MIDDLE EARTH

摘要

The Big Four's launch into acquisitive mode has been primarily driven by the need to innovate traditional service lines such as audit, along with the lucrative opportunities for growth that exist in consulting and data analytics. Meantime, the mid-tier firms, feeling some of that pull too, have also begun to dip into the data analytics stream, no doubt conscious that if they do not move their clients into this space, others will. Grant Thornton, with its modest £500,000 acquisition in February 2014 of Local Futures Group - a research and analysis service whose Place Analytics tool provides a geographical perspective on economic, social and environmental changes - was typical of the need to address clients' needs with data analysis.