The public sector must save DKK 300 million on consultants by 2024 and a total of DKK 3 billion by 2025. The announcement is so significant that a completely new approach to consultancy is needed to ensure that buyers get value for money and consultants create better results.
The SME government's goal is to save DKK 3 billion in consultancy costs in the public sector by 2025. Although industry organizations have warned against this plan, this is the reality in the coming years.
We need to rethink! And we need to fundamentally change how the public sector and consultants work together.
First, we have to pick ourselves up...
For example, consultants should no longer perform tasks decoupled from the customer organization or form the project team independently of those who will implement and live with the solution.
Instead, we should demand that the customer organization gets involved in the project solution - and takes on co-responsibility for the project, even if this will reduce the need for consultants.
For this to succeed, we as consultants need to pull ourselves together and dare to be true consultants.
... then in the conditions for collaboration
Because it's not just about finances, and there will always be a real need for expert advice. Expertise that creates results and true value for the consulting money.
But how do you ensure that outcome (as a public purchaser, for example)? Here are three tips to get there:
1. Prioritize eye-level collaboration
Don't choose the partner that looks the most prestigious on paper or that can provide political backing. Choose the collaboration that is most in line with you. Expertise doesn't mean that you have a patent on the truth, but that you can work rules, terms and best practices into your reality.
2. Choose the most implementable solution
Many projects suffer from being shaped by an idealized, one-size-fits-all principle. You risk inflated budgets and unnecessarily complex solutions. Instead, what you should be looking for is the most implementable solution that can be seamlessly integrated into or executed by your own organization.
3. Ensure your organization succeeds
The new budget reality will require more involvement from your own organization, and it's not possible to operate at arm's length if something doesn't go as it should. The best way to take the bull by the horns is to choose a partner that ensures you succeed. Not just in the project.
These three recommendations are not new, groundbreaking ideas. But they are based on more than 25 years of experience.
And at a time when the choice has typically been a binary choice between cheapest or most complex, the recommendations offer a third way for consultants and the public sector to better succeed together.
[1] Kilde: https://www.version2.dk/artikel/det-offentlige-skal-spare-over-300-millioner-paa-konsulenter-i-2024-kommuner-skal-traekke-laesset
[2] Kilde: https://www.altinget.dk/digital/artikel/sparekrav-for-konsulenter
