1. Use your internal staff. Hire only what your staff can't do. There is no sense, unless they are on other high priority projects, not using talent you already have. Most are already eager to share their skills on problem solving.
2. Flowchart the problem. An hour or two of your time analyzing the problem on paper may identify the causes. Since you know the desired outcome, a goal or target that is measureable, you can either lead a problem solving team or hire the consultant to facillitate.
3. Ask for consulting hours with parts of a project. Cost savings can be achieved from omitted the formal presentation and frequent meetings.
4. Use a hybrid of internal staff and consultants. Tasks that are time consuming may be more appropriate using staff hours than consultant hours.
