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It should be noted that in quality certification according to ISO 9001 standards, assignment evaluation using feedback from clients is compulsory (see Chapter 32).

11.3 Follow-up

Often, the client and the consultant may agree to terminate a particular assignment without completely discontinuing their working relationship. Any further work done by the consultant which is related in some way to the current assignment is called follow-up. The desirability of some follow-up is often identified in the evaluation of the assignment. If the consultant is convinced that follow-up is in the client’s interest and that he or she has something more to offer to the client, this may be suggested in the final report and meeting with the client.

The advantages to the consulting organization are obvious. In addition to providing income, a follow-up service is an invaluable way of learning about the real impact of operating assignments and about new problems that may have arisen in the client organization. New assignments may develop from these visits.

Many clients may also find that follow-up services are a useful form of assistance through which new problems and opportunities can be discovered and addressed before they become serious. However, no client should be forced to accept a follow-up arrangement if he or she is not interested in it.

Follow-up of implementation

For many reasons, the client may be interested in a follow-up arrangement. He or she may wish the consultant to take a fresh look at the situation created by the implementation of the proposals, because of new technical developments in the area covered by the assignment or for other reasons. When IT systems are delivered and installed by consultants, their further assistance is usually required for maintaining and upgrading the system.

The consultant may visit the client every three months over a two-year period, to review progress, to help to take any necessary corrective measures, and to find out whether or not new problems have arisen. If a new intervention is required that exceeds the scope of these periodic visits, the consultant may make a separate proposal for this, but the client will be absolutely free to accept or decline it. Outsourcing arrangements can also follow on from completed consulting assignments.

Retainer arrangements

Follow-up visits related to specific assignments are normally programmed for a limited period of time. If the client is interested in maintaining a more permanent working relationship with a consultant, a retainer arrangement may

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be appropriate (see section 1.4). Many retainer arrangements develop from successfully implemented consulting projects.

11.4 Final reporting

Before and during the assignment the client will have received several reports:

–the report in which the assignment was proposed, based on a preliminary diagnostic survey;

–in some instances an inception report, prepared shortly after the start of the assignment, outlining a detailed plan of work;

–progress reports, whose number and scope varies, in which modifications in problem definition and assignment plans may have been proposed;

–reports and documentation linked with the submission of proposals for the client’s decision prior to implementation.

Whatever the pattern of interim reporting, there is normally a final assignment report issued at the time the consultant withdraws from the client organization. The consulting firm itself requires such reports, which will be of help, above all, to other staff members who undertake similar assignments.

Report to the client

For a short assignment, this may be the only report and so has to be comprehensive. For longer assignments, the final report may refer to previous reports and go into detail only on the events since the last report was written. In every case, as a closing report, it should tidy up all the loose ends and cover the essential end-of-assignment facts and confirmations. It should be known before it is written whether the consultant is to provide a follow-up service. If so, the report may not be quite as “final” as it otherwise would be.

In addition to a short but comprehensive review of work performed, the final report should point out the benefits obtained from implementation and make frank suggestions to the client on what should be undertaken, or avoided, in the future.

Some consultants, especially in the OD sector, regard final reports as redundant if the client has worked closely with the consultant throughout the assignment and there is obvious satisfaction with the approach taken and the results. Final reports are not compulsory. However, the fact that one has to be produced (it can be a very short one) encourages discipline and rigour and stimulates thinking on what was really achieved and what could have been done in a better way.

Evaluation of benefits

An evaluation of benefits should be included in the final report if this is practical, i.e. if the consultant is leaving the client after a period of

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implementation which lends itself to evaluation. In other cases, it may be submitted later, as already discussed.

Through the evaluation of real benefits the consultant demonstrates the correctness and accuracy of both the preliminary assessment and the evaluation of alternative solutions.

Clearly, implementation must have progressed far enough, and the conditions of operating the new technique or system must have become normal and stabilized, if an evaluation of benefits is to give objective information. The consultant should emphasize the direct benefits obtained as a result of the assignment and leave the consideration of indirect benefits (e.g. no increase in fixed costs) to the client.

In presenting the benefits, the report should focus on measurable economic, financial and social benefits that have been or will be drawn from superior performance. However, the report should also describe the new capabilities, systems, opportunities and behaviours created by the assignment and show their impact on performance, as discussed in section 11.2.

Most management consulting firms prefer not to point out the savings-to-fee ratio. Such analysis is left to the client, who needs to appreciate that not all benefits can be costed and that the ratio may be low in many simple, low-risk assignments, whose impact on overall and long-term business results is limited.

Evaluation of the consulting process

Whether to include the evaluation of the consulting process in the final report is a matter of judgement. There may be a strong case for doing so if the client can learn from it for the future, and if the client’s behaviour during the assignment was the reason for some superior or substandard results. The consultant and the client should agree on how detailed and open this section will be, and what matters will be discussed but not included in the final report.

Suggestions to the client

Although the job is completed, the consultant can show that he or she sees the client organization in perspective by pointing out possible further improvements, opportunities, bottlenecks, risks, action that should not be delayed, and so on. In any case the consultant has to make suggestions on how the new system introduced with his or her help should be maintained, controlled and developed after his or her departure. An agreement reached on a follow-up service would also be confirmed in the final report.

A good consulting report should be capable of commanding the respect of the client, who will consider it a source of further learning and guidance. He or she should also be able to show it to business friends and associates as the record of a worthwhile achievement.

Some useful suggestions on writing and presenting consulting reports can be found in Appendix 7.

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Assignment reference report

In addition to the final report to the client, consultants should compile an assignment reference and evaluation report for their own organization, as will be described in section 31.5.

The client’s internal report

Some organizations using consultants prepare internal reports on completed assignments. In addition to summary information the report may include the client’s assessment of the job done and of the consultant’s approach and performance. Although this is most useful, it is not common. The report is not intended for the consultant, but some clients may be happy to share it with the consultant, who should not miss the opportunity to obtain a copy.

1Consultants News (Fitzwilliam, NH), July/Aug. 1991, p. 6.

2See, e.g., the client feedback questionnaire suggested by David Maister in Managing the professional service firm (New York, The Free Press, 1993), pp. 85–86, and also reproduced in M. Kubr: How to select and use consultants: A client’s guide, Management Development Series, No. 31 (Geneva, ILO, 1993), p. 176.

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