FAQ
If you can’t find an answer below, please send us an e-mail: [email protected] or call us: +44-(0)20-34570891.
Our clients are companies of all industries and sizes with challenging projects and consultancies that want to fill resource or expertise gaps temporarily.
COMATCH helps you find top management consultants or specialized experts for your important projects. Should you be looking for a programmer, designer or researcher/scientist other marketplaces are probably better suited for you. We would be happy to discuss whether it makes sense for you to work with us on your project. Just call us.
There are two scenarios in which the use of COMATCH consultants makes sense:
- Resource gap: you lack internal resources to carry out a specific project within your organisation.
- Expertise gap: you lack internal expertise necessary for a specific project (e.g. country experience, special functional knowledge).
COMATCH consultants will work alongside with your staff on a project. COMATCH completes your own workforce without substituting it.
COMATCH has no permanent consultants or partners, a very lean organisational structure and efficient processes. The resulting cost savings are passed on directly to consultants and clients, which creates a win-win situation.
The quality assurance of COMATCH is based on 3 pillars:
- We select consultants rigorously based on the CV and personal interviews.
- We provide consultants with best practices, especially for the project start and offer you, as a client, to fill out an interim feedback on the project progress at the end of each month.
- At the end of each project, feedback is provided for the consultant that allows you to express any dissatisfaction and have a structured discussion with the consultant. Part of this feedback in the form of a simple score will be transparently displayed on the profile of the respective consultant. Over time this mechanism leads to increased quality transparency on the COMATCH marketplace and therefore support in the selection of consultants for future projects.
Confidentiality is one of the highest priorities for COMATCH. We only share company information with consultants, to whom you have given your explicit consent and all consultants are contractually bound to absolute confidentiality. An additional, bilateral NDA between you and the consultant is of course possible at any time. The confidentiality also works the other way round – so you also get the CV details and contact details only after the consultant agrees on it.
COMATCH is capable of finding consultants for your project very short-term (within 48 hours). However, ten working days between the project briefing and the start of the project would be ideal.
From our vast experience as management consultants we know how important a good project briefing is. On one hand, it includes the general conditions such as duration, budget and requirements on the consultant, on the other hand before starting a project you should define very precisely what you want to achieve with the project. Only if you are aware which problem you want to solve and what the desired end products are they can be clearly communicated and worked on purposefully.
The COMATCH online interface helps you to write a precise project briefing. If you have any questions do not hesitate to call an account manager (+49-(0)30-403656938).
You can determine the work mode for your project. Only consultants matching your preferred working mode are suggested.
You have several options to make the settlement with the consultant You can decide whether the work will be billed on an hourly or half-day/day basis. In addition, you can decide how the travel expenses shall be billed. Here you have the possibilities for billing based on a fixed daily rate or an accurate accounting of submitted invoices available.
COMATCH uses an intelligent matching algorithm to identify suitable consultants based on the project briefing. These are then screened individually again, so at the end two to three consultants are proposed for a project. The final decision for or against a consultant is of course up to you.
You can decide whether you want to make this decision based on the CV, a telephone interview or a personal interview.
The administrative effort for the conclusion of the contract is reduced to a minimum. As a client you enter into a contract with COMATCH (consisting of the terms and conditions and individual offerings for each project). A contract with each individual consultant is not necessary. But you can sign an additional bilateral NDA with the consultant.
During the daily interaction and the monthly interim feedback undesirable developments can be communicated and discussed at an early stage. If problems should still occur with a consultant, please contact your personal Account Manager immediately. They will find a solution as soon as possible.
As a client you take, as does the consultant, a major responsibility for the project’s success. You are responsible for ensuring that sufficient internal resources are made available for the project. For example:
- That an internal project manager is determined for major projects, who is dedicated to and available for the project at least one day a week.
- That the project decision-makers are involved in the decisions on time.
- That the relevant knowledge holders in your company have sufficient time to provide information.
In addition to the regular engagement with the project’s content and the navigation of the consultant, there are three specific tasks in a project with COMATCH:
- completing a monthly interim feedback to identify and to discuss problems early
- checking the activity tracker of the consultant and payment of the monthly bill
- filling out a final feedback for the consultants and COMATCH
You pay COMATCH and COMATCH pays the consultants. To do this, you receive a statement from COMATCH including the activity tracker of the consultant at the end of each month. You check the activity tracker, approve it and pay the outstanding amount. As soon as we receive your payment, the consultant will be paid by us. The payments will be made by a bank transfer.
The final feedback for consultants has two major benefits:
- It increases the transparency of the consultant choice on the COMATCH marketplace, as the cumulative valuation of a consultant is visible by future clients.
- You give the consultant an opportunity to develop on the basis of constructive feedback and to build a reputation on the COMATCH marketplace.
We hope that you are satisfied with the collaboration, and would like to work with the consultant again. In the post-project phase it is necessary for COMATCH to ensure exclusive rights to the collaboration, so if you and the consultant wish to work together again within 18 months of the end of the project, this must be done through COMATCH. In this case, you of course will benefit from our efficient project handling processes.
Yes, you can hire consultants after a project ends. We collect a very low commission of 25% of the annual salary.
No. COMATCH is 100% free for consultants.
To become part of the COMATCH network, you should meet our selection criteria:
- You have at least 2 years of experience in a top management consulting firm or
- You are an industry expert with a strong leadership record with at least 10 years of experience and a clear industry or functional focus or
- You have at least 2 years of experience as a founder of a successful start-up or more than 4 years of experience in the start-up world in a strategic context or
- You have at least 5 years of experience at a leading digital company and/or profound expertise in digital transformation topics or functions
Each profile is checked in a dedicated application process. Anomalies or false information in a CV result in rejection of the application.
Yes. You can register on COMATCH while you have a full-time job. We want to support you in your professional reorientation phase and give you an idea what kind of projects are waiting for you. It is necessary to have at least 10 hours per week (or more, depending on the project) for the project work.
Sure. We are determined to bring real industry experts and top management consultants together. We believe that the blend of industry experience and consulting skills is the key for sustainable project success. However, you should at least have 10 years of professional experience with a clear industrial and functional focus or at least 2 years of experience as a founder of a start-up.
We treat your data as strictly confidential and use the personal information only for the internal matching process. Specific details can be found in our data protection policy.
We have developed a matching algorithm based on personal qualifications (experience, role, industry and functional expertise), individual preferences (working hours, place of work, minimum project duration, daily rate) and the project feedback which proposes suitable individuals or team combinations.
Fill out your profile in detail to differentiate yourself from other consultants. Moreover your preserved project feedback and the required daily rate play a decisive roles in the consultant selection by the client.
You get the information that we have proposed a project to you on the COMATCH marketplace and via email. After that you have two working days (or 4 working days if the client asks for submission of a Mini-LOP) to decide whether you wish to accept the project and if need be with which other consultants you want to work together.
The project briefing provides a preliminary project description and is already in great detail. Any additional questions can be discussed directly with the client before the official start of the project.
The particular role assigned on a project (consultants, project managers or expert) depends on the project requirements, your relevant expertise and your previous professional experience (inside and outside of COMATCH). It may happen that you also have different roles in different projects.
So-called Mini-LOPs are small text documents (about 2 pages) that show the planned course of the project. Clients have the possibility to request a Mini-LOP in order to decide between the candidates for a project.
You have full control. We propose individual team members according to our matching algorithm. After that team members have the opportunity to contact each other. The final decision whether you accept the project and with which team members you would like to collaborate is always with you.
In general, the interviews differ from topic to topic and client to client. However, the account manager of the respective project will share as much information as possible so that you can prepare yourself for the project.
The process slightly differs depending on whether you have been selected as an individual consultant or as part of a team. A COMATCH best-practice kick-off will be sent to you once you have been selected for a project.
It is possible that the project briefing must be slightly changed again. At the same time, it is important that the adaptation happens in close coordination between the client and you and that COMATCH will be informed about larger adaptations such as project scope, timeline, or final products. This is for your own good in case there should be disputes.
Yes. In order to ensure a smooth payment process, it is necessary to report the working hours with a brief description of activities through our user-friendly activity tracker. The client receives this information to view and must approve it.
You invoice directly to COMATCH. The bill is easily created when completing the activity tracker and sent to us directly. You do not need to make any manual extra effort.
The payment for a project takes place on a monthly basis in each case no later than 35 working days after the end of the previous calendar month. For this the time worked shall be submitted via the COMATCH activity tracker and approved by clients. During short projects (up to 4 weeks) the payment will be made 35 working days after the end of the project.
Project progress and overall satisfaction with the work should be discussed in the daily interaction with the client. With the intermediate feedback we want to give the client a procedural opportunity to express satisfaction with the individual consultant or with the whole project. The interim feedback is therefore a supporting tool to ensure the highest service quality.
Should it come to disputes with the client or other team members during the project please inform COMATCH as soon as possible. COMATCH will then act as a mediator and help both parties find an acceptable solution.
At the end of each project, comprehensive feedback is obtained by the COMATCH marketplace. This includes feedback from your client and possibly also feedback from other team members. Individual feedback on particular projects is appreciated. You can find your overall rating for all projects in your personal space on the right side.
The project feedback is an important factor for the matching algorithm for new projects. The better your overall score, the greater your chance to be suggested for new projects.
Yes, we believe that feedback is a useful element for personal growth. This is why submitting feedback is compulsory and we also recommend to discuss this feedback personally. The final salary is also only paid after you submit the feedback.
Initially, none, because something like this can happen. But the highest quality of service for our clients is one of our core values. If you get bad reviews over two consecutive times or get bad reviews for more projects, we reserve the right to end your membership in the COMATCH community.
Sure! You can use the COMATCH marketplace to find an appropriate team or a suitable consultant for a project that you have acquired yourself. The separate use of feedback, contract and payment processes is also possible. Contact us – we’ll send you an offer.
We hope both you and the client are satisfied with the collaboration. In the post-project phase, it is necessary for COMATCH to ensure exclusive rights to the collaboration, so if you and the client wish to work together again within 18 months of the end of the project, this must be done through COMATCH.
Yes. Based on your project feedback and amount of sold project days you can qualify for the next following role. For example, you can “rise” from a consultant to a project manager.
From time to time you might receive project requests, which that you aren’t interested in. For such situations, we have initiated the COMATCH recommendation campaign. All you need to do is to connect us to the potential client and, if we win the project, you will receive a part of our margin as a reward. For more details just contact us.