From: www.itworld.com

Keeping your IT partners on a short leash

by Tim Fielden

February 13, 2001 —

By now, everyone even remotely involved in business, from CEOs to custodians, has heard about and, in some cases, suffered from the shortage of qualified IT staff. In today's highly competitive and constantly evolving business world, a shortage in technical employees can spell disaster, whether it be from loss of revenue or loss of new business avenues.

If your company is facing a staffing bind, you may want to outsource some IT functions to a consultant. The consulting field is full of qualified technicians who can help in several areas, including systems architecture, process definition, and software development. All you need is a little prudent planning, a clear understanding of your needs, and a reputable outsourcing partner.

Why outsource?

Even if your company is not facing an immediate staffing crisis, you may still need consulting help from time to time. After all, no company can hope to have an expert in every area; so if you have ambitious technical plans, chances are you'll need specialized expertise sooner or later. A good consultant can be an invaluable resource when thorny issues arise and no one in-house is prepared to deal with them.

Moreover, consultants can be readily deployed, which is not always the case with your own staff. That means you can take care of the task, free up your employees, and satisfy the patiently waiting customer or business unit.

The outsourcing approach also provides third-party objectivity, which can lead you to explore solutions that may have been discounted as unworkable or even completely overlooked by your in-house personnel.

Nor are consultants necessarily expensive. The popular belief is that a consultant will cost your company more than will your own staff, but that's not always the case when you factor in your employees' salaries, benefits, and insurance.

Getting your money's worth

Of course, for all the good it brings, outsourcing can also be hazardous. For starters, finding a good consultant can be just as frustrating as finding a good employee. Consultants move around frequently because the ability to work on a variety of programming projects, with a variety of tools and technologies, is one of the biggest perks of the trade. Consequently, the good ones may not be available when you need them.

Also be warned that some consultants overstate their skills. It's not uncommon for the so-called experts to be no more knowledgeable than your own staff.

What happens if you wind up with a consultant who doesn't have the skills you need? Many companies train their outsourcing partners, although others understandably balk at the very idea. In general, it's fine to expect that a consultant will need to learn business-related information specific to your project, but the last thing you need is a consultant reading Visual Basic in 21 Days while billing you $250 an hour.

Steps for success

Thankfully, most of these problems can be avoided by following a few simple best practices.

1. Conduct thorough interviews with all your candidates. Although they wouldn't hire an employee without an interview, many companies bypass this stage for consultants because of the time it takes to hold technical screenings. Many companies assume that the consulting company has already interviewed their staffers and would not send them on projects they couldn't handle. Sometimes that's true, but sometimes it's not.

Proceed on the assumption that your new partner will eventually become as integral to your team as your most valued staffers. Make a point to know about each candidate's technical skills, as well as his or her adaptability to your company's culture.

2. Measure your success. Results are the most obvious gauge of success or failure, and as such, you should evaluate the project at its completion.

This approach provides insight into what worked and what didn't, and it enables you to judge how well the consultant did what was promised. The results, more than anything else, will determine your future relationship with the outsourcer.

3. Establish clear goals and expectations. Many companies stand in the way of their own success by failing to communicate what the outsourcer is expected to do. Don't assume that a consultant, by virtue of being a skilled IT professional, will somehow be able to intuit what needs to be done after a few days on the job.

4. Avoid dependency. Don't paint yourself into a corner so that your business cannot move forward without the outsourcer's help.

Few reputable consulting organizations would deliberately establish this kind of relationship, but sometimes it happens without anyone knowing it, particularly on projects that have no clear end date. Some consultants have been known to work for companies longer than do the employees on staff.

5. Be careful not to expose business opportunities to the outsourcer. Companies sometimes make the honest mistake of revealing too much of their operations to their consultants, and consultants sometimes find that information too good to pass up. The trick is to provide enough information so that the consultant can do the job while withholding information that could expose your company to risk.

6. Create an environment in which knowledge is shared effectively. You don't want to end up with a system that you can't support after your outsourcing partner moves on. But knowledge transfer is often neglected in corporate project planning. Partner each consultant with a member of your staff and schedule time for ongoing discussions between both sides.

Achieving technical bliss

Outsourcing your IT needs can be a rewarding, satisfying, and profitable experience for both your company and the consulting firm. But it's important to remember that any outside personnel must be treated with the same care as your own staffers: It's not enough to simply let a consultant work on auto-pilot. After all, it's your business that's at stake.

InfoWorld