Hire a consultant, or run it in-house?

Auditors prefer evidence. A DMA delivered by a consultancy with a weak evidence trail will be challenged just as hard as an in-house DMA with a weak evidence trail. What auditors look for is: structured methodology (documented and applied consistently), linked evidence per scoring decision, tamper-evident change log, reviewer attestation, and year-on-year continuity. A platform provides these structurally; a consultancy provides them through professional discipline. Both can pass assurance — it’s not a question of who built it.

A few genuine cases: (1) the organisation has zero internal ESG capability and a timeline too tight to build it; (2) audit committee politics require senior external sign-off for reputational cover; (3) the group structure is so complex that experienced specialists can navigate it faster than software-guided workflow; (4) the DMA is part of a larger strategic advisory brief where separating it from the broader engagement introduces coordination cost.

In all other cases, the platform produces the same audit-ready output at a fraction of the cost — and builds internal capability as a side effect.

Yes — this is a common pattern. First-cycle DMA delivered by a consultancy to establish methodology and audit relationship; subsequent cycles run in-house on the platform with consultant advisory retained for scope changes. The platform’s CSV and XLSX import support means you don’t lose year 1’s work when you transition. Several of our customers use this model, including one that moved from a Big 4 engagement to self-service in year 2 at ~10% of year 1’s cost.

Most large consultancies have internal tools — usually not commercial products, often spreadsheet-based with proprietary macros. The pattern you should be alert to: the deliverable is theirs, the methodology is theirs, and at engagement end you receive a PDF. You don’t inherit a living workspace you can maintain yourself — which means year 2 either requires renewing the engagement or rebuilding everything.

Consultancies working via the GIG Partner Program (see For Consultants) deliver through the platform and hand over a live workspace at engagement end — best of both worlds.

Typical scope: scoping engagement (CSRD wave confirmation, governance design), audit committee briefing design, stakeholder engagement workshop and survey design, team training (platform onboarding + ESRS workshops), and audit readiness review. Priced per engagement, not per subscription. Covers 10–25 expert-days depending on complexity. Enough to de-risk a first cycle, not so much that you don’t build capability.