Benchmarking database for consultants

Citation

(2000), "Benchmarking database for consultants", Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials, Vol. 47 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/acmm.2000.12847aab.014

Benchmarking database for consultants

Keywords Benchmarking, Engineering, Consultants, Databases

Engineering consultants that lose out in an important bid for a new client can now investigate why they lost with the help of a benchmarking database.

Engineering Consultancy Benchmark lets a consultancy benchmark its performance against 95 other firms of consulting engineers across 128 different activities and issues involved in winning new business.

A consultancy can see how it stacks up against the average for other consultancies - and, critically, against the most successful firms which win the highest proportion of bids for new business.

The database even prints a list of the "top ten action issues" for the consultancy - those activities where its performance falls furthest behind the most successful.

Engineering Consultancy Benchmark has been launched by Policy Publications in association with the Association of Consulting Engineers and the University of Luton. It is the result of a year-long development project.

A consultancy that wants to take part fills in a questionnaire. The questionnaire is input to the purpose-built Engineering Consultancy Benchmark database and the results are printed out and presented in a 25-page report.

The report covers topics such as 12 possible existing sources of new business enquiries and 16 possible business development activities such as mail-shots, advertising, telephone cold calling and seeking new projects from existing clients.

The report provides 17 factors a consultancy might want to consider before accepting an invitation to tender and ten reasons why it might want to turn down an offer of new business.

The database provides information on seven factors that may be important in communicating with a potential client, 12 while preparing the bid for new business, eight while making the formal presentation and eight while completing final negotiations.

Professor Colin Coulson-Thomas, a visiting professor at Luton Business School and the Centre for Competitiveness, who headed the research on which the benchmark report is based, says: "This service lets engineering consultancies focus on those issues that can make a real difference to their business development performance. They can benchmark their performance at regular intervals to check how they are doing against a moving average of other firms."

An Engineering Consultancy Benchmark report costs £195.00 plus VAT. A brochure describing Engineering Consultancy Benchmark is available from Policy Publications, 4 The Crescent, Bedford MK40 2RU. Tel: +44 (0)1234 328448; Fax: +(44) 01234 357231; E-mail: policypubs@kbnet.co.uk