June 23, 2009

Welcome Back!

Continuing the Vendor Selection topic, we now turn our attention to the project team.

Experience and the Personalities of the proposed team are almost of equal importance. The team has to have the requisite professional knowledge and skills, this is obvious, but at the same time successful project teams are created when this professional knowledge is coupled with complimentary personalities.

One of the key areas here is that vendors shouldn’t be proposing just the next person in line on the bench they should be building the right team for each client. Talk to your vendors, understand their staffing methodology, understanding how they went about assembling the proposed team. Unfortunately anyone can go to a recruiting website and find “available” consultants, but do these folks have the full package required to be successful? Can you assemble a viable team in this manner? More often than not, the answer is NO in these respects. So in working with your vendor, we’ve identified some areas that have made us successful in building the right teams for our clients.

When evaluating the technical skills of the team, everyone needs to be cognizant that each client has different needs and requirements. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Is our team more functional or more technical?
  • Are we going to send our team to training or expect the consulting vendor to facilitate this?
  • How does our organization accept change?
  • Do we have the requisite experience to lead an upgrade or implementation or do we need the vendor to facilitate this?
  • · Is there a functional area we are underutilizing or don’t have the requisite SME to support it?

Finally, make sure to speak with the proposed project team. Get to know them and try and make an assessment of how the fit into your organization.

  • Do they have similar personalities?
  • Can they communicate tough messages?
  • Can they obtain buy in from less flexible client staff?

The answer to these questions will help you better understand the technical scope of what you may be relying on your consulting vendor for. Getting the right team enables vendors to build trust within the teams, work more effectively and enables clients to have a smoother, more successful project.

Stay Tuned….  More to come!

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Vendor Selection – It’s more important than ever

June 3, 2009

     Given all that we have been reading lately about the economy, corporate spending cut backs and the general volatility/consolidation of service providers I thought it a good idea to discuss some key points in identifying and working with that trusted provider for the long term.  It couldn’t be more important today given the scrutiny on how each dollar is spent and what is received in return. Whether you are investing thousands or even millions of dollars on an ERP system you need to make sure the best decision is being made to meet your company’s objectives.  Even as we are a provider of services, we also work with many vendors procuring services for us.  Taking from these experiences we can identify some key attributes we think makes for a successful vendor selection. 

      Over the course of the next few weeks, we will try and break down each one of the key areas from both the client and the service provider perspective. So lets jump in and get started.

 First and foremost don’t get caught up in the marketing! 

     Buy Reality, Don’t buy Perception.  

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The Latest Rumblings on the SaaS Market

January 27, 2009

As businesses continue to look for was to cut costs and squeeze every ounce of value out of their IT dollars, the interest and attention around SaaS solutions continues to grow.  As both a partner and a customer with Workday, Salesforce and Taleo, we also continue to see the value this model provides.  The following article is more proof positive on the topic.

Software as a Service Market Will Expand Rather than Contract Despite the Economic Crisis, IDC Finds

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — Recent IDC surveys and customer interviews support the finding that the harsh economic climate will actually accelerate the growth prospects for the software as a service (SaaS) model as vendors position offerings as right-sized, zero-CAPEX alternatives to on-premise applications. Buyers will opt for easy-to-use subscription services which meter current use, not future capacity, and vendors and partners will look for new products and recurring revenue streams. As such, IDC has increased its SaaS growth projection for 2009 from 36% growth to 42% growth over 2008.

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The New Meaning of Being Green in IT Consulting

December 6, 2008

As a sit down to write what will be the first of many blog entries, its exciting for me to reflect on how brand image at Collaborative Solutions has evolved during the last year.  We set out in early 2008 with a goal of refining our visual image and clarifying our messages about who we are and what we do.  The effort was intended to build on the many things we’ve accomplished during our first five years in operation and set the tone for what we will focus on for years to come.  We wanted to pick some new, more impactful colors in our brand and better communicate our company initiatives.  We found that “being green” was something we all wanted to do a better job at.  Of course, when we started discussing the concept of “being green”, it reminded some of us what this used to mean in the consulting world.  Many employees any in the company, myself included, cut our early career teeth at one of the “big six” consulting firms where “being green” didn’t evoke thoughts of recycling or alternative energy.  Rather, “being green” meant being fresh off the “school bus”, out of our consulting “boot camp” and ready to take on the challenges of our first customers with little or no real world experience.  (And, of course, let’s not forget the other green favorites such as “green beans” and ”greenies” since we’re talking about it).  It wasn’t a term that was especially complimentary.  I also recall it wasn’t a term many customers liked to hear back then.

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Oracle Awards Collaborative Solutions Certified Advantage Partner Status

September 8, 2008

Collaborative Solutions announced today that it has achieved Oracle Certified Advantage Partner status in the Oracle PartnerNetwork. Collaborative Solutions joins a select group of less than 100 companies that have achieved this partner status in North America, and who have shown a significant commitment to Oracle and its product offerings.

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