One question during the bid phase, two days of searching through old project folders.
The request comes from sales, in the middle of the bid phase. Who gets asked depends on who is available. The senior consultant names two projects off the top of their head; the rest sits in decision papers, final reports and lessons learned across three separate repositories.
3repositoriesDecision papers are in the project repository, final reports in document management, lessons learned in Confluence.
62projects since 2019That is how many projects could be considered for a comparison at all.
4colleagues askedAnyone who finds nothing asks around, and every query costs the person asked a search of their own.
2 daysto an answerBy the time the 2022 decision paper is on the table, the bid phase is half over.
With hits, decision and reference in a single answer, search effort falls by up to 60%.
The reduction of up to 60% in search effort is this agent's headline figure. The number of repositories, the project portfolio and the two days to an answer describe a typical sequence at a consultancy; none of it was measured.