What is consulting?

Consultancy, by definition, is the work of a person that provides advice. In the world of engineering, and more specifically in process control, that person not only provides engineering services but also may provide other technical services, such as auditing, justification, system evaluation, participation in installation, commissioning, and startup activities.

A consultant is a person with sound knowledge and extensive experience. The person has skills and talent to provide a certain expertise to people and organizations lacking this expertise and in need of it. A professional consultant makes that expertise available to clients for a fee. The scope of a consultant is typically shaped by the client's needs.

Is there a need for consultants?

The need for a consultant generally occurs when an organization's internal staff lacks the special skills or expertise to resolve an issue or problem. The organization is then typically faced with three options; training its staff for the task, hiring full-time employees with the expertise for the task, or retaining a consultant.

The advantages of an outside consultant are such that

• the objective can be reached in a short period of time,

• the client obtains highly skilled and experienced personnel relatively cheaply and used for a specific project/application,

• the consultant is available on demand and gone when the job is done,

• the consultant provides an impartial opinion because he or she is independent of the organization's political system and brings a new and different perspective, and

• the consultant can often also design,...