Over the years I've had the experience of buying a few used cars. I’ll borrow and tweak Forrest Gump’s catchy line: buying a used car is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get. At least not until you have it and drive it for a while. The first car I bought was great off the lot, and then proceeded to need a lot of repairs. The second car drove like the champ it still is. Last week I bought another one and, well we don’t yet know how this one will turn out. Another month or two will tell us how we fared. So, you ask, Steve – what does this have to do with SAP or SuccessFactors or consulting? Glad you asked.
When you look at a software demo or when you evaluate RFP responses, you are essentially looking at the used car on the lot. You check it out as best you can, you ask questions, you haggle and settle on a price. All of that is done with the expectation that the software will be a good fit once you make the purchase. But you have imperfect, incomplete information. You get to see what the dealer (vendor) wants you to see.
When you evaluate consulting firms to help you implement that software you go through much the same: demos, presentations, RFP’s and so on. You try to get good information for making your decision. All of this is necessary, except for the RFP part which is a whole different blog post for the future, but it is imperfect. You don’t really know if the software or the consultants are a good fit until you work with them for a while. That’s a risk for customers.*
Some consultancies, I’ve heard, overpromise and under-deliver. And some believe they can deliver the services but then stumble due to resources, financial constraints, expectations, or from being overly optimistic.
And sometimes the consultancy and customer fit perfectly. They work well together, complementing each other's capabilities. They work as partners. This is really what consultants want and customers expect. The trick is how to pick the right consultancy, and for consultancies to pick the right customers.
Maybe customers can look for consultancies the way car shoppers look for 'Certified Pre-owned' cars? To be certified, the dealer has to be sure enough about the car to vouch for its quality. In the consulting world, certifications can be dicey, but reputations are not. Ask other customers how the consultancy worked out for them. Verify the specific consulting resources being proposed for your project – you don't have to take just anyone the firm throws at you.
But even with good, reasonable due diligence you won't know for sure until you give the consultancy a drive for a few months. Pay close attention those first couple months – what's not working well? Address those issues early. And be prepared for that box of chocolates – you won't really know what you're getting until you open it up and start sampling.
* We consultancies also risk taking on clients who aren’t a good fit for us.