01
Mobilising a new engagement
The statement of work is signed and the start date is committed. Capacity is needed now, not after a notice period.
You have won the work. Now it has to be staffed
A signed statement of work starts a clock your recruitment function cannot beat. Sub-contracted capacity lets you say yes to an engagement before your own hiring cycle could support it — and lets you commit to a start date without gambling on a pipeline.
01 The bid-to-mobilise gap
Wins are unpredictable. Bench cost is not
Carrying enough permanent bench to mobilise every possible win is expensive and mostly idle. Carrying none means declining work or starting late and damaging a new client relationship in its first fortnight. Sub-contracted capacity is how most firms resolve that tension: a flexible tier that scales with the order book instead of ahead of it.
02 Where it is used
Four recurring situations
02
A skill your bench does not hold
The engagement needs one capability outside your firm's usual mix, and building it permanently for a single client is not justified.
03
Scaling a programme mid-flight
Your client expands the scope and expects you to absorb it without renegotiating the timeline.
04
Protecting utilisation
Meeting a peak with contracted capacity instead of permanent hires you will be carrying long after the engagement closes.
03 How we behave as a sub-contractor
Your client relationship is yours alone
This needs stating explicitly, because it is the first question any consulting firm asks.
- We do not approach your client. Not during the engagement, and not after it ends.
- We work to your methodology. Your delivery framework, templates, reporting cadence and quality gates.
- Your firm owns the client-facing relationship. We have no separate line to them.
- Non-solicitation and confidentiality are written into the engagement contract and into our employment contracts.
- Commercials stay between us. Our rate card is not something your client needs to see.
04 Responding at bid speed
Useful before the work is won, too
Firms often come to us during the bid rather than after it, to understand whether a profile is realistically available and at what rate, so the proposal reflects something achievable. We will give you a straight answer about feasibility at that stage — including when we think the skill will be hard to find — because an optimistic answer that fails at mobilisation costs you far more than a cautious one.
Bidding, or already mobilising?
Send the roles, the client-facing start date and the working model. We will tell you what is achievable and at what rate.
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