cyber security consultancy services with deep expertise in government and regulated sectors. Stratia Cyber, known for its NCSC-assured and CREST-accredited services, brings a highly experienced, security-cleared team to FSP.

CACI, a leading defence-focused data and technology consultancy, has acquired cyber security firm IdentityE2E. CACI’s vast range of consultancy services includes business intelligence, cloud infrastructure, digital transformation, data science and analytics, and logistics and supply chain. Headquartered in London with over 1,000 employees, CACI reported total revenues of £168M, with £66.5M coming from its consulting division. IdentityE2E is a specialist UK consultancy, focused on biometrics and cloud engineering for critical national infrastructure.

Softcat PLC, the £270M-turnover UK tech infrastructure and managed services provider, has acquired Leeds-based data and AI consultancy Oakland Group Services in an £8M deal. This marks Softcat’s first acquisition in its 32-year history. Oakland, employing 70 staff, specialises in data strategy, governance, analytics, and AI, generating £10M in revenue in 2024. Oakland will operate as a standalone unit initially as the partnership aims to deliver advanced data solutions to both companies' customers.

Intralink, a UK-based international BD and strategy consultancy, has acquired Singapore-headquartered Orissa International. Asia. Orissa brings a 28-year track record of helping companies expand across Southeast Asia. This acquisition is part of Intralink’s growth strategy, following growth investment from Mobeus Equity Partners in 2023.

Access Partnership, a UK-headquartered consultancy, has acquired Asia Group Advisors, an advisory firm with over 40 policy experts across six Southeast Asian countries. Founded in 2013, Asia Group Advisors specialises in market entry, government affairs, and public policy. The deal expands Access Partnership’s Asian footprint, complementing its global presence in Europe, the US, and the Middle East, and positions both firms to capitalise on ASEAN’s rapidly growing digital economy.

Stonehaven has acquired Public First, a UK-based consultancy specialising in policy, strategy, and opinion research. The deal creates a combined team of 150 consultants operating in over 24 markets. Prior to the acquisition, Stonehaven’s 2024 UK group revenues stood at £12M, with 17% of that coming from international markets.

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2025’s Consulting Executive Talent Tracker

Updated weekly.

We’ve tracked a total of 155 executive consulting moves across UK firms since the start of 2025. Here’s what we’ve found 👇

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• 85 of these 155 moves (54.84%) were promotions.
• 96 of these moves took place in January, 18 in February, 21 in March, and 20 in April.
• BCG has been the UK’s top-promoting firm since the start of the year, with a total of 14 promotions made. It has not seen any poaches or losses across its executive class.
• Baringa has the highest number of executive joiners, with 9 promotions and 9 external hires since the start of 2025.

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42 promotions have been made to Partner-level, with 10 of those promotions being to Managing Director, while 39 promotions were made at the Director-level.

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Over the past two weeks, several consulting firms reported lower levels of Partner and Director-level promotions, with most organisations announcing a single promotion each. This marks a significant slowdown from January's high volume of executive talent movements. BCG and Capgemini led the internal promotions in 2025.

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PwC and Deloitte have seen the exit of 7 executives since the start of 2025, who've departed to pursue opportunities across various unrelated consulting firms.

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