Performance evaluation system for consulting is like a finely tuned symphony, requiring orchestration, precision, and dedication to maintain their harmony.

“Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time.” – Bruce Springsteen.

While The Boss wasn’t talking about managing consultants, but he might as well have been. Securing top-notch consultants, fostering those oh-so-delicate supplier relationships, and convincing leadership to jump on board?

It’s a bit like herding cats. And not just the docile ones, but the feral ones that have had too much caffeine.

You’ve been in the game long enough to know that starting a new initiative is a bit like a New Year’s resolution – exciting at first, but oh the commitment it demands!

Before we dive in and potentially scare you off with tales of consultant woes, let’s lay the foundation. After all, a good story always starts at the beginning, doesn’t it?

Why Implementing a Performance Evaluation System for Consulting Is Crucial?

We can always start with Peter Drucker: “What’s measured improves.” Unless you put a system that captures the goods and bads of your projects, there is no way you can make sure your consulting sourcing process is efficient or that your projects deliver the expected value.

Monitoring the relevant dimensions that a system produces will provide you with a wealth of inputs your firm can use to:

• Measure the impact of your Consulting Spend
• Understand who spends money on what and with whom
• Create individual ScoreCard per project, or Consulting Firm
• Compare the performance of the different Consulting Firms
• Identify the Low- and the High-Performers

Building an appropriate performance measurement system is your first step towards creating value through consulting and taking control of the consulting category while keeping decision-making and feedback in the hands of the project sponsors.

But again, implementing a fancy performance evaluation system is only the first step of the journey. To rake the full benefits, you need to make sure to maintain, or better improve, your new ways of working in the long run.

Consistency is a Key Factor

We should emphasize that if you start measuring the performance but stop after a few months or measure it on a random basis, it will be difficult to convince your suppliers of the seriousness of the effort.

To avoid this unfortunate situation, we suggest integrating the performance as a part of your Procure to Pay Processes (P2P).

The distribution of the performance measurement survey can be automated as part of the workflow when you open a new project and should be mandatory before the official closure of the project. It can be established as a mandatory step before proceeding with the last payment to the supplier.

The Ultimate Goal is to Improve

Implementation of a performance evaluation system for consulting, is, after all, aimed at bringing improvements.

Set out a few dates on your calendar for discussions with your main providers about their performance over the last few projects. The focus and topics can cover the overall performance and will be the starting point of the improvement plan.

The goal of the exercise also is to yield value for the internal stakeholders, as they will have to spend time filling in the surveys. Once a year at least, plan a debriefing with them about the performance of the key suppliers in the panel. Take advantage of this meeting to discuss what will be the future needs and to identify changes to be brought to the panel.

• Depending on the situation, and the project, improvements may include:
• Staffing (e.g., displacing low performing individuals or those with the lowest fit with your company’s culture),
• Movements in and out of projects (staffing evolving too frequently, poaching of collaborators, …),
• Perceived performance or impact issues (disconnect between costs and actual impact), lack of expertise on a given subject,
• Compliance with company processes, policies, and commercial terms (daily rates, discounts, …).

Creating an internal network of experts to monitor and support improvement actions. They can be functional experts or ex-consultants.

They can help you review the outcomes of the key projects, the feedback on the various firms, and design improvement plans more specific to the expertise of each consulting firm.

They can also help you to identify, through their network, alternative consulting firms not initially on your radar screen.

Final Notes

“Performance Evaluation System for consulting services”. Well, this isn’t just some fancy business term that we like to throw around at meetings to sound intelligent (although, admittedly, it can serve that purpose). It’s the backbone of solid category management.

Think of it as the magnifying glass that reveals whether your sourcing process is the well-oiled machine you brag about or… let’s just say, needs a bit more “tuning.”

In the unpredictable wilderness of consulting, this isn’t just about checking boxes. It’s your compass, ensuring that every penny you pour in is working as hard as you do (or at least pretending to) during those endless conference calls. Without it, you’re essentially flying blind.

And let’s be real: while surprises are nice on birthdays, in business? Not so much. So, invest in performance measurement; it’s the least you can do to ensure you get bang for your buck. Or at least, fewer unpleasant surprises.

performance evaluation system for consulting performance evaluation system for consulting performance evaluation system for consulting
performance evaluation system for consulting performance evaluation system for consulting performance evaluation system for consulting
performance evaluation system for consulting performance evaluation system for consulting performance evaluation system for consulting
performance evaluation system for consulting performance evaluation system for consulting performance evaluation system for consulting
performance evaluation system for consulting performance evaluation system for consulting performance evaluation system for consulting