Construction and Engineering Consultancy

As previously seen, Drivers Trett company operates in the consulting industry, mainly serving construction and engineering clients. In this industry, customers hire consultants to enhance their performance. Consequently, consultancy refers to any professional advice giving. There are three possible ways to split the job scope of this industry. First, specialist consultancy mainly focuses on a particular sector or business domain. For instance, there are consulting companies that possess expertise in availing advice to the public sector. Similarly, other consulting organizations specialize in supply chain management, public relations or accountancy. Second, strategy consultants also referred to as management consultants give advice that is mainly targeted at the customers senior management. Particularly, this consultancy is considered a lucrative profession that attracts many consulting professionals.

Finally, integrated solutions consultancy involves drawing expertise from various domains to implement customized solutions to clients, for example, building or installing new technology. Typically, customers outsource the whole processes to these consulting companies, allowing them to manage the necessary improvements directly. Evidently, Driver Trett is an integrated solutions consultancy firm that offers a wide variety of services ranging from project management to dispute resolution and training. Furthermore, since its services span globally, it is likely to operate in all the three divisions at the same time.

The consulting industry, like any other sector, has micro and macro environment factors that have a direct influence on its business undertakings and success. The main microenvironment factors include six stakeholders, namely, customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, competitors, and the media. Similarly, the external business environment influences the success of the consultancy sector. In particular, a PESTLE analysis identifies these external factors, which create the macro environment. Mainly, they include political, economical, social, technological, legal, and environmental forces. Consequently, these conditions display various drivers of digital disruption in this industry. A digital disruption is the change that materializes when new digital developments and business designs affect the value proposition of current products and services offered by a company (Utesheva et al., 2016). In particular, value proposition refers to the benefits a client will receive by buying a specific product or service from a vendor. The swift increase in consumerization of Information Technology (IT) has hastened the prospect for digital disruption across numerous industries

The first driver of digital disruption is the internet of things, which is a networking model where interconnected, smart devices such as vehicles, buildings, and physical devices continuously generate data and convey it over the Internet. IoT strives to provide a standard stage for developing supportive services and software applications that control the power of resources available through the individual devices and any subsystems designed to manage the devices (Xu, Frankwick & Ramirez, 2016). The IoT is developing volumes of linked gadgets and driving new architectures and patterns to add value to clients and creating new revenue streams. For example, engineering companies are putting sensors in their gadgets, which enable the company to predict when the devices will require repair and, consequently, can provide a new service with Service Level Agreements (Evans & Forth, 2015).

The second driver of digital disruptions in the consultancy industry is the big data, which is data of high volume, speed, and type that needs new technologies and methods to capture, store, and analyze it. The big data is useful in enhancing decision-making, availing insight and discovery, and supporting and optimizing processes in the construction industry (Grishikashvili, Bibbs & Meadows, 2014). Notably, the value of big data disruption lies in what organizations managers can derive out of the data. Furthermore, the consulting firms get easy access to crucial data necessary for generating reports and evaluating contracts of large construction and engineering companies.

Cloud technology is another form of digital disruption in the construction industry. It refers to the delivery of computing services such as storage, databases, software, networking, and Analytics over the Cloud or the Internet. Utilizing the cloud in the construction industry has a strong appeal because of the continuous change in technology, workers, and regular set up of new job locations. The cloud can avail greater freedom and ease to access information anytime, and from anywhere such as from satellite job sites or customer locations that span across the globe.

Fourth, the Building Information Modeling (BIM) is another common digital disruption in the construction and engineering sector. In particular, it is a systems technique to show from design and construction to maintenance, demolition and recycle of built assets. BIM is a pedestal that allows sharing of knowledge and communication between teams in a project. Many construction companies are adopting the Building Information Model, a three-dimensional digital representation of a building and its intrinsic properties. It enables consulting firms in the construction industry to use the parametric 3D model to auto-generate traditional architecture documents such as sections, details, elevations, and schedules. Additionally, it provides in 3D detailed architectural, mechanical, structural, and electrical components modeling.

Finally, there is an increased threat of new entry into the management consulting industry in UAE, which enhances the competition for Drivers Trett International. The factors that favor new entrants include the lack of governmental regulation and the easy access to customers and suppliers. Notably, the entry and exit costs into the consulting industry in UAE are small. Similarly, the creation of free zones and lowered bureaucracy in UAE makes the country an attractive market to trade in. Therefore, Drivers Trett faces an increase in the number of competitors most of them being already established and highly-performing multinational consulting firms in the construction and engineering industry.

Evidently, a need for digital innovation and engagement has transpired (Kubacki et al., 2015). Many companies have already discerned that they must utilize digital channels to connect with their primary stakeholders, in particular, customers to preserve relevance and drive the conversation. Nevertheless, few recognize how fast the change needs to occur, or how transformational it requires to be. The real demand in a world where everything is digitized is that entities must pursue innovation to distort their business design before the competition does. Notably, without innovation strategies, companies will lose their competitive advantage. Therefore, there in no time to waste, as technology advancement accelerates and new digital platforms and gadgets are emerging. Moreover, the expectations of the new digital natives mean that businesses must keep up with the pace of advancement or lose relevance.

The main challenges of digital disruption to businesses in the consultancy industry, in particular, Drive Trett, are the loss of control over customer relationship, threat of commoditization, increased competition, the need to relate digitally with suppliers, customers, employees, and shareholders (Leeflang et al., 2014). These businesses must develop comprehensive digital strategy and restructure their designs of activities to solve these challenges. Notably, such an approach will surpass the marketing department. It has to involve cross-channel connectivity, must facilitate continuous involvement with consumers, suppliers, staff, and investors, and it must be about innovation and differentiation through the business structure.

On the other hand, digital disruptions can act as growth multipliers for consulting companies such Drivers Trett. However, for the companies to benefit from this, they must understand the size of their digital economy and the opportunities presented by their digital efforts. Then, they must possess the ability to change their digital outcomes on the global platform. Notably, this involves adjusting three digital levels, in particular, digital skills, digital technologies and digital accelerators (Grishikashvili, Dibbs & Meadows, 2014). The adjustment enhances the overall digital intensity, which acts as a growth multiplier. Mainly, these three levels comprise a collection of broad indicators. For instance, digital skills include aspects such as the data, communications and technology expertise in the staff or the application of digital skills to facilitate remote working. On the other hand, digital technologies consist mobile connectivity and the economys ability to use the industrial Internet. Similarly, digital accelerators comprise wide-ranging variables, for example, making use of the cloud. Notably, according to Moctezuma and Rajagolal (2016), the combination of these digital drivers influences the overall productivity of a consulting company positively.

Similarly, the digital disruption is changing how marketers are approaching the 4Ps, namely, place, product, promotion, and price. Notably, the combination of changing content, channels, client expectations and technology is forcing a redefinition of the 4Ps of marketing. For example, products are now available in digital formats and are customizable. In the construction and engineering sector, consultants can now use customizable 3D designs of structures. Similarly, using smartphones, companies are supporting consumer engagement in any place and at any time (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016). Moreover, responsive designs, digital downloads, and applications are available, including the capability to access content without internet connection. Additionally, digital content is now widely relayed for promotional purposes. Consequently, the businesses are changing to start using digital platforms to shape and promote commodities and services around consumer experiences.

To conclude, digital disruption can have significant impacts on different elements of an organization. Regarding digital marketing, digital disruption brings changes, challenges, and benefits to an entitys digital strategy. In the consulting industry, Digital disruption is forcing companies to redefine the 4Ps of marketing. Similarly, the disruption helps the companies by influencing the productivity levels positively through a combination of three digital levels, namely, digital skills, digital technologies and digital accelerators (Moctezuma & Rajagopal, 2016). Moreover, these disruptions act as growth multipliers. On the other hand, digital disruptions bring several challenges to companies that face difficulties in keeping up with the technological changes. Nevertheless, to solve these problems, these businesses must develop comprehensive digital strategy and restructure their business designs.

Task II

Digital Marketing Plan

The main implications of digital disruption on Drive Trett are a loss of control over customer relationship, the threat of commoditization, increased competition, the need to relate digitally with suppliers, customers, employees, and shareholders. In consulting, the client retention characterized by a high customer return rate and the brand awareness are the most important aspects Drive Trett should focus on in its digital marketing strategy. Furthermore, it is already suffering from decreased revenue, and it faces well-established competitors such as Hill Inte...