Case study · 14

Moving a Professional Services Firm From Hours to Products

How a 120-person professional services firm productised four service lines and lifted average engagement margin by double digits within a year.

Sector: Professional services
Engagement: Service productisation advisory

Double digitsRise in average engagement margin within a year

4Repeated service patterns productised with defined scope, deliverables and fixed pricing

120Person regional professional services firm

01 The Problem

The operating constraint behind the numbers

A 120 person regional professional services firm combined strong client relationships with stagnant partner profits. Every engagement was bespoke, utilisation was the only number anyone managed, and pricing had not been examined in years.

02 The Evidence

The evidence leadership could act on

Service Patterns Productised

Pattern 1Productised

Pattern 2Productised

Pattern 3Productised

Pattern 4Productised

Source: The four most repeated service patterns were productised with defined scope, deliverables and fixed pricing.

Average Engagement Margin

BeforeBaseline margin

After (within a year)Double-digit increase

Source: Average engagement margin rose by double digits within a year.

03 The Kingswell Response

What changed in the management system

Analyse engagement economics

Three years of engagement economics were analysed to find the repeatable cores hiding inside supposedly bespoke work.

Productise the repeated service patterns

The four most repeated service patterns were productised with defined scope, deliverables and fixed pricing.

Build templated delivery and AI-assisted drafting tools

Templated delivery assets and AI assisted drafting tools were introduced, cutting production time on standard documents.

Shift partner metrics to margin

Partner metrics shifted from utilisation to margin per engagement.

04 What Remained

The management system installed

Templated delivery assets

AI assisted drafting tools

Margin-per-engagement partner metric

05 The Result

What the organisation could do next

Three years of engagement economics were analysed to find the repeatable cores hiding inside supposedly bespoke work. The four most repeated service patterns were productised with defined scope, deliverables and fixed pricing, supported by templated delivery assets and AI assisted drafting tools that cut production time on standard documents. Partner metrics shifted from utilisation to margin per engagement. Average engagement margin rose by double digits within a year, the productised lines began winning work that bespoke proposals had lost on price ambiguity, and partner time moved measurably from writing proposals to delivering work.