The deal gives Baker Tilly additional expertise in an area where there is significant demand for consulting support.

 Previous Outperform directors Andy Murray and Nick Taylor become Baker Tilly partners, and the move also sees Phil Stanton, who has been working with Outperform closely in the last few years also join Baker Tilly as a partner.

Murray will be based in Baker Tilly’s Chester office, Taylor in Preston and Stanton in Guildford.

Robert Ross, Baker Tilly’s UK head of consulting said: ‘We’re delighted to be merging the Outperform business into the Baker Tilly group.

‘There is no doubt that the team are highly experienced and hugely well regarded in the provision of project, programme and portfolio management services.

‘The merger broadens our overall consulting offering to existing and new clients, while giving Outperform a scale of operations and resource that was not open to them previously.

‘As a member of the RSM network, our merger with Outperform will also provide truly global reach and expertise for this important service line.’

The move into consultancy has seen major accounting firms snapping up a series of niche consulting firms over the last year to expand their service offering.

Last month, KPMG bought the mid-market management consultancy practice Boxwood, the latest among several recent acquisitions into the consultancy and analytics market and hotly following the May announcement of its acquisition of Nunwood, an independent consultancy specialising in customer experience management and feedback technology.

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