IT Consulting IS 578

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IT ConsultingIS 578
Class 4 Internal and Independent Consulting
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Key Issues in IndependentConsulting

• Pros and Cons
• Choosing a Focus
• Trust and Credibility
• Independent Consulting Skills
• Finding Clients
• Methods
• Health and Retirement
• Legal Issues

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Pros and Cons

• Set Your Own Goals
• Variety of Clients
• Variety of Work
• Control Over Schedule
• Creative Control
• Avoid Some Office Politics

• Benefits Are Your Responsibility
• Overhead Costs
• Uncertain Income
• Bill Collection
• Marketing
• Multiple Hats

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Choosing a Focus

• Technology Skills
• Management Skills
• Industry Expertise
• Public
• Private
• Government
• Geography Scope
• Vendor Specific Skills

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Trust and Credibility

• Resume
• References
• Prior Experience
• Ethics
• Honesty

• Keep Commitments
• Over Commitment
• Reliability
• Listening
• Get It In Writing

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Independent Consulting Skills

• Marketing
• Interpersonal Communications
• Presentation
• Writing
• Planning

• Organizing
• Controlling
• Negotiating
• Pricing
• Certification
• Change Management

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Finding Clients

• Marketing
• Networking
• Prior or Current Clients
• Organizations for Independents

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Methods

• Project Management Processes and Tools
• Published Texts
• Internal Consulting Expertise (ICE)
• Software Engineering Institute
• Project Management Institute
• R.S. Pressman Associates
• ...

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Micro Focus Consulting
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The Consulting Process

• Entry Initial contacts
• Preliminary problem diagnosis
• 1 Assignment plan
• Proposal to the client
• Consulting contract
• Diagnosis Conceptual framework
• Defining facts, sources and how to obtain
• 2 Fact analysis
• Feedback to the client
• Action planning Search for ideas on solutions
• Developing and evaluating alternatives
• 3 Presenting action proposals to the client

• Implementation The consultant's role definition
• Planning and monitoring implementation
• 4 Training and developing client staff
• Maintenance and control of the new practice
• Termination Withdrawal
• Evaluation
• 5 Follow-up
• Final reporting

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Health and Retirement

• Cobra
• Spouse
• Individual Policies
• Professional Society Group Policies
• ICCA - Independent Computer Consultants
  Association
• IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics
  Engineers
• ACM - Association for Computing Machinery
• AIC - Association of Independent Consultants
• VA - Veterans Administration
• IRA

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Legal Issues

• Sole Proprietor
• S-Corporation
• C-Corporation
• Partnership
• Liability Insurance

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Key Issues in InternalConsulting

• Why Internal Consulting?
• Internal versus External consulting
• Moving from External to Internal
• Moving from Internal to External
• Trust and Credibility
• Internal Consulting Skills

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Why Internal Consulting?

• Captive Resource
• Change Agents
• Company Knowledge
• Understand the Politics
• Way to Retain Talented People
• Training Ground for Future Company Leaders
• Potentially Lower Costs
• Internal Consultants Must Live With Their
  Recommendations

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Internal vs. External

• Cost
• Credibility
• Expertise
• Learning Curve
• Organizational Knowledge

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Moving from External to Internal

• Mystique
• Relationships
• Projects vs. Process
• Personal Impact of Interventions
• Politics
• Size
• Project Screening
• Staff role

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Moving from Internal to External

• Set Up Requirements
• Service Definition and Positioning
• Need to Sell
• Productivity
• Pricing
• Project Size

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Trust and Credibility

• See Issues from Independent Consulting - Above
• Organizational Baggage
• Politics
• Management Overrides on Commitments
• Client Commitment
• Degree of Formality

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Internal Consulting Skills

• Setting Expectations
• Managing Expectations
• Communicating
• Change Management

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Case Study

• Bankers Trust
• Internal Consulting Services Group

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Some Basic Questions To Consider

• Using the issues from todays presentation, what
  issues are relevant to the group?
• Why was the group disbanded?
• How did the groups manager react to this
  surprise?
• How did he handle the situation?
• What did he do right?
• What could/should he have done differently?
• What was the ultimate impact of the disbanding?