Next comes choosing the right firm. Often, this process involves research and recommendation. You'll want to learn about the candidates' areas of IT and vertical-industry expertise (see a rundown for 12 top firms in "Meet the Consultants"), how experienced their consultants are and the size of their businesses. You'll also need to learn, from experience and recommendation, how well the consultants are likely to get along with your staff. This last point is critical, as the consultants must ultimately transfer their knowledge. Otherwise, you'll keep paying the big bucks long after the hard work is done.
At some point, it's time to say good-bye to your consultant--preferably when your project ends. But consultants live for the next engagement, and finding more to fix for the current client is easier than setting up at a brand-new gig. If you're not careful, your expert may sign you up for more than you intended. "The way consultants stick around for months after they're supposed to be done--it's almost like a virus," says Craig Duncan, a telecom manager for a large communications provider.
How do you prevent consultants from overstaying their welcome--most notably through tactics in which they set themselves up to provide the maintenance on your new system?
Start before the engagement begins, by clearly scoping out the project. Define where the consultancy ends and maintenance begins. "If someone comes in and creates something I can't maintain, they've set themselves up for an outsourcing or longer-term relationship beyond the scope of our consulting relationship," Duncan says. If this is what you want, great, but it's prudent to arrange the outsourcing deal separately. Typically, companies that do both outsourcing and consulting have different business units to handle each.
Furthermore, Duncan notes, you need to understand the pricing structure with respect to additional work, and you need to comprehend the internal and external influences that will drive any post-engagement maintenance.
Most system integration projects have ongoing maintenance concerns, so Duncan advises doing an internal skills analysis before embarking upon such projects; that way, you'll get a sense of the feasibility or desirability of maintaining the project in-house. (See "Decision Dissection").
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