Consultant service procurement in the public sector – The competence requirements for construction-and design managing consult-ants

Abstract: The demand for consultancy services has increased significantly since the companies began to shift from in-house staff to the purchasing of consulting services. The procurement of consul-tancy services can be considered among the most difficult service that goes to procure which means that it requires extensive knowledge of the purchaser to succeed in the process. In this report, I will examine how five public Swedish purchasers expressed their competence requirements regarding construction and design management ten years ago. I will also con-sider what type of skills they think are the most important today, and also see how the con-sultants' alleged expertise is examined. Finally, I will explain the five public purchasers thoughts on what might happen to their competence requirements in the nearest future. The report is structured in two parts where the first part is an analysis of the client's previous competence requirements. The second part consists of interviews with each individual client. The people that were interviewed all have extensive experience in project management, both from the private and public sectors. Conclusively, I will present what happened with their skills requirements over time and the likely reasons behind it, what forces that are behind changes in organizations, how the public purchasers follow up skill requirements and what they predict will happen to their skills requirements in the nearest future.