Deloitte & Touche post big jump in fees income

NEWS Deloitte & Touche - one of the big five accountancy firms - has announced a 27.3 per cent rise in its income from fees. George Westropp, partner and communications director at Deloitte & Touche, assured Silicon.com that the rise reflects the fact that more work has been done - rather than hourly rates being raised. "Deloitte unified its consultancy operations a few years ago, and is reaping the benefits by selling more hours," he said. But on close questioning, he conceded that consultancy fees in particular have risen above inflation. Rival consultants were not prepared to comment on the rise in fees, but Mike Cullen, chair of the Independent Computer Contractors group of the British Computer Society (BCS), supported Deloitte & Touche. "I suspect that Deloitte & Touche is in line with general market prices, but its fees could be lower than the norm. EMU, ecommerce and the Year 2000 have stimulated demand in this sector," he said. Eurfyl ap Gwilym, MD of TCA Consulting, disagreed. He said a high demand for consultancy skills has pushed up fees across the board in the past twelve months, but that "a 15 per cent rise is the norm". Chris Setz, President of the Network Professionals Association, said there is no fixed rate for consultancy and that its value is determined solely by market perception. "Consultancy is negotiable as a business contract," he said, adding that "IT has always confounded the profit margins of other industries and will continue to do so."