Understanding Consulting Services Choices: Part 2

Yesterday, I started a daily series for the week, working to help customers understand the consulting world in this initial article:

Understanding Consulting Services Choices: Part 1

Recently, I had been thinking seriously about whether I should restart my LIMS/Laboratory Informatics consulting business. There is a lot of work out there in certain areas, but at the same time, there is always plenty of competition to contend with, even in times of great demand for services. In fact, I was just congratulating someone else on doing exactly that - starting their own consulting business. And, in that, thought about it yet again.

Yet, despite all my experience and despite the demand for services, not everyone would want to necessarily be my customer. There are a lot of factors at play. Today, I will talk about the different types of firms. Below are some reasons companies might select one consulting group over another.

Your Software Vendor

Often times, you merely purchase implementation services from your software vendor. The bonus is that the cost can go onto the same invoice with the product's licenses, which many companies find appealing.

Yet, software vendors primarily write software. While some of them have worked toward delivering professional services, their main goal is still to sell software. In addition, whether you could find any other firm could do a better job is yet another issue to consider, and it varies.

Bigger Is Not Better

As with most things, going with the largest company does not mean you get better services. Within the large company, there are more people to provide services and hopefully a wider variety of services, although not necessarily in what you specifically might need. The largest companies are meant for one-stop shopping. They have the greatest number of people to market themselves to sell the services of all those people. Thus, those will be the companies many of you will think of to call when you need services.

We think of the larger firms as places to go for "one stop shopping." Often, they do regularly offer a wider variety of services than some of the smaller firms. However, it does not necessarily mean they always have experienced people to send out to provide those services.

Smaller Is Not Better, Either

This is where I point out that a smaller group is not necessarily better, either. There are quite a few smaller companies that truly specialize in the services they provide. In fact, there are groups out there entirely comprised of only experienced people that can properly deliver the best in whatever they are offering.

At the same time, there are both large and small companies exist merely to charge you what they can to deliver whatever they can. Their goal is to look for more services to charge you for more than to actually deliver true results.

Here is where it is up to the customer - just because they are selling it does not mean you have to buy it. It is your money, obviously I am going to tell you to spend it wisely, but you already know that.

Overview of Selling

As I just mentioned, different companies have different strategies to sell their services. There are some out there that send you their greatest people to show how skillful they are and to sell you their services. Who then send you inexperienced people that do not have the skills you might need.

Companies that sell in this manner are called "body shops" where they will sell any warm body they can get their hands on. If you ask for it, they will sell it, and it is up to you to figure out what to do with the person.

Just to reiterate this, the people with the experience and doing the initial selling are called "closers" because they are there to "close" the deal. They are not there to train anyone nor stay on to do the actual work.

Yet, these less experienced people can work out well in projects with strong leadership and project knowledge to share.

Why Didn't You Ask?

Time and time, again, companies who purchase systems tell me they were sold people who do not have the skills to implement their systems. The customer is frustrated because they do not have the people with the knowledge to implement the system, which is why they spent the money for these services people to lead them. Yet, the services people they got are not at the right level of experience to do that. And thee customers feel bitter about the money they spent, often seeing they have little if anything to show for it.

Yet, when I ask them what level of people they thought they'd get or whether anyone promised them people who would have enough experience to lead the implementation, they did not think to ask that question.

Next, I ask them why they didn't and they admit that they didn't know to ask that.

So, now you know. If you read yesterday's article, you know I'm a proponent of asking more questions about services, not only focusing on the product purchase. As with product questions, some services groups claim to do it all and you will start to see that suspicious pattern, hopefully.

Supply and Demand: Waiting for Godot?

When the marketplace is busy, the supply is low, of course. You can call the largest consulting group with the most people on their staff and still not be able to get anyone for your project. Or, you do get someone but the person is just too inexperienced to finish your work, properly. On the other hand, you might call the very smallest company and you find someone, right away, and a very experienced person. That person might just have finished a project. In a busy marketplace, it can be just pure luck that you find any resource, even better luck if they have the right skills.

Most of you know of the story, "Waiting For Godot," where two men are sitting talking and waiting for a third man named Godot, the point of the story being that they just keep waiting as Godot still has not appeared.

Think carefully before you "wait for Godot." What I mean by this is that I hear too many customers complain that they are waiting endlessly for services. They call just one consulting company or their software vendor, get on a list to wait for a consulting resource, and they sit on the list until they get someone. This is not necessarily a bad situation when there is no specific deadline to get the work done. However, when you have a spot on the list with just one company and they do not seem to be able to service your contract as your deadline approaches, this is not the time to be thinking that you should have called around a bit more before settling on whomever you settled on.

Note: During times of high demand, I get a LOT of contacts from customers for services all sorts of products, some that were supposed to be implemented by various consulting firms or vendors. While I obviously cannot service all of these calls, keep in-mind that you should not wait too long if you have deadlines, as many other companies are not actually waiting - they are just going out beating the bushes on their own, trying to find people.

Keeping People

When you have a consulting group or individual consultant who consistently provides reliable and excellent service, it is still common to find that companies hang onto these consultants, contracting with them for years and years, in some cases.

In fact, in my past business, I had had quite a few long-term customers who fought to keep using my services even when their companies tried to push them to switch to other consulting groups.

My advice is this: if you find any consulting company, large or small, or even an individual, and if they are reliable and terrific at what they do, especially if they can provide a wide variety of great services to you with just one message to them, do what you can to keep them.

It is Not Easy

As management changes in companies, it becomes more difficult to do this. New managers will have "ideas" about how "easy" it is to shop these services out to just anyone. They will convince the people above them that this is a "new idea" they have and the "way of the future" or whatever the latest terms are.

Upcoming

Next, I will explain how subcontracting works and give an example how it affects your project.