The client
NextWave IT Consulting is an IT and digital transformation consultancy with 18 consultants, providing IT strategy, cloud migration and digital advisory services.
The firm manages complex, time-bound consulting engagements where pricing, scope, resources and delivery need to remain closely aligned. As the number and complexity of projects increased, maintaining that alignment became more difficult.
NextWave introduced Cinqd to create a stronger connection between proposals, project delivery, budgets and performance, giving partners greater control from the initial engagement through to completion.
Cinqd capabilities implemented:
- Proposals
- CRM and client management
- Task and project management
- Structured workflows
- Time and budget tracking
- Analytics and reporting
The challenge
NextWave’s consulting engagements often began with proposals that defined the expected scope and pricing. However, once an engagement moved from sales into delivery, maintaining that connection became difficult.
Proposal structures were not always consistent, and handovers between sales and consulting teams could leave uncertainty around what had been agreed.
As projects progressed, additional requests and changing requirements could expand the workload beyond the original scope. Without a clear view of budgeted versus actual effort, these issues were sometimes identified only after margins had already been affected. Partners also lacked a consistent view of project profitability across active engagements.
This created three connected problems: scope creep, margin erosion and reduced confidence in whether projects were being delivered in line with the original commercial agreement.
How Cinqd helped NextWave connect pricing with delivery?
Standardising proposals and engagement scope
Cinqd helped NextWave create more consistent proposals using standard service blocks with clearly defined scope and pricing. Instead of building every engagement differently, teams could work from approved structures while adapting individual proposals to the client’s requirements.
This created greater clarity around what was included from the beginning and gave delivery teams a stronger reference point when managing client requests later in the engagement.
Creating a smoother handover from sales to delivery
Once an engagement was approved, relevant information could move into the delivery process rather than being recreated manually. Project responsibilities, tasks and workflows could be established around the agreed engagement, creating greater continuity between what had been sold and what consultants were expected to deliver.
This reduced ambiguity during handovers and helped delivery teams start projects with clearer information about scope and expectations.
Tracking time and budgets against delivery
Cinqd gave NextWave greater visibility over budgeted and actual effort as projects progressed. Rather than waiting until the end of an engagement to understand whether delivery was requiring more effort than planned, managers could monitor how work was tracking against the project budget.
When additional client requests or unexpected work began consuming more time, teams had greater visibility to identify the issue and determine whether the work remained within the agreed scope.
Giving partners earlier visibility of margin risk
Partners gained a clearer view of project performance across active engagements. Connected reporting helped highlight where time, workload or project activity could put margins under pressure, allowing issues to be investigated earlier.
This gave partners greater confidence in project performance without requiring them to manually gather updates from individual consultants and project managers.
The results
NextWave reported improvements in project margins, scope control and the connection between sales and delivery after introducing Cinqd.
21% improvement in project margins
Greater visibility over scope, budgets and actual effort contributed to a 21% improvement in project margins.
Reduced scope creep
Clearer engagement scopes and ongoing visibility of delivery helped teams identify when additional work was moving beyond what had originally been agreed.
Cleaner sales-to-delivery handovers
Connecting approved engagements with project workflows reduced ambiguity and gave consulting teams clearer information when beginning client work.
More predictable engagements
Standardised proposals, structured delivery and improved budget visibility gave NextWave greater control over the commercial performance of its projects.
Greater partner visibility
Partners could monitor project performance and identify potential margin risks earlier without relying on manually prepared updates.
Before and after Cinqd
| Before Cinqd | After Cinqd |
| Proposal structures varied | More consistent scope and pricing |
| Sales and delivery operated separately | Clearer proposal-to-delivery continuity |
| Scope changes were difficult to monitor | Greater visibility over additional work |
| Budget overruns could surface late | Budgeted and actual effort tracked throughout delivery |
| Project profitability was harder to assess | Clearer view of project performance |
| Partners relied on manual updates | Connected reporting and earlier visibility |
The overall impact
Cinqd helped NextWave create a stronger connection between the commercial and operational sides of its consulting engagements. By connecting proposals, agreed scope, project workflows, time, budgets and reporting, the firm gained greater visibility over whether projects were being delivered in line with what had originally been sold.
Consultants had clearer expectations when projects moved into delivery, while partners could identify potential scope and margin issues earlier.
The result was better control over scope creep, more predictable delivery and a stronger foundation for managing profitable consulting engagements as the firm grows.
Could Cinqd help your consulting firm?
Cinqd brings proposals, clients, projects, workflows, budgets and performance visibility together in one connected business operating system.
Create clearer scopes, improve sales-to-delivery handovers and gain greater visibility over project performance before margin issues become bigger problems.
Book a demo to see how Cinqd can help your consulting firm deliver more predictable and profitable engagements.
