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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowKatz Sapper & Miller—the largest accounting firm in Indianapolis—now wants to make its mark in the world of information technology consulting.
The firm announced this week that it has launched an IT consulting practice led by David Eckel, a long-time local IT executive who joined KSM in November.
KSM has 415 Indianapolis-area employees, and another 374 employees at its offices in Fort Wayne, Evansville, Cincinnati, Oklahoma City and New York City, as well as some remote employees in other locations.
The firm does accounting, tax and audit work for clients in a range of industries. It also offers advisory services in more than a dozen subject areas, including site selection and incentives, government, health care and veterinary consulting and now, IT services.
Eckel said KSM decided to add IT consulting because the firm’s clients had expressed a need, particularly in the areas of artificial intelligence consulting and general IT business strategy.
“There’s a gap that needed to be filled of how we can help them solve problems in those areas,” Eckel said.
Initially, Eckel said, KSM’s IT consulting practice will target the firm’s existing clients. Over time, it will also pursue new clients who aren’t currently using KSM’s services.
Eckel said KSM’s IT consulting team is starting out as a five-person team: Himself, three people who have already been hired and one more position to be filled. He anticipates hiring additional people over time as the practice grows. “We plan to take this practice in the in the next five years and make it a significant part of [KSM’s] advisory services revenue.”
In entering the IT consulting arena, KSM is now one of numerous local firms offering such services. Established IT consulting companies include Indianapolis-based Resultant, CSpring, Moser Consulting Inc. and BCForward; and Carmel-based GyanSys Inc., among others. Indianapolis is also home to several AI-focused consulting startups, including Pragmatico, which launched last August; and Stellar Technology Services Inc., which launched in February 2023.
While acknowledging the competition that exists, Eckel said he still thinks IT consulting is an area of opportunity for KSM. “It’s crowded, but I think there’s always room for a practice that is good at what they do and adds value to their clients.”
Eckel comes to KSM with 30 years of experience in the IT sector.
Before joining KSM, Eckel was the vice president of Microsoft services at Fortude, a Sri Lanka-based IT services and consulting firm. Before that, he was a managing partner of enterprise and technology solutions at Carmel-based supply-chain and enterprise technology consulting firm enVista LLC. He was also a founding partner at Indianapolis-based IT consultant Appnuity, which enVista acquired in 2012.
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KSM already had an IT-Consulting shop (KSM Consulting) then it spun off as Resultant 8+ years ago. Now back to adding consultants. Guess they missed that revenue.