Case Study
A service line redesign case showing how productization, tiered delivery, and margin visibility transformed a compliance-dependent firm into a strategically positioned practice.
Mid-size US accounting firm with 85% revenue from undifferentiated compliance services
Margin erosion from commoditized compliance, no visibility into service line profitability, pricing based on competition rather than value
Service line audit, tiered productization, margin measurement system, and client portfolio realignment
Measurable Outcomes
Margin improvement on compliance lines
Delivery tiers established
Revenue shifted to advisory
The firm treated all compliance work identically — same process, same pricing logic, same delivery model regardless of complexity. Simple individual returns received the same attention structure as complex multi-entity filings. The firm could not identify which services were profitable because cost allocation did not exist at the service line level. Pricing was set by competitive comparison rather than margin analysis, resulting in some services being delivered below cost.
Raising prices uniformly would have lost price-sensitive clients without capturing value from complex engagements. Adding advisory services on top of undifferentiated compliance would have created more work without addressing the margin problem underneath. Cutting costs through offshoring without restructuring service lines would have distributed the same unprofitable work to cheaper labor — solving for cost but not for architecture.