Buying Professional Services How to Get Value for Money from Consultants and Other Professional Services Providers

This book is based on four premises: ·Public and private sector organisations are spending huge amounts of money buying professional services, and most are doing it badly, without strong procurement processes or an adequate understanding of the marketplace, resulting in wasted money and disappointing outcomes. ·Even among those organisations that do use formal procurement processes and techniques, many are applying them inappropriately and therefore achieve similarly poor results. ·Many professional services firms don't understand how the increasing application of professional procurement processes could affect their business model, client engagement and ultimately their profitability. ·While they are working together, both professional services providers and their clients too often behave in ways that reduce the potential benefits to both parties. Using real examples from a range of private sector firms, government departments and from the professional services firms themselves, this book explores the world of professional services procurement. Aimed at a broad audience which includes all those who both use and provide professional services, it sets out to show how they can work together much more effectively to their mutual benefit.