Integrity, Service & Price

Praxis Claims Consulting  

           

                      Internal vs. External resources



Although there are several factors that influence the decision in considering the use of an external consulting or auditing company, quite often the primary factor is cost.

If you are viewing this web page, it is likely that you have made the decision to move forward with an audit or project, but now are faced with the task getting it done with limited or non-existent company resources.  You are now contemplating the services of a consulting firm.

                                                                                                                               

So how do you demonstrate the merit of retaining a consultant vs. the hiring of a permanent employee to your senior staff?  Although there are several variables, three primary factors should be considered.  They are cost, existing workloads and expertise needed.

                                                                                                                       

Cost:

                                                                                                                            

The following should be contemplated in calculating the cost of hiring and maintaining staff:

                                                                                                                           

The salary paid to an employee amounts to about 60%+- of the actual cost of that employee.  For example, an experienced home office level technician being paid a salary of let’s say $110,000 per year will cost your company about 183,300 per year.  This figure does not include any bonus that may be paid to the employee.

  • Medicare
  • Social Security
  • Pension/401k
  • Medical/dental
  • Furniture
  • Equipment
  • Computers
  • Supplies
  • Communication equipment
  • Workers comp and other insurance
  • Training
  • Building overhead
  • Company vehicle
  • Administrative and clerical support needed
  • Supervision
  • Cost of acquiring new business to support the employee
  • Cost of retaining existing business

Workloads:

  • Current employee workloads
  • Location of the projects
  • Duration of the projects
  • Number of projects throughout the year
  • Additional management required
  • Additional support staff capacity
  • Additional overhead required
  • The sensitivity of the subject audit
  • The difficulty in making a business case to add to staff

Skills and other factors to consider:

  • The exact expertise can be matched to the audit/project
  • No human resource issues. Hiring and firing is not an issue
  • You have access to needed technical and management expertise
  • No ongoing salary and overhead costs
  • Travel and expenses are a wash whether an employee or not
  • Immediate scheduling and execution of the project/audit
  • Projects involving sensitive issues of can be dealt with objectively
  • Country wide and world wide experience brought to the project

                                                                                                                               

Praxis has the same costs mentioned above associated with the hiring and retention of quality staff.  However if the costs are spread among several projects, each one of Praxis' clients actually realize long term staffing cost savings as well as other project/audit related benefits.

You have access to expertise and additional capacity that may not currently exist in your company without having to hire.  

                                                                                                                              

Although project cost and/or hourly rates may at first seem robust, they include all of the costs discussed above associated with the retention of first class technical talent and the delivering of the best possible product to our clients.

Bottom line: 

The cost associated with an audit, training session or project done by an independent consulting company, can in the long run, save your company money in staffing an overhead costs as well as the realized benefits derived from the project itself.