Selecting Consultants –

For Better or For Worse

July 24, 2012

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About Your Presenter

• Sr. VP KeyedIn Solutions Consulting Group

– Helping companies align their business and technology

– Focus on people, process, and then the technology

– Subject matter expert on business process management

– On-going research into next generation of technology for

enterprise systems

• 25 years experience in enterprise systems

– USAF Research Project (1985)

– Founder of enterprise quality software company (1988)

• Trusted advisor to global organizations, government

agencies, and professional groups

http://www.linkedin.com/in/johncachat

Thought for the Day

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Help me, help you….

The Consultant Life Cycle

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Today’s Discussion

• Types of consulting firms

• Fixed bid versus time & material

contracts

• Warnings

• Consulting agreements

• Questions between client and

consultants

Implementation Consulting

• Do you have sufficient internal resources that have previous experience in similar – if not identical – systems

• Do you have a strong program management / project management process and resources?

• Will these resources have full time jobs in addition to working on implementing a new system?

• If yes…go for it

• If no,

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Types of Consulting Firms

Type Pros Cons

The Software OEM Full time OEM employees

with specific expertise

across multiple installations

OEM employees reluctant to criticize

software and/or point out weaknesses

Large Firms Nobody got fired hiring IBM Diverse, not as focused

Staffing often delegated to entry level

employees with very little experience

Want total control of the project

Will not turn down “bad” business

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Types of Consulting Firms

Type Pros Cons

Boutique Firms Willing to be more creative

and laser focus on specific

systems

Tend to employ only

seasoned and experience

consultants

Will avoid “bad” business

Not as many resources available – need

to book well in advance

Independent

Consultants

Lower cost – usually around

40% less

May not have enough time

Can get distracted easily

None or limited backup

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Types of Consulting Firms

Type Comments

Do whatever you want Huge mistake

Say no and explain why –

true advisors

Focus on their fundamental responsibility of being experts

They know the mistakes, errors, risks

They are not being difficult, they are doing what you are

paying them to do

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Fixed Bid Versus T&M

Type Pros Cons

Fixed Bid - get this done

regardless of how long it

takes

Incentive to finish on time

and under budget

OK if business deliverables /

requirements clearly

understood / defined

Consultant will strictly

enforce change requests and

scope creep

Rarely results in overall

positive experience

Time and Material (T&M) –

pay an agreed upon rate for

different types of resources

More of a partnership

relationship

Required if business

deliverables / requirements

not clearly understood /

defined

Usually, fewer issues

May lead to Consultant's

desire to extend, delay, or

complicate the project for

more billable time

Requires robust Project

Management

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Beware of Lowest Cost Proposal

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• Comparing apples to apples?

• Are the business deliverables clearing defined?

• What is covered, not covered – look at the

contract

• How are changes handled?

• If you can’t afford to do it right, do not do it at all

Warnings

• Rarely does your

organization have the

required expertise

• Internal resources

have full time day

jobs

• Internal Politics

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Consulting Agreements

• Traditional

• Milestone

• Multiple consulting partners

• Rapid deployment

• Creative arrangements

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Traditional

• Full time consultant(s) on-site every week (5 days @ 8 hours, 4 days * 10 hours)

• Consultants living in the day to day life of the company are better positioned to – Steer clients in the right direction

– Manage the project / issues

• WARNING – if your team have full time jobs, they will not be available, they will miss meetings, they will miss deadlines, they will get frustrated

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Milestone

• Consultant checks in on a regular basis – onsite,

every two weeks or so

• End users can do their day jobs and prepare for

this regularly scheduled meetings

• WARNING

– Your company is responsible for keeping track of day

to day tasks / issues, including dealing with politics

– Projects that start and stop lose momentum

– Time required to bring consultant up to date needs to

be considered

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Multiple Consulting Partners

• The obvious question, Why?

• Risks

– I thought you were working on it

– We both worked on it

– My work is great, your work is not

– I am paying two companies to sit in the same meeting

to learn the same thing

• WARNING

– Requires a robust, centralized project management

process and tool

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Rapid Deployment

• I agree to a budget conscious rapid engagement

• You agree to let me make traditional decisions

– Configuration

– Setup

– Best practice templates

• Avoids delays from end users debating which codes to use, or what business process to implement

• WARNINGS

– Pick the right consultant

– Make sure the business processes fit – not to radical

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Creative Arrangements

• Attempt to split use of internal resources and consultant time to various tasks– Installation

– Setup and configuration

– Data migration

– Integration with other apps

– Testing

– Report writing

• WARNING– Can lead to finger pointing

– Will usually result in different SI resources working on the project and loss of continuity

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Questions the Clients Need To Ask

• Are the benefits worth the cost of using the

consultant?

• Does the consultant have a history of satisfied

clients?

– Call them – ask for happy and unhappy

• Will the consultant challenge us if we are going

down the wrong path?

• Does the consultant have sufficient resources?

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Questions the Consultant need to ask

• Is this “good” business for us?

• Will the client listen to us?

• Does the client have adequate internal

resources?

• Does the client have a strong project manager?

• Will the client formally sign off when critical

milestones are met?

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Things to Remember….

• Hiring the software OEM or a large SI in

no way guarantees success

• Not all consultants are created equal

• Do not decide strictly on price

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About KeyedIn Consulting Group

Experts providing solutions to specific problems

– Business and IT Alignment

– People and Process Alignment

– Enterprise Software Selection

– Project Rescue

– Project Management & PMO Managed Services

Follow KeyedIn

Corporate Website: www.keyedin.com

www.twitter.com/keyedinsolution

www.linkedin.com/company/2434133?trk=tyah

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Upcoming Webinars

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7/27/12 Enterprise System Implementation Strategies and Phases

7/31/12 Project Teams: People Issues, Roles and Responsibilities

Questions & Answers

Q ACopy of Presentation Future Webinars

Contact:

Shelly Bird

sbird@keyedin.com

952-835-1041 ext.163

Visit:

www.keyedin.com

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