Intelligent Consulting

Value from Non-Permanent Resources

2011-02-21T17:28:00.001Z

Non-permanent resources fulfil a vital role in the delivery of change. It is preferable for most organisations to have between 10 and 20% of their change resources made up of contractors and consultants to enable them to flex their teams according to business demands. As a tactical response to a change in demand, non-permanent resources add immediate value to an organisation allowing them to deliver projects more quickly than they would be able to do with just permanent resources. Over extended engagements the amount of value that the organisation receives remains largely static save for some increase organisational awareness.

We believe that the value that an organisation gains from non-permanent resources should increase significantly over time with more of the output from their activities being used as a measure for financial reward. Ultimately the resource is assigned individual pieces of work and is paid on their successful delivery. We can make this a reality.

A Professional Approach?

2010-08-18T10:50:00.000+01:00

Last week I talked about using outsourcing to provide specialist skills for specialist services. Resourcing is a hugely important part of any business and therefore should be treated as an area where specialist skills should be used to find and select the best people in the marketplace for specific positions. I do not believe that resourcing is treated as a specialist skill and therefore outsourcing agreements tend to focus on volume and cost rather than quality.

Specialist resourcing organisations are providing services at many of our largest financial services companies. However, in this context, specialist means that the organisation “only” supplies resourcing services and does not refer to the quality or depth of knowledge of the people who provide the services. It is like going to a specialist plumbing company to get new central heating installed but then finding out that the people who work there have little more experience than changing a washer. Why do we have an attitude towards resourcing outsourcing that is so much more tolerant of poor performance than we would have to an IT provider or security firm?

People cannot be treated as insurance claims and processed by computer and semi-skilled resources. Resourcing should be treated as a skilled and professional skill and companies should take this into account when looking for outsource partners.

People are not insurance claims!

2010-08-12T11:00:00.001+01:00

Most companies have at some point looked at outsourcing some functions in order to become more efficient and to allow them to concentrate on core business activities. This has been successful in some areas and not so successful in others.

There are two reasons for outsourcing: that the process being outsourced requires little expertise, is not core to the business function of the client and therefore it is a distraction to the client and should be performed as cheaply as possible; and where the process being outsourced is a specialist process and requires expertise that the client would find it difficult or costly to buy in or is only required infrequently.

Perhaps the success stories in the first category are in back office processing of financial services such as insurance claims as well as facilities management on most large sites. In these examples the skills required by the function are widely available and therefore an organisation dedicated to providing them can gain efficiencies of scale. In the second category IT security and tax consultancy would be excellent examples of specialist skills brought in to improve business performance.

Resourcing has also been treated as a process suitable for outsourcing for many years and, interestingly, has been put into both of the above categories. Some organisations have outsourced all responsibility for permanent and non-permanent resourcing to large international companies at low per unit prices. Others have paid fees to search organisations for seeking out the best executives in their field and agencies significant margins for specialist IT resources. One could argue at length about the relative merits of these approaches and the quality of the people that are identified, and I can guarantee that I certainly have as a lack of quality in resourcing is one of my specialist subjects. However, both are potentially flawed for the same reason, that the interview process is conducted by someone with little or no previous experience of interviewing.

The results of this can be really serious for the business. It can lower standards, inhibit change, be extremely costly and stop a business ultimately succeeding in its strategy. I will be looking at some of these issues in my next blog and be discussing the ARM model which we use to accelerate and simplify the process of bringing in the highest quality external contractors and consultants.

More for less again!

2010-07-26T15:01:00.001+01:00

It has been a while since I have posted a blog entry. We have been evaluating a number of external influences including the change in government so that we concentrate on delivering a set of products that are accurate for the market of the moment.

I have noticed a change in those clients we are speaking to who use large numbers of contractors within their management and analyst populations. Often these large groups have been delivered by a large managed services designed to follow processes rather than carefully select consultants for the assignment in hand. This results in a lowering of the standard of contractor on site which can in turn lower expectations of delivery; a very bad spiral of negative feedback.

These clients are now looking to reduce the number of contractors onsite but increase the quality of the output. This requires careful selection of high quality consultants from the market and management of those resources whilst on site to ensure performance is meeting expectations. The resourcing arm of our business delivers this using the Accelerated Resource Model and I will be talking about this on an ongoing basis during 2010 as uptake of the model gathers pace with our customers.

Will change open up Government?

2010-05-05T09:50:00.001+01:00

This week there is generally expected to be a change in government but there is still considerable uncertainty about what that government will look like. Regardless of the political make-up of the government it is clear that considerable cuts are expected across public sector spending. As a company that has not traditionally gained a large proportion of its income from the public sector these cuts should not directly affect our business. However it may represent an opportunity to write more business if cost becomes a major factor in vendor selection.

In recent days I have completed documentation for two public sector contracts. I feel that both of these would normally be awarded to a brand name integrator or consultancy and I feel that the price tag would have been high. I have no doubt that we can provide an equivalent or superior quality of service and at a more competitive price. In addition, because we have fewer concurrent projects running we will commit key management resources to every one. This has be better for those organisations procuring services and ultimately therefore for every tax payer in the country.

If the outcome of the economic downturn is a more cost effective and competitive environment in the public sector then that will be a considerable silver lining.

Single Minded Purpose

2010-04-07T11:14:00.001+01:00

There continues to be a buzz of activity in the consulting Market at the moment. Integration and regulatory programmes are ensuring that there is work available for high quality consultants but does mean that competition for the best people is more intense than it has been for a couple of years. Clients need to be single minded about their goals and not be complacent that they will secure high quality resource as they could be until recently. This includes being prompt to make requirement decisions, prompt to organise exploratory meetings and clear about the budgets that they can afford to secure the correct resource.

I have heard of at least three occasions in the last two weeks where clients have been less than successful in meeting the above criteria. This has resulted in delays in getting the correct consultants assigned which in turn has had consequences on delivery of key projects. We are working hard with our clients to ensure that this does not happen on their projects which so far we have been able to achieve.

Time to breathe out?

2010-03-12T09:27:00.003Z

There is undeniably a shift in the marketplace for interim resources. Perhaps until this point it might have been isolated symptoms and sporadic activity but now there is enough momentum to suggest that there is a move to purchase services. An IT director once told me that you can only hold your breath for 2 years. After this time, no matter how severe the trading conditions have been for an individual business or for the marketplace as a whole, you have to run some projects. Without a modest amount of investment you risk the integrity of your infrastructure and this could ultimately affect the recovery of the business.

So since the new year the IT marketplace has taken a collective gasp of air and is doing running project repairs. Good news for the service industry and welcome relief to the interim market where there have been fewer opportunities. However, I would still be very cautious about long term recovery. We have an election coming up which looks like it has an increasingly uncertain outcome and this could significantly affect the overall economy. The result of two years of abstinence is that we have all breathed out and are enjoying it but are we about to take another deep breath and hold it for the rest of 2010? Let us hope not.

Collaborative Contracts: Some Practical Thoughts

2010-02-18T11:48:00.005Z

In many relationships the contract is the last defensible line. If you’re fighting and arguing around points of contract there is a real danger trust in the relationship has broken down. It may not be recoverable and will certainly incur costs and damage to reputations. Working to develop collaborative contracts should greatly reduce some of these risks.

When considering contractual matters it is well worth becoming familiar with the judgement given in Hedley Byrne vs. Heller & Partners 1963 House of Lords. This case dealt with “...the important question whether and in what circumstances a person can recover damages for loss suffered by reason of his having relied on an innocent but negligent misrepresentation.”

The Judgement runs to 14 pages, but by way of a layman’s summary it establishes there are duties & liabilities which can arise where someone is acting as a trusted advisor to a client.

The bottom line is, compensation can be claimed and paid. It’s yet another reason why collaborative approaches to contracts are mutually beneficial.

In my view, when developing a collaborative contract it is worth establishing some measure of the competency expected from a supplier’s staff and contractors. I think this goes beyond relying upon a person holding a paper qualification as a sole proof of competency. It is possible that setting a paper qualification, or even security clearance, as a barrier to interview could in itself lead to a legal challenge as the boundaries of legislation relating to discrimination in all its forms expand.

An approach I’ve adopted when setting expectations includes the use of a target competency profile defined in terms of Awareness, Practitioner and Expert categories:

Awareness (A): Demonstrates an awareness of a specified skill or experience but will not have exercised that skill-set.
Practitioner (P): Demonstrable experience of exercising a specified skill-set.
Expert (E): Demonstrable experience of not only exercising a specific skill-set but also able to provide evidence of having successfully trained, coached or mentored others in the use of that skill.

This can be additionally refined by indicating the percentage mix of competency level required across staff supplied by a 3rd party. A greater level of detail can be offered in relation to specific competencies and experience e.g.

Competency: Creation of a Test Strategy for a project or programme.

Preferred Competency: Expert (E)

Minimum Competency: Practitioner (P)
Evidence of Competency: Provide an example of a real life Test Strategy. Explain how this was applied to a specific project or programme. Describe any obstacles and how they were overcome.

The evidence of competency can be explored during interview.

This approach supports collaborative contracts and potentially reduces the associated risks where a Hedley-Byrne relationship exists.

Written by Steve Willis

BskyB and EDS prove that traditional contracts don’t work

2010-02-04T09:53:00.001Z

The judgment in the long-running BSkyB and EDS legal dispute last week in favour of BSkyB is a surprise to me. This is not because I thought that EDS had a valid defence and were being unfairly hounded by their customer, it was that I was surprised that a large systems integrator had been publicly shown to not be able to deliver against a contractual promise.

The background to the dispute is well known and centres around EDS failing to deliver a new CRM system to BSkyB in the early part of the last decade. The judge accepted that EDS had misrepresented it’s capabilities in selling the system in the first place. I am sure EDS will direct most attention at Joe Galloway, the leader of the CRM practice at EDS, and point out that a rogue salesman had acted beyond acceptable boundaries. They may well be correct but the entire affair shows to me that large contracts for systems and services are doomed to failure before they begin because fundamentally the approach to contracts is wrong.

Contracts are critical to all supplier/customer relationships and it is not possible to operate without them. After all we do need clauses to cover a range of circumstances that can occur between businesses. The important element is what is actually going to be delivered and this is where I believe that a change is required to get the most benefit for the customer and the supplier. Contracts should be collaborative and the aim of both parties should be to deliver a positive result. Traditional contracts represent a battleground with the opening positions laid down in black and white whilst a collaborative contract should outline the aims of both parties and the basic methodology that will be applied. Costing should be based around sensible estimates with items such as daily rates for consultants fixed for a given period. Once the services begin then both parties can begin to identify the actual issues that will affect delivery. The contract should then be treated in the same way as an agile development with rapid iterations and engaged customers, both parties striving to deliver the project together.

This will require a shift in attitude from all those involved. True, there will need to be a greater degree of trust between the supplier and the customer but fundamentally should this trust not exist in whatever form the contract takes? The supplier cannot continue to treat large customers as cash cows and must earn their money through delivery. The judgment in the EDS case will certainly change the way in which IT services are sold and delivered and I am hopeful that through a collaborative contract this change can be for the better.

If you wish to discuss this more please feel free to drop me an e-mail on adam.meadows@intelligent-consulting.com

Fix it!

2010-01-21T12:22:00.002Z

Sometimes it is healthy to be reminded that we make mistakes. The principal shareholder of the businesses that I manage reminded me of such a thing this week. Whether or not he was hinting that I was about to realise a large error in judgement in the next few days I don’t know but nevertheless he said this:

“Adam, I don’t care what you do with the business, who you hire and fire or the money you spend, as long as when you realise that something is not working then you admit it, change it, and learn from the experience.”

It is sound advice and once I had examined all my recent decisions looking for obviously poor ones, I reflected on how difficult it can sometimes be to be critical of yourself. This is the perfect time to conduct a review. The new year is a clean slate and what has gone before can be put down to experience and changes made now can significantly change the way the year progresses.

The people that you assign to a project are the most important factor in determining success. They can be a perfect fit to the assignment and have the correct blend of skills and experience to make the project a triumph but occasionally things do not go according to plan. They may lack some knowledge specific to the task, they may clash with stakeholders or other members of the team, or they simply not be experienced enough to handle the work. Under these circumstances a decision to change must be made as early as possible and if there are no suitable candidates internally then look to external partners like ourselves.

We have had the most successful start to a year in our 10 year history with more new assignments and new customers excited by our extensive pool of talent. I hope we can continue this and introduce our model of value for money to more customers in the coming months.

January Sales

2010-01-07T09:05:00.001Z

The January sales should last all year. If this was the case then there would be fewer crowds and everytime we went shopping then we would be guaranteed a bargain. In reality businesses cannot deliver cost reductions over a 12 month period without fundamentally changing their business model. However, there is another way of delivering increased value for money without reducing the price and that is by delivering more for the same price. This is the key message that we will be delivering during 2010 to both our clients and our associates.

For many years people have been trying to move away from time and materials contracts towards fixed price models. This has been particularly evident in central government with the award of some gargantuan contracts in the NHS. These new models have failed. They have been too large in scale and the contracts themselves have been worded in favour of the supplier rather than the contracting party. The result has been that the price (despite already being loaded with significant profit and contingency) has gone up, delays have been common and without penalty clauses applying.

The answer lies in breaking up large contracts of work into more manageable pieces so that they can be more closely monitored and their respective value to the business verified. This is not about Big Brother checking and double checking the work of a consultant and thus creating the same levels of distrust between the parties as exists on large integration programmes. The working practice should be collaborative and the supplier and client should work together to ensure that targets are met in shorter and shorter timescales. Payments will only be made once deliverables have been accepted or under authorization of the client should there be a problem.

Nor should this model mean an un-necessary increase in the set-up costs of contracts and high levels of change control and bureaucracy. We are advocating simple, cost-effective deliverables-based contracts based upon each consultant or team of consultants being responsible for give output in given timescales. This model also allows for high performance bonuses and early delivery payments thus motivating teams to perform to their maximum levels.

We want our customers to get more from our people and in return we will get more opportunity and continued growth. Over the next 12 months we will be showing how this principle can be applied and hope to lead innovation in the UK in this field.

Intelligent Networks

2009-12-22T08:56:00.000Z

In the last blog I explored the different ways in which people can network to aid their professional development. It is important that we display the correct behaviours so that the network that we do have is maintained for future work. However, we also understand that moving beyond this and towards more active networking is a step that some consultants do not feel comfortable making. By working with an organisation like Intelligent Consulting you can enhance your network and gain access to assignments that would have been hidden from you.

Understanding the relationships between consultants, clients and the cultural environments in which they work is the most important discipline within our profession. These relationships shape the structures of our teams and ensure that the correct consultant is allocated to the correct assignment. They can be historic relationships and they can be extremely complex in the way in which people interact. Linked-in as a tool in business attempts to emulate these networks and provide people with 1st, 2nd or 3rd tier relationships between clients and consultants. However, Linked-in will always fall short of the work that companies such as ours can complete because they are cold and impersonal. It is also susceptible to abuse as people link to others indiscriminately without thought of the damage this can do to their network.

We link consultants with others they may have worked with up to ten years previously and sign them up for future assignments together. We also link consultants to clients whom they may have worked with in previous jobs and who have strong working relationships. Most people have neither the desire nor the time to maintain this level of network and find it surprising when we put together the jigsaw of their earlier working life. By working in this way we have recently reunited a team from 6 years ago to work with one of our banking partners.

As the end of the year approaches it will be possible for you to make resolutions to network more effectively and to stay in touch with your work colleagues more diligently. These resolutions are easily broken and I would recommend that an easier resolution would be to stay in touch with Intelligent Consulting who represent an effective way of maintaining these networks on your behalf.

May I take this opportunity to thank our clients and consultants for your work during 2009 and we look forward to working again with you all in the New Year.

Networking Comes Home to Roost

2009-12-11T10:01:00.002Z

Networking is not everyone’s cup of tea. Some people are not very comfortable or interested in maintaining contact with old work colleagues or friends from university. Some people shudder at the thought of deliberately going out of their way to meet people with whom they may be able to work to mutual benefit in the future. It is human nature that this is the case but despite this undoubted truth I believe strongly that networking is something that everyone should consider within their professional lives.

The activity of networking has been socially labeled as a bad thing. It is associated with a desire to climb through the layers of society with minimum effort for personal gain. This may be true for some but networking has a much broader role and many different characteristics. For the permanent employee in a large organisation effective networking amongst colleagues may include widening a sphere of influence to allow easier delivery of a project. For an interim manager it may include maintaining contact with previous colleagues or managers from earlier assignments to whom they might return for further work at a later date. Often senior managers stay in contact with previous members of their team to ensure that when they need people for new projects they can tap into their network for trusted resources straightaway.

I would describe this as medium level networking, within most people’s comfort zone, and helpful for making like easier for professionals. More complex levels extend the reach of these networks to include unknown individuals and groups that share a common link with people they know. This is time consuming and requires a confidence and highly tuned sense of purpose that only small numbers of people possess. Recently the advance of “Linked-In” as a social tool has reflected the desire that people have to network but in reality it is too easy to hide behind the technology and although 1.5 million links may be impressive, it does not mean that you are better connected.

At the basic level of networking skills I include the daily behaviours that we exhibit with people we meet socially, professionally and through everyday life. These behaviours position the views that people have about us. How people perceive us and how happy they are for us to talk, e-mail or write to them will have more influence over our lives than more overt types of networking. This is extremely important for those of us in the service industry. As consultants we must treat people with respect, complete tasks when we are asked and maintain a suitable disposition at all times. If we succeed in this then our customers will be more likely to use our services again. The same principle goes for all of us, independent of our confidence to build consultancy careers. Networking effectively starts with ourselves and only then can you hope to expand or join other networks.

Next week I will explore how organisations such as Intelligent Consulting can help independent professionals tap into work that otherwise would be hidden from view.

Festive Planning

2009-12-03T15:34:00.002Z

December is upon us already and I am sure that most of us are wondering where the year has gone. This time last year we were on the brink of a worldwide economic downturn and plans for 2009 were about cutting back on non-essential programmes of work and identifying cost reductions on mandatory change programmes. Although as I wrote last week the corner has not been fully turned, the prospects for 2010 look altogether more positive. December is a key planning month for our business as we ensure that our strategy for the coming year is simple, clear and achievable. At the centre of this planning activity is the positioning of our people, the most important resource that we have. We have a strong, dedicated and close knit team as you would expect for a privately-owned business and I want those people to return from the holiday rested, motivated and looking forward to achieving great things in the coming year.

The same principles apply to our clients. Our clients make use of IC consultants to deliver expertise not available in their permanent resource either because they have niche skills or because of the volume of work that is required. Some of those consultants will complete their assignments at the end of the year but for those that are needed during 2010 we want to secure the deals for them to continue as early as possible. IC have a clear policy that we never move our people to new clients until the current client no longer requires their services. This is unlike some of the larger integrators and consultancies who may be tempted to move people on if new deals are not struck early. It also applies to the use of contingent resource from agencies and the most important of these should be extended now. So, before all of our thoughts turn to a few days off and a well deserved break it is worthwhile taking a few days to look at the people sat around you and make sure that they will be there when the hard work begins again in January.

Virtual Corners

2009-11-25T13:22:00.001Z

Signs of recovery within the business community cannot come too soon for most people in the UK. This week we have seen lots of these signs in the marketplace but I wonder whether these are phantom signs rather than real ones. Some consultants are deciding to leave assignments as higher rates are available elsewhere and some are prepared to hold out for assignments closer to their base location. Some consultants are trying to re-negotiate terms at the end of projects and they are doing this with more conviction than hope. These are the signs of a booming economy rather than one still officially in recession.

However, in reality, are there more assignments out there? Are there more projects getting green lit? Are there more new business initiatives being launched? I don’t think that this is the case. I was meeting with one of the CTOs of a major UK Bank last week and the story there was about reductions, cost cutting and removing consultants rather than expansion. Another major customer of ours has terminated their relationship with their end customer this week as they try to manage costs. The final case was a client who was going to release all consultants for December to see if they could manage without them and then only invite the most essential back in January. Clients beware! Less scrupulous consultants may see this as an opportunity for profiteering or may feel that their market worth has increased with all the talk of growth.

The reality is that this is still a very difficult marketplace to trade in and whilst positive thinking is helpful I want to see a genuine increase in opportunity before I claim that we have turned any corners, virtual or not.

What does PMO mean?

2009-11-11T10:12:00.000Z

What does PMO mean to you? The acronym itself can stand for Portfolio, Programme or Project Management Office. And what’s the scope? Is it basic reporting and issue/risk management or does it go further and include Communications, Benefits Management and Internal Change? And what about the type of PMO? Is it a simple, administrative function or a real, heavyweight, value–adding team?

These are some of the questions that need answering early on so you can get over one of the basic problems with implementing successful PMOs - the fact that it means many different things to different people.

There is no “one size fits all” PMO solution. Each client is different, each company culture is different, each operating environment is different and what must be designed and delivered is bespoke. Sure, we can all get the ready-made procedures out of the bag and that’s a good start but what makes the difference is understanding what will fit, what will be appropriate. Too much and the PMO will be branded as heavy-handed and demanding. Too little and the PMO will be seen as a non-value adding administrative pain.

A successful PMO has the right balance. A good, strong (and thick skinned!) leader, a highly experienced team, often integrating with client teams to transfer knowledge, robust, yet appropriate processes and procedures and integrated systems that support the client agenda.

The best PMOs will ensure your projects and programmes are delivered to agreed timescales, reduce costs, increase resource utilisation and manage stakeholder expectations and make it easier for you next time!

If you are interested in talking about implementing a successful PMO in your business, then please contact adam.meadows@intelligent-consulting.com

More for less.

2009-11-04T09:34:00.001Z

The previous blog by Andrew Bracewell about getting the best from offshore outsourcing to India is typical of the advantages that can be gained by organisations who work efficiently and with expert knowledge behind them. Being creative allows businesses to change, grow and keep staff motivated to achieve better results. However, implementing a good idea badly will destroy the benefits inherent within it. As he points out, how many organisations are getting the expected returns on their outsourcing decisions?

“We can do that!”

I think there is an understandable arrogance within the most successful businesses that they can implement anything they want to. Sheer determination will get projects delivered but greater benefit can be gained by bringing in external subject matter experts like Andrew to maximize the good idea that the business has had in the first place. As a consulting firm I suppose we would champion this idea but the same could be true in our private lives. Most people would not put in their own gas boiler or service their own car even if they had a reasonable idea where to start.

Next week we have another guest blogger, Neil Goudge, who will be talking about setting up pragmatic PMOs, another great example of where expertise can save time, money and deliver a better product.

Why consider offshore outsourcing to India?

2009-10-22T14:12:00.000+01:00

Offshore outsourcing to India is still one of the most popular management practices today with the key driver always being cost reduction. However, this is only one reason why companies should consider offshore outsourcing. If implemented correctly, offshore outsourcing to Indian companies should not just offer cost effective solutions, but should also improve productivity and quality.

It is not just about cost.

There are already a wealth of articles and white papers about the cost advantages of offshore outsourcing with the majority claiming anywhere between 40 to 50% savings. Cost is usually the number one reason for offshore outsourcing to India, but with initial investment in infrastructure, training, travel, and other such preliminaries, companies need to be aware that the cost advantages may not be seen immediately.

Of course there should always be cost savings but equally importantly there is also great value addition. A lot of companies only realise this after the offshore outsourcing relationship begins. This is because it is not usually the primary goal when deciding to outsource, and the creativity and talent in India comes as a surprise to many. The key to unlocking that value is in a committed relationship and understanding between all the parties involved.

Offshore outsourcing involves a great deal of planning and should be thought of from day one as a quality solution. Companies should not be driven simply by expectations of rapid cost reduction.

Why offshore outsourcing is still popular?

Despite outsourcing having come into a lot of controversies in recent times, industry watchers predict that outsourcing as a business practice is still in a growth mode. More and more companies are drawing up plans to outsource work to offshore locations. Indian vendors have moved up the value chain to include in their offerings a range of additional services that provide greater skills, support and expertise. As offshore vendors become more streamlined and improve on their offshore outsourcing capabilities and services, it is not difficult to see why outsourcing is here to stay.

Offshore outsourcing has come to be a tried-and-tested model and is recognised as a long-term competitive strategy for success.

If you are interested in talking about offshoring and your business then please contact adam.meadows@intelligent-consulting.com

Fiddling Whilst Rome Burns!

2009-10-19T12:07:00.000+01:00

At any one time within an organisation there are a large number of things to fix or improve. When things are going well it is difficult to justify significant change in case the successes are diminished. Conversely when things are going badly, or the business is under pressure due to economic conditions, change is the word on everyone’s lips. Addressing the fundamentals of the business, whether this be product quality, service levels, pricing or marketing should be at the forefront of decision makers minds. Why should it be the case then that shallow, ill-conceived re-organisations are so popular when more important issues need to be dealt with.

I think the answer is that humans are not logical creatures and often have trouble facing up to difficult challenges when there are easier but less important problems to solve. Why look hard at the viability of your oldest product or service? Why question the new market sector initiative that you took last year? Why make difficult long term decisions on pricing? Why do any of these things when an easy option is to move some people around, rename departments and re-write job profiles. Re-organisations create a lot of noise, make people believe that their managers are taking strong decisions and distract people from the more significant impact of falling sales. It is a tried and tested method of pepping up a business but I think that they lack genuine dynamism. The new saying might read that you don’t get fired for ordering re-organisations but these days maybe someone should.

Strategic, Advisory and Cost-Effective?

2009-10-08T10:50:00.000+01:00

It is a commonly held view that to receive the best strategic and advisory services you have to work with the top tier of British consulting companies. I would challenge this view. It is true that there a lot of very talented and knowledgeable people within these companies and that they can add tremendous value around certain areas including tax strategy or growth planning. However, there are no guarantees that the best people will be available and there are no guarantees that there will be focus on your solutions rather than the expansion of the headcount on site.

This is not necessarily the only way to procure these type of services. A large number of the best consultants become disillusioned with working for the top tier and strike out with smaller companies like ourselves or as freelancers. Freed from the shackles of a prescriptive consulting environment they can concentrate on customer service and delivery and therefore add much more value than before. I would encourage clients to seek out companies like ourselves whilst we seek you out and to discover the richness and depth of experience available at rates that may be more than 50% less than those of the top tier.

For example IC are currently offering health check services on Indian outsourcing arrangements, advice and guidance on launching pragmatic PMOs and Business Continuity plans all from leading consultants in the field. These are just examples of the types of services that are available from the wider consulting field and they can be provided in a more flexible way, with guaranteed resources and at very cost-effective pricing.

Take a deep breath

2009-10-01T09:29:00.000+01:00

The Labour Party conference this week in Brighton appears to herald the start of a long general election campaign which will culminate in the early summer of 2010. Although the outcome is not known we can anticipate the effect that this will have on investment in the period leading up to it. Currently I think it is fair to say that some confidence has returned to the market and that critical and business driven programmes are getting approved. Indeed, some companies are looking to the exit from recession as an opportunity to gain market share and launch new products and this in turn is generating activity.

Whilst this is positive in the short term in the run up to the festive period I am concerned that recovery may be hampered in 2010 by uncertainty about the election outcome. This would not be a unique event and historically many businesses delay final decisions on investment until the outcome is confirmed. This can include everything from large transformation programmes to simply the opening date of a new restaurant and the cumulative effect on the economy can be stifling. So it is time to take a deep breath and hope that the prize of exit from recession proves a more attractive driver for investment than political uncertainty reduces enthusiasm.

Cultural Inertia

2009-09-23T13:33:00.000+01:00

As we prepare for the slow exit from recession it is likely that companies will start to evaluate more substantial programmes of work, with IT Transformation programmes representing particularly large investments. The business cases for these programmes, some of which can last up to 3 years, are often compelling with significant financial returns based upon IT rationalisation, business process optimisation and reduced headcount. Technology requirements can be planned and costed and consultants with the required skills can be sourced from inside or outside the business but this does not ultimately dictate the likelihood of success or failure. The effect of the organisational culture represents a significant risk to large IT programmes and will be ignored at your peril.

Firstly, it needs to be accepted as a risk during the chaos of initiation. During this time management need to obtain an objective view of how employees could potentially react to the change and potential effects on the programme identified (this may require an external view). In my opinion this should be a separate workstream with dedicated resources, closely linked with training and communications but crucially independent. It is only in this way that a considered plan for cultural change can be assembled and followed. Changes to working culture are slow and the inertia that can exist within large organisations mean that progress initially can be difficult to measure. However, there will be successes and the pace of change should gather momentum as the programme continues.

This is not often the approach taken by organisations who initiate programmes with a flurry of ill-conceived communications about the glory of the long term corporate vision and lots of dramatic representations of a new technical dawn which leave many employees feeling intimidated. Much later as the programme itself begins to lose momentum, the headscratching starts, and urgent soulless communications about the importance of change are issued fortnightly to a workforce who no longer have faith in the long term objective. This is all too late and ultimately the programme will fall short of its original objectives or take much longer to deliver. This does not include the long term effects on morale and culture that will impact significantly on the chances of success for future programmes and create yet more inertia.

Sometimes the only way out of the loop is outsourcing and we have all discussed the problems associated with that decision. Let us hope we can raise the profile of cultural change and improve future programmes of work so that the workforce can feel proud of their achievements and not resentful of an enforced transfer to an anonymous third party.

Intelligent Procurement???

2009-09-16T15:33:00.000+01:00

As a supplier we spend much of our time talking with potential and existing clients about future work and establishing our credentials to fulfill these contracts. It is my expectation that if we have a strong relationship with the client, our bid is competitive and we have a good track record in the field then we stand a fair chance of winning the contract. I can hear people laughing now at my naivety and it is sad to say that this naivety was firmly proved yesterday on a visit to an existing client.

The client in question had recently signed an outsource agreement for both service support and future software developments with an offshore wing of a famous global consultancy firm. This same consultancy has previous experience with the client having worked upon a major enterprise application for them in recent history and the main thrust of the new contract is to support and enhance this application.

The original development was expensive, did not proceed very smoothly and we had to supply a team of consultants to complete some of the modules and attempt to sort out a myriad of performance issues, so I was surprised at the contract award and enquired of the relevant director what had influenced the decision. I was genuinely shocked at the response. The original software that they had delivered was so bad that no other integrator would take it on. It was therefore felt that they should stick with the only option they had.

Can this really be acceptable in the current market or any market conditions? Is it not time to move away from costly and inept service providers and start to explore what smaller suppliers with a desire to deliver can achieve? I suppose I should not be too disappointed, if previous history is anything to go by there will be plenty of opportunities for us to help develop this application for years to come.

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten

2009-09-10T15:23:00.001+01:00

In today’s highly pressurized financial climate, cost saving is a major focus for UK organisations. But at what price does this cost saving come?

Market rates for contractors have understandably dropped, and businesses have been able to take advantage of this. However, for organisations to be deemed successful and be seen as demonstrating strength and resilience through this turbulence, they must continue to deliver.

The question that has consequently arisen is, should the sole focus be on cost saving, or quality of delivery, and does the focus on one have to mean a sacrifice of the other?

The answer should be no. There should be a middle ground where the client can reduce their spend yet still maintain high levels of delivery. I have witnessed this not to be the case though, with not enough focus on actual delivery and too much focus on “the cheaper the better”. With the market now starting to turn, this is an issue that will be scrutinized more closely than ever.

An organisation is therefore saving in the short term, but the long term damage could far outweigh the instant gain. If an individual or group of individuals is to add value to an organisation, we must maintain a professional understanding of their true value. This may not yield instant results, but given time is likely to prove priceless.

The New Dawn of the Specialist!

2009-09-02T15:01:00.000+01:00

During the last economic downturn the market for interim and contingent resource shrunk over a period of 18 months. This reduction in market size meant that a proportion of consultants operating in this space found themselves without assignments for extended periods of time with those consultants with less marketable skills, less polished customer facing skills and less overall experience being pushed out of the market. Although this may have meant reduced revenues for high street recruitment agencies this was positive news for organisations such as ours providing high quality services who could demonstrate the value for money that their consultants were delivering. However, as we came out of that economic phase the market recovered quickly and most of the consultants who had struggled were back billing again and, in my view, reducing the overall standard of consultancy services.

I think that this recession may well herald a change in the way the marketplace is structured and, coming so “recently” in relative terms after the previous downturn, some consultants who find themselves without assignments for 6 to 12 months once again may not return. When combined with the general apathy shown recently to the large consultancies and integrators then the opportunity widens for small to medium sized companies offering specialist services directly targeted at the issues of the customer.

It is my hope that out of the current situation there will be a new dawn of the specialist, a state where small and medium sized companies such as IC and their partners in the IC cooperative, are favoured ahead of the big companies for their particular expertise. Government and the private sector can benefit from higher degrees of success for large programmes and the appetite for this change from both taxpayers and shareholders should be enough to ensure that this is not a false dawn.

The Intelligent Cooperative

2009-08-26T17:00:00.000+01:00

Trying to grow a business is more challenging now than it has been in recent years. There is pressure on all employees as they operate as leanly as possible and have to maintain current service levels whilst trying to reach out to new customers. This is a traditional dilemma of the small to medium sized consultancy: how much time can senior employees devote to new business before delivery suffers? Although supported by a large group of companies (Resource Solutions Group) and therefore having access to investment and shared services, this dilemma has affected IC in the last 12 months as some initiatives are taking longer to launch than we would normally expect.

We are looking to address this challenge by working collaboratively with our Associate Network and other 3rd Party Companies to increase the number of sales channels that we have. These groups would be classed as Members of the Intelligent Cooperative. Each Member has a specialism which is communicated to the wider community and all parties in the Cooperative benefit in the same way, maximizing opportunities by ensuring the most suitable subject matter experts are available to complete any assignments.

Delivery of assignments can be by a single Member or by a number of Members lead by a sales team and supported in pre-sales by subject matter experts. Clients are expressing high levels of interest in the value of this approach as it ensures more relevant expertise on site, maintains supplier focus on the end goal, and it allows them to break the stranglehold that the large consultancies and integrators have on their company.

If you are interested in becoming a Member of the Cooperative then please e-mail me at adam.meadows@intelligent-consulting.com

When is a Project Manager not a Project Manager?

2009-08-19T17:56:00.000+01:00

This week I have been interviewing project managers for a specific assignment with one of our most important clients. The CVs that I shortlisted were very similar in terms of background and on paper any of the them would have been more than suitable for the role. It soon becomes apparent on interview that these are significantly different candidates with varied levels of experience. The art of interviewing comes into its own together with the ability to establish the levels of detail that each person has worked to. Getting accurate information seems to become more difficult the more senior the individuals become as they have already developed good communication skills and confidence in order to achieve their current status.

When it comes to interviewing there is no alternative to experience, natural judgement of character and a detailed understanding of the environment into which you intend the individual to work. A golden rule that I work to when meeting associates or interviewing for specific assignments is that the interviewer should not be doing all the talking. If this is the case then the questions asked are not open enough. Secondly, do not accept the first level of detail as satisfactory if you require more detail for your role, ask for more examples and more depth. This does not need to be an interrogation and all of the information that you need in order to make a decision can be gained in an informal and relaxed atmosphere.

Finally, the answer to the question posed in the title of this weeks blog is when the candidate turns out to be an engineer, business analyst, support analyst etc etc……

Is there "value" in cost reduction?

2009-08-12T16:41:00.001+01:00

These are challenging times for the business community as we all know. Customers are attempting to reduce costs and become more efficient whilst service providers like ourselves are undertaking similar exercises to ensure that we are competitive at all times.

Reducing project delivery costs

One of the key areas which businesses seem to be targeting is professional daily rates and contractor day rates in order to reduce the cost of delivering projects. This is a valid approach and many companies have asked service providers to reduce daily rates by 5-20%. In most cases, this has been accommodated by both the supplier and independent consultants as acceptable, given the current market conditions.

Since these initial cost savings were realised, there have been further drivers for cost reduction and in the absence of more imaginative approaches some companies have looked to drive down daily rates further. I would suggest that there is a line beyond which further cost savings become a diseconomy, and that the value for money of low cost resource is reduced.

No substitute for knowledge and experience

There is a well known statistical saying that a chimpanzee will eventually type the entire works of Shakespeare given enough time. To take the analogy further, if I paid a million ants a penny a day to implement new pension administration processes would I get the required result? That may sound ludicrous but it is certainly true that sometimes there is no substitute for the knowledge and experience that inevitably commands higher daily rates. Increasing value for money would provide a better target for businesses at the moment, either by increasing output for the same cost or by achieving current output for less.

Using micro work packages

An innovative approach may well be required to implement these ideas, and we are trying to encourage our clients to use micro work packages that allow measurement of simple deliverables and the amount of effort that was required to achieve them. This does not mean micromanagement of resources or endless meetings to establish the scope of the work packages.

Work packages can be designed in under an hour with a broad scope and deliverables decided collaboratively between the consultant and the customer. Progress can then be measured through regular reporting, and if the micro work packages are delivered early or late then lessons can be learned quickly for future packages, which will also drive more accurate estimation.

This approach is agile, drives increased value for money, can increase competition and create delivery-focused environments, which in today's climate has to be a good thing.

The Alchemy of Cultural Change

2009-08-04T14:11:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the Intelligent Consulting blog. This week we have been reflecting on the inexact science that is cultural change. Despite having a top grade solution that has been planned carefully and includes the best people that you have available, the project fails. Careful dissection of the resultant situation yields few clues and it can sometimes feel to managers that the only safe way to predict success is to investigate your last tea leaves and check if it is an El Nino year.

The answer may lie within the complexities of cultural change. Often highlighted by integration programmes following merger or acquisition we have seen a number of high profile programmes kick off so far this year. Differences between companies may seem superficially slight but this can often be an external view or one that only covers a small number of employees at senior or board level. The real situation can often be monumentally different with subtle differences at board level exaggerated at lower grades and with significant variations between departments or office locations. Most often cultural differences create negativity and barriers to change which can invisibly halt progress on your painstakingly planned projects: information withheld, meetings not attended and a multitude of seemingly plausible reasons for project failure.

Unfortunately there is no magic wand that can make these issues disappear and we cannot point our clients to a nice thick manual of methodology on the shelf and leave them to it. Perhaps the most important mitigating action is awareness. From inception to closure the risks associated with cultural change should be at the forefront of our minds and this can in itself help identify points of failure early. Secondly, there is no substitute for experience. An honest, open and pragmatic approach to each situation by consultants whose projects have been delayed in the past will yield fantastic rewards and they should be able to reassure unsettled employees that change can be a positive thing!