80 per cent of procurement managers are rarely involved with assessing the performance of consultants during a project, a number that jumps to 86 per cent in respect of post-project involvement.
Edward Haigh, Director from Source Information Services says: “Despite the assertions of procurement managers that value, rather than price, is of paramount importance in consulting projects, it seems that once a consultant starts work, that’s the last most procurement departments will see of them. That may not be the fault of procurement managers but it certainly represents a failed ambition.”
Getting on PSLs is also as important as ever for management consulting firms. Amongst organisations which spent more than €10 million on consulting in the last six months, 70 per cent have a PSL for consulting suppliers. And consulting firms on a PSL win about 78 per cent of the total value of all consulting work in an organisation. But the report says that the good news, both for consulting firms and clients, is that PSLs aren’t, on the whole, closed shops, though they’re more so for Tier 1 firms than they are for Tier 2.
