Ensuring Project Success:
A Neutral Framework for Consultant Selection

The right consulting partner can be the difference between success and failure for your data & analytics projects – and that plays a key role in your company’s performance.

How to start your search for the right consultant

This consultant selection guide will help you to find the most suitable service provider for your needs in data, analytics, corporate planning, reporting, and financial consolidation, and help you avoid common pitfalls in your search.

Based on our many years of experience in selection projects, our comprehensive market knowledge and insights from our frequent user surveys here are two key recommendations for a successful selection:

1) Clearly define you requirements, scope, and objectives

The first step in choosing the right consultant is to clearly define your project’s goals and requirements. This forms the foundation for identifying the ideal partner, ensuring project success, and evaluating the outcome.

Start by clarifying your business challenges: What problems are you trying to solve with a particular software or technology? Which processes or decisions could be improved with data-driven insights? You should also identify where your organization already has internal knowledge and skills, and where external expertise is needed. Ask yourself what results you expect and how they can be measured to evaluate success. The more precise your initial analysis, the more detailed the implementation plans a consultant can provide. Besides general qualifications, this is the most important basis for comparing offers.

2) Linking software selection with consulting

If you need to select software or technology in addition to a consultant, it’s best to combine the selection processes to create synergies. This ensures that technology and consulting services are well aligned and coordinated. After all, the success of your project depends on the best combination of consultant and software.

In 6 steps: How to find the best partner for your project

A targeted, data-driven selection of qualified consultants maximizes your project’s chances of success. Based on years of experience from hundreds of selection projects, these 6 steps form the basis of a sound and solid consultant selection at BARC:

1. Determine requirements and define the project scope

Document all your company-specific requirements and project objectives in a detailed requirements catalog to create a clear, structured, and solid basis for your decision. This catalog should include the following aspects, among others:

What software is already in use at your company, and what is missing? What exactly will the external partner be responsible for, and what specific tasks will be delegated? You should also define the required resources to ensure the partner has the necessary capacity and expertise to successfully complete the project. Also, take into account the geographical region where you need support.

2. Involve key stakeholders early

Make sure to involve all relevant stakeholders at an early stage. In addition to the core team, it’s crucial to include the perspectives of the broadest possible group of stakeholders, such as management and other operational users. These stakeholders shouldn’t just be asked for their requirements; they should be actively kept up-to-date throughout the selection process.

3. Create a project description

Once the project scope and the consultant’s tasks have been defined, they must be documented in detail. This documentation should clearly describe all the services expected from the consultant: From software deployment to implementation activities. This project description creates a framework for better comparison of offers and serves as a guide for the partner to determine project and implementation costs.

4. Define and weight evaluation criteria

Your refined requirements and project description serve as the basis for the rest of the selection process.

The comparison of potential candidates should be based on references, technical and professional expertise, and experience with similar projects. From all your prepared documents, create an evaluation matrix that highlights the differences between candidates. Since no single consulting partner excels in all areas, your core team should carefully weigh which criteria are most important and which are less so.

5. Analyze the market, shortlist, and evaluate candidates

The market for consulting firms is large, with a wide range of specializations and focus areas.

Our extensive internal database, built on over 20 years of practical project experience, provides a solid foundation for this. It offers both a quick overview and the ability to make detailed comparisons.

Use your evaluation criteria to identify 3 to 5 potential partners that best fit your requirements. Obtain the offers and documents you need for your evaluation from these consulting firms. Also, check the references of potential partners, especially concerning their technology, area of expertise, and industry experience.

6. Examine partners in detail and select the best fit

You can assess consulting partners in detail and verify their fit for your company and project by conducting a proof of concept or a “beauty contest.”

The selected partner should be accepted by all relevant stakeholders and decision-makers to ensure a successful collaboration.

Avoid these common mistakes when choosing a consultant

1. Not defining requirements and goals sufficiently

Without a precise definition of project goals, requirements, and success criteria, it’s difficult to find a suitable partner. Errors in preparation often lead to misunderstandings and inefficient collaboration.

2. Relying on anecdotal evidence instead of solid data

Many companies don’t systematically check if a consultant has sufficient experience with the specific task or relevant technology. Your decision should be based on solid data such as the BARC Service Provider Survey or the BARC study “The Market for Data & Analytics Service Providers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland” and not just on individual references selected by the partner.

3. Over-prioritizing cost savings

Choosing the cheapest partner can become expensive if they lack the necessary expertise, their work methods don’t align with your requirements, or the quality of their work is subpar. A price comparison only makes sense once your minimum criteria have been met.

4. Focusing only on technologcal know-how

A good partner doesn’t just implement technology; they understand how the solutions they create will integrate into your existing workflows and how they will impact your business’s success. This lack of understanding can significantly jeopardize your project’s success.

How BARC can help

BARC is an independent analyst firm. We don’t sell software or implement solutions. We support you in selecting software or an implementation partner, and our systematic approach and neutral evaluation ensure you make a well-founded, future-proof decision.

Our experienced analysts have been supporting projects for over 20 years and can assist you with all matters relating to software and consultant selection. With our many years of experience supporting both private companies and public tenders, we provide neutral, efficient and goal-oriented support.

Our extensive consultant database allows us to quickly and efficiently identify the ideal partners for your project. We act as a sparring partner during the critical initial phase, helping you define your requirements and translate them into a detailed project description. We help you keep costs down by using a systematic approach and a variety of tried-and-true templates.

With our market knowledge, we are well equipped to help you check, evaluate and scrutinize submissions.

This combination of experience, in-depth market knowledge and independent expertise makes us a trustworthy and reliable partner for your D&A projects. We are the only expert in the DACH market to survey, analyze and evaluate end users, software providers and consulting firms in detail.

Expertise is essential

We support you on the way

Individual consulting

Project experience, empirical studies, conferences and seminars as well as fireside chats to exchange experiences offer a unique pool of know-how from which you can benefit in your project.

Leading Data & Analytics Service Providers

Compare data and analytics service providers based on real user reviews and BARC analysts’ assessments. Here, you will find in-depth, well-founded evaluations and comparisons to help you make an informed decision.

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ESG
Corporate Planning
Group Consolidation
Software Selection

What our customers say about us

Read our customer success stories to find out how we help our customers achieve their goals.

The BARC data culture workshop was very insightful, particularly the original industry survey results, which offered valuable benchmarks. It helped our participants gain a better understanding of how to measure and improve data culture, drive organizational changes, and become better data leaders. A great opportunity for organizations looking to foster a sustainable data culture and elevate their decision-making processes.

Dr. Wen (Jenny) Shi

Lead Data Scientist, zeroG