Why a Consultant?

A very common question I hear is, “on whom should I rely to help with my strategy, systems and processes?” This is a good question, because managers and executives can turn to technology vendor’s, accountants, attorneys, management consultants, system integrators, in-house staff — or some combination of these.

I have the interesting perspective of having participated in business process re-engineering from the point of view of a systems integrator, a technology vendor, a management consultants and the in-house staff of a company. There is a time and place to go with different combinations.

For many small firms seeking to implement a change or just review its processes, it is an almost automatic choice to turn within itself and use it’s own in-house people. This is usually a pretty smart move. Your own people are interesting in learning new skills and procedures and to make themselves more marketable. Unfortunately they lack the experience of “been there, done that” or as project managers call it, lessons learned.

So the in-house approach works best when combined with bringing in a coach, mentor and/or consultant. Bringing one or two of these consultants on to work with or train the rest of the staff can be a great strategic move. They’ve seen many products, vendors and processes and have been there and done it many, many times before. But make sure the consultant isn’t biased to certain products, technologies or processes. Conduct an open and frank discussion with the consultant or the consulting firm’s project partner about whether or not the consulting company gets a commission for the recommendations they make, and make sure the results of that conversation are in your contract.

One of the biggest hurdles implementing or changing your processes is understanding your company’s workflow. It always amazes me how many companies do not have this well documented. Business process re-engineering will require changes to your processes and ideally will improve existing workflow inefficiencies. Consider investing in objective research and documentation before making any changes.

There is no single project plan that will work for every organization or implementation. However, I would encourage you to explore the following items:

1. Invest in objective research and document your existing business processes. Find out what the core business problems are.
2. Bring in a consultant when you really need help understanding your company’s business processes and to help with an overall strategy.
3. Avoid outside consultants with conflicts of interest.
4. Send your staff to training (general and problem-specific). Define new business processes to prepare for.
5. If you plan to run the project in-house, think about bringing in a project management adviser to help.
6. Anticipate the impact of changes to the business. Determine risks vs. rewards.