COMMENTARY--Too often haste to get new enterprise resources in place sees management insufficiently prepared for calling for contract bids.
Communication is the very essence of our business; if there was no need for it, there would be no need for ICT. Yet it's so often the first casualty in the way data is defined, gathered, and managed.
Its frailty is nowhere more evident than in dealings between management and the consultants it whistles up when pressing projects appear beyond the enterprise's expertise and/or resources. The company's aims are not properly communicated because it hasn't defined them in the first place.
Strategic planning is the responsibility of management and the primary welfare of the business should not be passed over to hired help. After all, a consulting team has its own strategic axe to grind and is concerned first and last with its own economic survival.
Plan for business improvement, not just systems installation, and be prepared for internal change management. If your project calls for reduced transaction costs, improved productivity or greater customer focus, the outsourcing contract to deliver these elements must specify them.
Equally, changes to business processes must be accepted with the least resistance possible by those they will affect, and this means preparing the ground internally. Start early, make sure company people know what to expect, and what will be expected from them, before they have a squad of strangers in their midst changing the world as they know it.
Ensure that the ICT staff charged with maintaining a new platform can contribute to the purchase decision and can take proper ownership, not only for the new technology but for the day-to-day management of the outsiders called in to help implement it.
This also means that those on the company side should properly understand the consultant's methodology. You may have specified the end you require; be sure you know the consultant's means of getting to it.
Effective, seamless integration allows proper skills transfer from your consultants to your in-house technical staff; the consultants will not be there forever and the exit strategy included in a contract must ensure that internal management is up to speed when they go.
The exit clause should also specify the consultant's responsibility if systems fail down the line, providing an agreed level of call-back at previously negotiated costs. Work out preferred charging procedures in advance. Much of the angst that builds up between companies and their consultants when projects turn into disappointment gets back to money.
In days gone by, consultants preferred -time and materials" as the basis of their charges, and many still do. However, when projects get behind and functionality fails to materialise, it irks management to sign off on invoices based on an hourly rate when completion is still a distant dream.
Project-based charging can be negotiated provided the consultant knows exactly what you expect of them in time and performance deliverables. Again it's a matter of hammering out details of the company's wish list in advance and communicating the details.
But with unforseen developments in technology, vagaries of foreign exchange rates, and the dynamics of your business and its customers, it can be difficult to predict everything impacting on obligations over the life of a contract. A mixture of time and material and project-based charges might be the answer to allow for unscheduled add-ons. Again, these critical milestones must be mapped and in place before a call for contracts is made.
So now you throw open the boardroom to those who say they can deliver your project. This is where the communication which has underpinned all the internal planning can ease the process and avoid misunderstandings. Consultants will send their best people to win your business. If an individual impresses beyond just tertiary skills in PowerPoint presenting, specify that individual in the contract.
Beware the low bid to snare your businessââ,¬"the peanuts and monkeys equation can quickly come into play leading to ballooning costs later. Check the credentials of those working on your project and joining it later. Insist that progress reports are e-mailed to everyone appropriate as frequently as demanded, maintain a proper audit trail. Communicate with your contractor as you would your executivesââ,¬"if you can't do that the business is doomed anyway.
Richard Hogg is National president of the Australian Computer Society (ACS). The ACS is the recognised association for Information Technology (IT) professionals, attracting a membership (over 16,000) from all levels of the IT industry and providing a wide range of services. A member of the Australian Council of Professions, the ACS is the guardian of professional ethics and standards in the IT industry, with a commitment to the wider community to ensure the beneficial use of IT.
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