This long article talks about the market of IT consulting in 2002. Even if it is focused on the U.S. market, I think it also is applicable in most of other countries.
The major questions asked here are: when do you need to hire someone outside your company? How do you choose the right firm? How do you end your relationship with a consultant?
These questions are answered by Jonathan Feldman -- with the help of several tables.
Here is the introduction:
There's an old story about a company that calls in a consultant because a critical assembly line machine is down, and it's costing the company bigger bucks by the hour. The consultant arrives, looks the machine up and down, then whacks it with a hammer. Amazingly, it starts working as good as new; the assembly line springs to life, and the day is saved. Soon, the consultant's bill arrives: $10,000. Outraged, the foreman demands an itemized account, which the consultant gladly provides: "Hitting machine with hammer: $1. Knowing where to hit machine: $9,999."
Nowadays, knowing when to call in a consultant, choosing the right one, managing the relationship and making sure you get the most for your money are priceless. To offer you the best strategies, we've spent the past few months grilling consulting companies, analysts, industry groups and end users for their experiences, tips and lessons learned.
And how do you define what is a consultant?
By consultant, we mean someone who offers point expertise in a specialized field for a limited duration, usually to address a critical need. You call a consultant when you're happy to pay for someone's deep knowledge, to avoid costly mistakes or quickly recover from a mistake you've already made.
Think everyone knows what a consultant is? We encountered some confusion in our research -- particularly from vendors who offered to take over staffing functions for, say, PC management. Sorry, that's outsourcing.
As columnist David Willis, an analyst with the Meta Group, puts it: "Consulting is what you want when your need is strategic. Outsourcing is what you want when your need is not strategic." Consultants are usually hired to improve or fix, but never to maintain a process or function.
Source: Jonathan Feldman, Network Computing, July 22, 2002
3:14:49 PM
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