Lodestone Consulting’s primary areas of expertise include:

Professional services

• Procurement strategy
• Procurement processes
• Probity advice/probity audit
• Contract development and performance management
• Financial management and pricing
• Smarter client practises
• Value for money assessments
• Performance reviews
• Independent hearing commissioner appointments

Other local government services

• Legal risk and legislative compliance
• Workflow and workload management for in-house legal teams

Procurement Strategy

Current state analysis

• Analysis of existing professional services arrangements
• Detailed spend analysis in relation to existing suppliers
• Identification of issues, opportunities and future needs
• Demand forecasting and planning
• Assessing the capability of an organisation to:
  • Determine the need for professional services
  • Prepare the brief/scope of work to either the in-house function and/or to the external providers
  • Develop an estimate of fees relevant to the scope of work
  • Project management of the brief
  • Review transactional value
  • Capture the advice and have it accessible for future use

Design

• Development of strategies to ensure compliance with statutory processes, guidelines and policies
• Design of professional services frameworks based on best practice that meets the client needs, enhances client capability and delivers value for money

Procurement Processes

• Advice on procurement guidelines and policies
• Design of procurement processes e.g. EOI; ROI; RFT; RFP; RFQ
• Implementation and project management of procurement processes
• Advice on evaluation attributes, weightings and scoring processes
• Facilitation of evaluation panels
• Assistance with negotiations to conclude appointment

Probity Advice/Probity Audit

• Acting as probity advisor in relation to compliance with OAG guidelines, MED guidelines and organisation procurement policies from the design, commencement and implementation of the procurement process
• Acting as probity auditor of procurement processes

Contract Development/Performance Management

• Design of contractual framework for delivery of professional services by external advisors
• Drafting performance management and relationship agreements/contracts for delivery of professional services
• Developing key performance indicators for delivery of professional services by external providers
• Developing robust mechanisms for measuring achievement of key performance indicators

Financial Management and Pricing

• Pricing reviews of professional services and comparison to market
• Budgeting costs of internal and external professional services
• Advising on value based billing and innovative pricing strategies for professional services
• Financial modelling and analysis of cost of professional services

Smarter Client Practises

• Providing advice and training programmes to improve the capability of an organisation to:
  • Assess the need for professional services
  • Prepare the brief / scope of work to either the in-house function and/or to the external providers
  • Develop an estimate of fees relevant to the scope of work
  • Project management of instructions
  • Review transactional value
  • Capture the advice and have it accessible for future use

Value for Money Assessments

• Assessment of value for money in professional services arrangements i.e. on a qualitative and quantitative basis
• Financial modelling of the value of an in-house professional services team e.g. legal
• Developing performance standards and service delivery standards for in-house teams
• Developing key performance indicators for delivery of professional services by external providers
• Developing robust mechanisms for measuring achievement of key performance indicators
• Designing and conducting client satisfaction survey

Performance Reviews

• Undertaking reviews of the performance of external providers
• Identifying issues and providing recommendations to resolve performance concerns

Independent Hearing Commissioners Appointments

• Advising on process for identification and selection of independent hearings       commissioners
• Advising on terms of engagement of independent hearings commissioners

Legal Risk and Legislative Compliance

• Identifying the key legal risks facing a local government orginisation
• Advising on systems/processes to mitigate the key legal risks
• Auditing existing systems/process designed to mitigate legal risk
• Advising on legislative compliance policies/ software systems

Workflow and Workload Management for In-house Legal Teams

• Assessing the demand for legal services
• Identifying drivers of demand for legal services
• Developing criteria for in-house/external allocation of legal work
• Designing briefing guidelines and protocols
• Workload management
• Workflow planning and demand forecasting
• Service level standards and agreements
• Specialisation development