Evaluating engineering consultants' general capabilities during the pre-selection process – a Hong Kong study

Consultant pre-selection is an essential process to distinguish capable candidates before they are invited to submit their technical and fee proposals for consultancy assignments. Despite that, many clients have their own criteria and emphasis, and this could result in discrepancies in pre-selection decisions. The aim of this paper is to devise a more objective framework for evaluating consultants' general capabilities during the pre-selection process. The paper begins by identifying the commonly used criteria for pre-selecting engineering consultants. In order to examine the importance of consultant pre-selection criteria (CPC), a questionnaire survey has been conducted with clients who are responsible for pre-selecting their consultants; and consultants being pre-selected by the clients. The findings reveal that the perception of the client and consultant groups on the importance of CPC was very consistent. Finally, a multi-criteria model for evaluating consultants' general capabilities during the pre-selection is proposed. Based on each candidate score, clients can determine which engineering consultants should be invited to bid for a consultancy assignment. © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited