Professional services are occupations in theservice sector requiring special training inliberal arts and pure sciences education orprofessional development education.[1] Some professional services, such asarchitects,accountants,engineers,doctors, andlawyers require the practitioner to hold professional degrees or licenses and possess specific skills. Other professional services involve providing specialist business support to businesses of all sizes and in all sectors; this can includetax advice, supporting a company withaccounting,IT services,public relations services or providingmanagement services.[2]
Many industry groups have been used for academic research, while looking at professional services firms, making a clear definition hard to attain. Some work has been directed at better defining professional service firms (PSF). In particular, Von Nordenflycht generated a taxonomy of professional service firms, defining four types:[3]
Frameworks such as this aid the ability of managers and academics to better understand how such firms manage themselves and how to judge benchmark practices.
There is no definitive list of occupations in professional services, but examples include the following:
Professional services can be provided bysole proprietors,partnerships orcorporations. A person providing the service can often be described as aconsultant. In law,barristers normally organise themselves intochambers. Businesses in other industries, such as banks and retailers, can employ individuals or teams to offer professional services for their customers. Major cities such asLondon andNew York are leading global centres for professional services firms.[4][5]
Themarketing and selection of professional-service providers may depend on skill, knowledge, experience, reputation, capacity, ethics, and creativity.[6][7] Large corporations may have a formalprocurement process for engaging professional services.[8] Prices for services, even within the same field, may vary greatly. Professional-service providers may offer fixed rates for specific work, charge in relation to the number or seniority of people engaged, or charge in relation to the success or profit generated by the project.[9]
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