DIN EN 16114:2011-12

The management consultancy service provider industry has developed and a change towards an "industrialization" can be noticed for many businesses. That means that management consultancy is often no longer understood as purely creative activity of freelancers, but as a service with clear products and fixed processes. The EU wants to support this change and has specified in its Service Directive that the typical service industries in the EU should initiate standardization processes and methods. The management consultancy service provider industry has therefore prepared the European Standard EN 16114 in coordination with customer groups. The standard shall be used by management consultancy service providers and their customers. This concerns the typical consultancy project process from offer to project completion. The standard can be used as a guideline for collaboration. Being a service standard, it has the status of recommendations. The new standard shall cover various targets: - reduce international barriers - improve the performance of consultancy service providers - improve quality and professionalism of the industry in Europe - reduction of the risk which might be related to management consultancy service provider assignments - enhance transparency between consultancy service providers and clients. The new standard is not intended for certification of management systems of the management consultancy service providers and the qualification of the service providers is not described but what the client can expect at various stages from the management consultancy service provider. The Committee responsible for this standard is NA 159 BR-01 SO "Managementberatungs-Dienstleistungen" ("Management consultancy services") at DIN.