As consultants, we do the complex, specialised background work which allows you to decide what needs to be done, within a brief which we normally develop as part of the consultancy.

The objective of consultancy is to take on a more-or-less vague brief, and, on that basis to develop targeted and specific proposals which are sufficient:

• To allow you make informed decisions with regard to the project
• To allow contractors (who may be ourselves) to prepare an informed quotation for the parts of implementation process they will be responsible for.
• As appropriate, for us to be involved in the selection process. It is often difficult for people with little technical knowledge to assess the technical proficiency of organisations, especially so if they are confronted by salespeople, who are themselves not technically proficient, but skilled at persuasion.

In a partnership context, specifications tend to stress the outcomes required in your terms, rather than the specific means of achieving them. Our objective is to make sure that you are in a position to communicate what you want and need sufficiently explicitly to enable a contractor to make the best use of their skills in your service. Generally this will save you money, or at least make the costs transparent, since you are in a better position to negotiate a fixed price contract, with fewer opportunities for extras to creep in

Equally, if you prefer, we can prepare a brief which specifies the means to be used in as much detail as is required.