No / Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a system designed to bring processes and resource together by sharing data and information across functional areas. The use of ERP consultancy is becoming essential to the enterprises in China. However, many issues have risen in the process of ERP implementation. This paper aims to investigate the major obstacles in the way of ERP implementation among ERP consultancy and client organisations. It has found that the quality of Chinese consultancy is far from that expected as leading ERP products were not widely mastered by consulting firms. Efficient information system is essential for companies to stay in the competition. However, transparent information flow across functional areas is hard to achieve in China. A good understanding of ERP system and business processes can help Chinese enterprises to ease unrealistic expectations from ERP implementation.

No / The chapter explores the current landscape in the public sector, considering complications and constraints inherent in delivering service and performance improvement. Cost challenges are key factors for all departments, as are wider societal changes, and have led to changes to delivery models. UK government cuts have already been the biggest in the G7 group of major developed economies, and more are planned. Departmental structure, culture and behaviour as well as the scale of service delivery, present operational challenges not just internally but also to the consultants engaged to help. Consideration is also given to commercial constraints which govern the contracting process and how that in turn affects consultant:client interaction and outcomes. Taking into account the salient features which must be overcome, the chapter concludes by suggesting how the constraints and complications can be minimised or mitigated by adopting alternative approaches more attuned to operating within a public service environment.

Design consultancy is a service that is given by professional designers to clients to respond to their design requirements. In Turkey, design consultancy services are given through design firms since the 1980s, mostly founded by the early graduates of industrial design. This thesis is carried to recognize the firms that give service in design consultancy sector, to identify the given services as design consultancy and to determine the conditions of design consultancy sector in Turkey through a survey made on the design consultancy firms in Turkey. A questionnaire is prepared to investigate the history of design consultancy firms, their profession fields, their client firms&rsquo / sector types, scope of services, the profession&rsquo / s advantages and disadvantages, the problems and opinions consultancy is carried out in Turkey. The survey also investigates the structure of design about the future of industrial design sector. This survey also inquires how design consultancy firms, given service types and sectors of client firms in detail. Twenty design consultancy firms responded to the questionnaire. The study indicates that, design consultancy service types by the firms are mostly product design, concept development, project drawing, project management, interface design and field tests.

Sustainability has been an issue receiving growing attention in the past decade and the construction sector has not escaped notice. There has been a response at both the Government and industry level, to the agenda; with agreement that the industry must address sustainability by acting to minimise its impacts on both the environment and society. While much focus has been placed on how to minimise these impacts in the building sector, far less attention has been given to the infrastructure sector. Again while attention has been given to the construction process and acknowledging the potential for maximising impact reduction at the design stage, the focus given to the relationship between sustainability and consultant engineers has been limited. This research sets out to understand the influences affecting sustainability in a multidisciplinary engineering consultancy, with an emphasis on the environment and the design stage. Utilising a selection of research methods (i.e. case studies, archival analysis, interviews, causal loops and questionnaires) an understanding was developed illustrating the influence that clients, strategic and operational organisational issues, policy and engineers knowledge, have on implementing sustainability. Relating the research to the existing literature, it was possible to propose a number of interventions to promote the integration of sustainability within a consultancy.

The aim of this thesis is to describe and compare selected life insurance products provided by the best known insurance agencies, highlight the complexity of these products, point out the differences in their insurance terms and give a try to assess the degree of divergence in relation to the client. The theoretical part deals with general principles of life insurance, explains each insurance risk and defines the many benefits that these products bring to the customers. Marginally, this thesis also argues over the ethics of selling life insurance products and financial interests of insurance brokers on these products.

The study presents a review of the establishment and operation of the Curriculum Consultancy Section of the ACT Schools Authority over the period of the first decade of its existence. It considers the move to establish a new and different education system; the important reports which gave impetus to that move; first the Currie Report (1967.), Report on an Independent Education Authority for the Australian Capital Territory and the three further reports which kept the spirit of the Currie Report alive, i.e. the Neal-Radford Report (1972.), the Campbell Report (1973.), and the Hughes Report (1973.). The study emphasises the haste with which the new system was finally established; that there was not time to develop a 'coherent, imaginative and suitable plan' (Currie, 1967, p.9.) and that staff resources were inadequate. As Beare (1978.) has noted, 'At no time in its first four years was the Schools Office given the manpower needed merely for maintenance functions let alone for development activities ... .' (p.80.) The curriculum issues that arose in planning this new system and the curriculum context within Australia are considered prior to a close examination of the development and operation of the section during the decade; the pressures which affected it and the changes which occurred This examination as the main body of the study falls easily into three periods; The First Years; The Middle Years of the First Decade; and the Final Years of the First Decade; each period coinciding with the period of tenure of one of the three principals the section has had in those ten years. Throughout this main body of the study the major recurring themes affecting the life of the section are closely followed, i.e. the conflict within the system, the diversity of demands and the difficulties of meeting those demands, the difficulty of defining role and function and the problems of leadership. In conclusion the study reflects on these recurring themes and examines the changes which have occurred over the decade, e.g. the changes in role and function, the shift in orientation to consultancy, the changes in selection and professional development of consultants, the concentration of consultants in priority areas and the developing cohesiveness of the consultancy section. Finally the study addresses the future; consideration is given to the stage in the life cycle of an organisation that the ACT Schools Authority is at currently and to the effect that this may possibly have upon the undoubtedly troubled future of the Curriculum Consultancy Section. The study draws on the documents available; on interviews with people who have worked in the area and also on the extensive body of literature which is available.

Multinational companies in the global economy of today are competing based on strategic knowledge. The ability to send and receive knowledge within different subsidiaries has therefore become imperative for the international firm. There are several known barriers and facilitators to transferring knowledge across different borders. Social interaction is one variable that by some have been shown to positively impact the knowledge sharing within multinational companies. The challenges social interaction bridges are especially related to tacit knowledge, which is foremost shared through face-to-face interaction in social communities. In this study, we investigated this impact in a management consultancy operating in the knowledge intensive service sector. We further investigate the implications of communities in the shape of country clusters and its effects on social interaction and knowledge transfer within the firm. Our findings show that social interaction is only positively relevant in terms of sending knowledge, and not on receiving knowledge. Moreover, our study did not find any significant impact of social interaction on knowledge transfer within the country clusters.

Each year in the UK (United Kingdom) hundreds of millions of consumer products are sold, leading to many millions of tonnes of waste being buried or burned annually. While there are many large businesses that produce consumer products, in the UK small product design consultancies (SDCs) make up approximately half of all employed designers. This thesis outlines an investigation into the absence of an EcoDesign agenda in product design briefs and how this might be changed in the future. In order to best establish the theoretical basis of the research, a comprehensive literature review was conducted into the practice of product designers, their relationship to society and the wider environment. In addition, existing tools and resources purporting to support product designers, with the implementation of EcoDesign projects, were analysed to understand the challenges associated with their design. Following this review, and the development of relevant research questions, a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to understand SDCs better, how these organisations conduct their business, and how familiar they are with EcoDesign. A series of semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 26 participants from 22 different consultancies. As a result of these interviews, a greater understanding of the barriers and drivers SDCs face in the practice of EcoDesign was established. This led to the creation of d.eco a web-based resource, to facilitate the implementation of EcoDesign principles in SDCs. This resource was evaluated in the final stage of the research. The majority of product designers had an awareness of EcoDesign and considered that they would be able to use their skills to find the information necessary to create products with a reduced environmental footprint. A significant barrier was that EcoDesign principles could only be legitimately applied when the design brief required their use. However, briefs are not created solely by clients; they were found to be much more collaborative, thus offering designers an opportunity to influence their own briefs. So, the role of an EcoDesign resource is less about assisting the design process, like most existing tools, and more to do with the providing designers with a wellspring of inspiration. However, the resource stimulates more than just creativity. It also provides peer recommended examples of existing EcoDesign products, materials and processes, facilitating the long-term absorption of relevant information. By presenting relevant material, in an appropriate way, designers can be more confident when including EcoDesign criteria and associated principles within their briefs.

The current linear “take, make and dispose” economic model is not sustainable, therefore we need to move towards a circular economy. The society faces a major challenge and as experts and advisors to the society, the consultancy companies play a key role in the transition. The purpose of this study was to investigate how a consultancy company work with the circular economy concept today and how the concept further can be integrated into the company to meet future challenges. Qualitative interviews with eleven representatives from the consultancy company Ramboll were made. All the interviews were recorded and the collected data was analyzed in a qualitative analysis. The results showed a high awareness of the circular economy concept and that Ramboll can offer customers help in their progress towards a circular economy. The demand of circular services is currently low but it will probably increase in the future, both with respect to existing services but also new types of assignments.To meet the future demand the company needs to ensure knowledge within the company, raise awareness and concretize the concept throughout the company. The Nordic countries have an opportunity to be the forerunner in the transition to a circular economy but to do so, one must focus on the issue. If Sweden seriously starts to strive for a circular economy, much help and support will be needed and the consulting companies can be very helpful if they are prepared and have the competence.

IT executives face nowadays a theme that underlies for all questions in today's business – the change! The main factor that accelerates the “pace of change” is globalization. Globalization conducts to severe competition; it conducts also to shorter product life cycles that are necessary aspects for companies in order to increase competitive advan-tage. A good alternative to be more efficient and gain access to better information is to implement an ERP system that will allow companies to improve efficiency and be more proactive. The main benefits of an ERP system are that it gives more controls over the company's assets, and business processes such as financial supply chain management and profitability assessments of employees, departments and customers. Most of the companies after implementing the system choose to end their relationship with the ERP system supplier and believe that they have the capacity to maintain and develop the sys-tem by themselves. The post-implementation represents the use and operation after the ERP system is put into use. The definite purpose is to investigate why some companies choose to reject the perma-nent external support concerning the maintenance and further development of the ERP post-implementation stage. The paper will present the diverse reasons to why the re-spondents choose to not use permanent external support. In order to find accurate information we have interviewed companies within the Jönköping's county that are in the post-implementation stage. Our purpose was to un-derstand the reason to why some companies reject permanent consulting and how they are developing and maintaining the used ERP system. To make this study more accurate we have used theories about ERP systems and the post-implementation stage that will help us to support and give value to our results. One of the main results of this research were that companies have only personal moti-vation concerning the consulting activity choices and they affirmed that the result of the implemented ERP system would be the same no matter which alternative they choose for maintaining and developing the ERP system. The overall impression concerning consulting activities is quite positive among the interviewed companies.