Daily rates in the council

Foreword

Consulting firms bill on the basis of working days, using daily rates to reflect the value of time spent. More generally, there are three commonly used billing methods:

• Fixed-price: consultants are given a specific assignment to carry out and are paid for it, regardless of the time actually needed to complete it. The quotation given to the client will be an estimate of the number of days spent, multiplied by the daily rates of each consultant. We'll look at the rates for this type of assignment below.
• On a time-and-materials basis, i.e. for the time actually spent. Consultants are generally seconded to the company, and their mission evolves. This mode is used, for example, for IT maintenance.
• Result-based: all or part of the assignment is remunerated on the basis of results, which may be savings achieved following a plan, a share of sales linked to the launch of a new product, etc.

Please note that when reading these rates, several factors need to be taken into account:

• These rates are charged for days worked for customers, but consultants only charge for 50-80% of their time. Prospecting and proposal writing, for example, are not remunerated. Some working days are also not billed to the customer, as a gesture of goodwill. This is the case, for example, when a small subject has been identified that needs to be cleared up, or for certain "mass" tasks carried out by trainees.
• These are nominal rates, often reduced by volume discounts or ad hoc agreements. Discounts are often granted in order to set up an account: consultants charge less for the first assignment in order to gain a foothold with the customer, with the aim of amortizing the investment by reselling other assignments following the first one (for example, on an implementation phase following a feasibility study). Discounts are also granted to regular customers, and the biggest buyers set up framework contracts to negotiate rates.
• Rates sometimes include expense accounts (travel, external studies purchased, etc.), which are not always billed back to customers.

Cabinet daily rates

We can distinguish four types of consulting firms:

• Strategy: they advise the management of large companies on strategic issues such as the purchase of other companies, the launch of new products and services or the organization of the company. The best-known are BCG and McKinsey.
• Management: their scope of intervention is fairly broad, ranging from operational strategy to the implementation of information systems, including business steering and management assistance. Examples include CSC and Eurogroup.
• Expert consultancies: these specialize in a particular field, such as supply chain, human resources or the digital world, or in a particular sector, such as finance or aeronautics. Smaller than management consulting firms, their consultants are generally more senior and charge slightly more. MLA Conseil and Fabernovel are among them.
• IT consulting firms: they develop and deploy IT solutions for customers, either from scratch or using third-party software (SAP, Oracle, etc.). Capgemini Consulting and Accenture (who are also active in the above types of consulting) are surely the best known.
• Rates by type of advice (€)

Note: these rates are very generic averages to give an idea, and rates can vary from simple to double depending on the firm, seniority, type of assignment requested, etc.

Daily rates for technical developers (€)

Note: prices shown are Paris prices, there may be a slight discount of 5 to 10% for the provinces.

Freelance daily rates

Freelancers generally offer lower rates than firms. They have less of a network and can only respond to a limited number of calls for tender, as they don't always have all the skills or simply the material capacity to carry out assignments with a workload requiring several consultants. Prices are therefore driven down by the supply of these assignments to which freelancers have access.

The prices given below are those generally quoted on the market and may vary, depending in particular on the freelancer's experience.

Rates by freelance field (€)

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