IS Consulting Process (IS 6005)

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IS Consulting Process (IS 6005)

• Masters in Business Information Systems 2006 /
  2007
• Programme in Professional Information System
  Practices

Fergal Carton Business Information Systems
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Last week

• Proposal deliverable strategy, not an
  implementation!
• Strategy is a report which matches business goals
  to IT directions
• Lays out a plan for future investment
• Contains pointers to implementation initiatives
• Can refer to your experience of implementing
  solutions
• Hopefully leads to you being retained for the
  implementation work
• Richness versus reach (Evans Wurster)
• Project planning
• Estimating time spent on IS6610 in days per week
  / month
• Total 40 days per person spent over 5 months
• Team of 6 people spent a total of 240 person days
• 240 person days 0.92 FTE (full-time equivalent)
  for 1 year (1 year 260 days)
• Salary of 60k. for business consultant, 120k in
  cost to the employer
• 0.92 FTE for 1 year _at_ 120k salary cost
  110,400
• Cost of project (to an employer) 110,400
• Margin?
• Also look at day rates for consultants for cost
  estimate

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FTE cost
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Croker Strategy

• Customers
• Sports organisations (IRFU, FAI, IOC, )
• Club / county / national team supporters
• Corporate Ireland
• Business conference users
• Concert goers
• Tourists
• TV viewers
• Internet users
• Stakeholders
• GAA
• Govt.
• Sponsors
• Suppliers
• Tourist Board
• Dublin City council

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This week

• Project planning
• Estimating workload and budget
• Project cost
• Communication skills
• Presenting your proposal
• The Win strategy
• Writing business messages

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FTE notes

• Number of days is based on elapsed time and an
  estimation of days per week spent (or to be
  spent) on project
• Much better if it can be based on actual recorded
  time spent (NB. Billable consulting assignments
  require rigourous documentation of days worked)
• Key questions to ask
• Is amount of time reasonable based on importance
  of deliverable?
• What is the contingency built in?
• How does the plan compare to reality?
• How does it compare to another project of same
  type?

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Total Cost of Ownership

• Gartner 11,900 per PC per year (June 1997)
• Capital 21
• Tech Support 21
• End-user support 46
• Admin 13

• Formal learning
• Informal learning
• Data management
• Apps development
• Supplies
• Peer support

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Whats important in a presentation?

• Whats the purpose of the meeting?
• Form over content?
• Death by PowerPoint
• Dont read from slides
• Should audience listen to you or watch slides
• Avoid Slide 33 of 89! fatigue
• Protocol (names, titles, due respect for grade,
  )
• Breaking the ice (introductions, getting a handle
  on where peoples views in advance)

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Presenting your proposal

• Organising the meeting
• Logistics
• Attendees
• Are all consultants getting a chance
• Bake-off
• Elevator pitch
• What are you proposing (solution)?
• How can this be differentiated from other
  offerings?
• What are your key messages?

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Making it relevant to audience

• References to industry sector and company
• Use nuggets of info picked up at introduction
• Practice your message during early meet and
  greet
• Get to know names
• Use first names during talk
• Pause frequently (check pulse, invigorate,
• Learn technique from good presenters

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Profile Your Audience

• Identify primary audience
• Determine size
• Determine composition
• Gauge level of understanding
• Consider expectations and preferences
• Estimate probable reaction

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Strategy/Feedback

• Strategy
• A long-term action plan for achieving a goal
• The objective of winning the war as opposed to
  the winning of a particular battle ? Strategy Vs
  Tactics
• Addresses a crucial concern positioning the
  organisation to face an increasingly uncertain
  future
• Value Creation

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Preparing the response

• Formulating a Tender Response
• Examine internal and external influences e.g.
  SWOT Analysis
• Gather the required knowledge capital e.g. people
  and information
• Collate the key requirements
• Develop the necessary templates
• Identify the value creators and a win strategy
• Effectively manage the process
• Post Mortems

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Accenture Win Strategy

• Overview
• Client, Opportunity, Value, Personnel, Key Dates,
  Elevator Pitch
• Opportunity, Vision Budget
• Issues Expectations
• Evaluation Model
• Competitive Assessment
• Power Map
• Differentiators Potential Weaknesses
• Key Messages / Proposed Solution / Proposed Deal
  Shape
• Risk Mitigation Measures (Contract, Delivery,
  Environment etc.)
• Yellow Flags
• The Decision Process
• Action Plan Summary

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Adapt message to suit the Audience

• Use the you attitude
• Emphasize the positive
• Establish credibility
• Use bias-free language
• Project companys image

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What Is Good Organization?

• Ensure subject and purpose are clear
• Define the main idea (general/specific purpose)
• Structure your message (no. main points,
  sequence, etc)
• Information is directly related to the subject
  and purpose
• Exclude irrelevant material (limit scope)
• Include all relevant material

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Basic Message Sequence

• Basic Message Structure
• Main idea
• Support
• Evidence
• Basic Message Sequence
• Direct / decuctive approach main idea (e.g.
  recommendation, request) comes first, followed by
  evidence
• Indirect / inductive approach evidence comes
  first and then the main idea comes after
• Direct or indirect approach depends on message
  type and audience reaction

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Composing Business Messages

• Use a conversational tone
• Write in plain English
• Use appropriate level of formality
• Avoid
• being overly familiar
• inappropriate humor
• Obsolete / pompous language
• Clichés or jargon
• Overuse of TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms)
• Select active or passive voice
• Normally use Active (stronger sentences, concise,
  easy to understand)
• But use Passive when appropriate (diplomacy
  avoid attributing credit or blame, create an
  objective tone)
• Write coherent paragraphs

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Writing Coherent Paragraphs

• Paragraph elements
• Topic sentence
• Related sentences
• Transitions
• Paragraph Development
• Illustration
• Comparison or contrast
• Classification (break down idea into categories)
• Cause and effect
• Problem and solution

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Revising Your Message

• Content / Organization / Style / Tone
• Promote readability
• Avoid overly long sentences and keep paragraphs
  short
• Vary sentence length
• Use lists and bullets for emphasis clarity
• Avoid non-parallel list items and unparallel
  sentences
• Use
• Improvement, identification, development
• Improving, identifying, developing
• Not
• improve, identifying, development
• Avoid too much enthusiasm (e.g. extremely,
  exceptionally, extraordinary)

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Designing Page Layout

• Consistency (margins, typeface, type size,
  spacing, paragraph indents, etc)
• Strive for simplicity in design
• Balance text, graphics, white space
• Use meaningful headings and captions for figures
  or tables