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) are experts, (5) are independent and objective, and (6) have the capability to facilitate actions that are envisaged by their recommendations (Canback, 1998, p16).

Bower's reasons for engagement of managing consultants lead to a number of propositions. Management consultants, it is seen, are increasingly dealing with critical long-term issues of their clients and have become important to executives of such organisations for rational representation and analysis of these issues. They contribute to client organisations by dealing with both process and content issues with the use of their methodology, know-how, and wide-ranging problem-solving proficiencies. Management consultants also work jointly with client organisations in fluid and complicated relationships that are typified by huge mutual trust (Canback, 1998, p18).

It is further observed that external consultants can lend fresh perspectives to complex organisational issues. Management consultants by and large do not have vested interests, which can lead to organisational politics and complications, since they are outsiders in the eyes of organisational personnel. These two factors help in effective and unbiased advice and lend urgency to the decision-making process (Lancaster, 2005, p39).

The engagement of external consultants sometimes becomes imperative on account of legal or regulatory requirements, like for example for examination of allegations of malpractices or wrongdoing on the part of the members of the management. Whilst engagement external consultants is good practice or even obligatory in such circumstances, it is advisable to engage consultants to address such organisational problems or issues, even when legal or regulatory issues are not involved, for the sake of objective and impartial investigation and assessment (Lancaster, 2005, p40).

4. The Need and Importance for Companies to take their Own Decisions
It is important for organisations in both the public and private sector to develop independent decision-making capabilities. Not doing so has its limitations and recent market research has evidenced the same. It needs to be examined, in this context, whether decision-making should be a function of internal management and be dependent on their know-how, skills and processes, or whether it should be subject to the expertise and domain knowledge of external management consultancies.

With regard to the issue of organisational knowledge, the function of management consultancy firms in influencing, rather than facilitating, decisions on development of information systems needs examination (Westrup & Knight, 2009, p7). Recent research shows that organisational experience with ERP systems has likenesses with earlier approaches to information systems like Business Process Reengineering systems.

Decisions on ERP systems, it appears from conducted research, are taken on the basis of limited scrutiny of business processes, which in turn give rise to various issues that are central to unsuccessful implementation and subsequent use of ERP systems (Westrup & Knight, 2009, p7). The expected failure of ERP systems in future will lead to the promotion of other systems, which can be expected to be founded, either on a re-look at the interpretation of functions of ERP systems to engage with Business-to-Business systems, or on other more elastic middle-ware methodologies operated by skill