Engineering and technical consulting
More billable time, less time on proposals and paperwork
For engineering, environmental, geoscience and specialised consultancies where senior people spend too much time writing, searching and re-formatting.
Sound familiar?
- Principals spend evenings writing proposals instead of doing project work
- Past project knowledge is buried in years of reports and folders
- Staff are trying AI tools, and clients are starting to ask how you handle their data
- Project admin, from timesheets to invoicing, takes longer than it should
What changes
Proposals in a fraction of the time
Drafts are built from your approved scope language and past projects, then reviewed by a principal.
Your past work, searchable
Find comparable projects, methods and lessons learned in seconds, with links to the source reports.
AI your clients can accept
Approved tools, clear rules and documented data handling that stand up to a client's questions.
Faster project admin
Time entry, project set-up and invoicing move with less re-keying.
How we'd approach it
Start with one workflow
Usually proposals or project knowledge search: whichever costs your senior people the most time.
Use your Microsoft or Google set-up
Most firms already have the foundations in SharePoint, Teams or Drive. We organise them so search and AI work well.
Respect client confidentiality
Tool choice follows your client contracts and data sensitivity, including options that keep data in your own environment.
Measure billable impact
Track proposal hours and turnaround before and after.
What it might look like
Environmental consultancy · 35 staff
Proposal library and drafting
Approved scope sections, CVs and project summaries are organised so a project manager can produce a first draft from a short intake form.
Geotechnical firm · 25 staff
Lessons learned you can find
Field reports and project close-outs are indexed so staff can search by soil type, method or client, and every answer links to the source report.
These are illustrative examples of the kind of work involved, not results from specific clients.
What we measure
We agree a baseline before changing anything, then check the same numbers afterwards.
- Senior hours per proposal
- Days from request to proposal
- Time to find comparable past work
- Days from month-end to invoice
Works with what you have
Typical environments: Microsoft 365 with SharePoint and Teams (sometimes Copilot), project accounting such as Deltek, BST or QuickBooks, and specialist technical tools. We work alongside your IT provider.
Questions
Our client contracts restrict how we use their data. Can we still use AI?
Will this replace our technical staff?
How much senior time goes into proposals?
Bring a recent proposal and we'll look at where the hours go.