An operational business consultant is a professional that provides expertise to businesses about their current operations and how they can be improved. They often work with the c-suite of an organization to implement strategies that will deliver results, such as streamlining operations and re-assessing inefficient strategies.

The market for operations consulting is worth around $70 billion and has enjoyed strong growth in recent years. It is more resilient to economic conditions than other advisory segments.

Evaluation

Evaluation is the systematic process of assessing the quality, effectiveness, and impact of a program, intervention, product, or organization. It involves a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods and is typically conducted over a long period of time.

A well-designed evaluation can be a powerful tool for your organization’s success. It can help you to identify areas where you need improvement and implement new practices to increase your efficiency.

In educational settings, for example, evaluation can help you to assess students’ learning outcomes and provide them with feedback about their progress. It can also assist you to curate the best teaching strategies and learning experiences for your students.

Evaluators come from a wide range of backgrounds and have diverse professional, academic, and training experiences. They bring a unique perspective to evaluation, which is important for successful outcomes.

Enhancement

The operational business consulting industry provides advisory and implementation services that improve a company’s internal operations. These activities include developing target operating models, implementing cost reduction programs and optimising processes and management systems.

Operational consultants are also often called upon to support clients with improving performance in their value chain. This includes designing and implementing business transformations, boosting customer experience (Sales, Marketing), redesigning supply chain logistics and increasing supplier efficiencies.

To achieve these improvements, operational consultants may use various techniques. The business process reengineering (BPR) method, for example, uses a series of principles to make it easier to find and fix problems, improve speed and quality, reduce costs, enhance efficiency and streamline operations.

Other tools and methods used by operational consultants include business process management software and analytical tools. Many operational consultants have an advanced degree in a relevant field, such as business administration or finance, which can help them improve their client base and charge more for their consulting services.

Implementation

During the implementation phase of operational business consulting, clients must implement changes recommended by the team. This is a highly involved and often time-consuming process, with consultants working almost constantly alongside their client to ensure that the project is successful.

When working as an implementation consultant, it is important to have excellent interpersonal skills and strong organizational abilities. These qualities are essential for successfully completing projects and delivering results on time and within budget.

The main purpose of operational business consulting is to improve efficiency and performance in a value chain, by boosting processes and ways of working across a variety of functional areas, including sales & marketing, supply chain, procurement, finance, research & development, and outsourcing.

For example, operations consultants work in Sales & Marketing to enhance the level of customer support, increase the number of sales channels and boost engagement with customers. They also improve the efficiency of supply chain logistics and redesign how raw materials are sourced, known as procurement.

Monitoring

Monitoring is the process of collecting, analyzing and reporting data about the health and performance of a company’s business operations. This practice helps professionals identify any potential problems and create effective solutions.

Traditionally, operations monitoring involves monitoring systems, applications and IT services to ensure they are functioning as expected. This enables teams to reconfigure and enhance services based on user feedback and promptly spot emerging issues that could be causing system downtime or other problems.

Today, a more up-to-date approach to system health monitoring is Site Reliability Engineering (SRE). It’s all about foreseeing failures and preparing teams for them so they can respond before end-users notice errors.

One way Monitoring and Evaluation Consultants can increase their revenue is by offering customized training for clients. This allows them to provide clients with the knowledge they need to improve their monitoring and evaluation processes. It also helps ensure that clients receive the quality services they need to be successful in their organizations.