New York — Consultants tuning in to the recent IT Consulting Leadership Symposium got a strong dose of provocative thinking. James Champy, chairman of Perot Systems' consulting practice, kicked off the symposium by sounding an upbeat message for the profession when he predicted "five years of good opportunity ahead" — at least for those who can adapt to change.
The symposium, organized by Consulting Magazine and Ziff Davis Media, was the first gathering of its kind where consultants could interact with one another in real time as they amplified their thoughts around opportunities and changes now under way inside the consulting sector.
And what such changes are afoot? A major one is what Champy refers to as the "globalization of work." For consultants, this means outsourcing and offshoring.
Another change, surprisingly, is the return to a focus on process change. After all the turbulence that accompanied the first wave of process reengineering, "only 10 to 20 percent of the real process work has been done," Champy noted. Much of the process work still to be undertaken will happen outside the walls of the company itself. "This is not about just throwing work over the wall. We need to redesign processes between companies," he insists.
A key driver of change is the "more-for-less economy," a phrase Champy uses to describe an economic environment that is being driven by dramatic improvements in productivity, which often results from the movement of work to locations with lower costs. "This is good news for consumers, but it presents challenges for the producers of goods," he notes. These producers will need to continue to drive down costs.
For consultants, these changes will create great opportunities. Consultants will be called upon to help their clients achieve ever greater levels of efficiency, and where they can't drive costs lower, they must shift the focus to increased value. Consultants also will have to help their clients find new ways to innovate through process change, changes in the customer experience, and new business models. Companies as diverse as Dell Computer and Jet Blue demonstrate the power of innovation and change.
Tonie Leatherberry, director, Deloitte Consulting, took up the issue of compliance in a presentation that covered tactics and strategies for operating in the new regulatory environment following in the wake of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). Although most companies successfully met their SOX compliance deadlines, they "do not want to replicate that first year effort" in subsequent years, she says.
Leatherberry characterizes the first year of SOX compliance as a steep learning curve that entailed more work than the companies anticipated. Moving forward, "companies now want a sustainable process," she points out.
This new process, to begin with, "must reflect changes in risk," says Leatherberry. Businesses are dynamic, and one compliance process will not fit all companies. Instead, consultants need to tailor their compliance solutions to the dynamics of the organization and "distinguish between what is required and what is nice to have," she continues.
Another realization coming out of the first year of SOX compliance is a greater understanding of the role technology can and should play in the process. "There needs to be a new focus on the role of technology in maintaining compliance information," Leatherberry says.
Technology becomes important in integrating financial controls and tracking compliance through things like automated monitoring and the maintenance of an information repository. It also will come into play as organizations reduce the complexity in their organizations in an effort to streamline compliance. This will entail consolidating multiple processing and reporting systems. Compliance, Leatherberry notes, requires that every system be tested and controlled. If a system doesn't provide unique business value, it should be consolidated. Ultimately, technology standardization and consolidation, automated controls, streamlined reporting, an enterprise data model, and collaborative capabilities will combine to improve the compliance process.
Ilene Becker-Yarnoff, principal at Booz Allen Hamilton, took up the problem of corporate IT security and offered an approach to providing urgent remedies for clients at risk. Her first step is to establish priorities so that the organization can intelligently budget for the security investment. This is not something IT can do alone; "all relevant stakeholders must be included," she says. From there, she advises companies to engage in accurate costing and link the security cost to the business activity.
Becker-Yarnoff recommended a three-step, holistic approach. The first step identifies the business risk and establishes the baseline needs and priorities. The second step amounts to a tradeoff analysis that looks at all the options, from building new systems to leveraging and reusing security components already in place. The third step entails developing and documenting a security investment strategy and budget.
Kevin Reid, CTO, Adjoined Consulting, wrapped up the symposium with a discussion of the four primary delivery models for consulting services in use today: the traditional onshore model, the traditional model with an offshore component, the competency center, and the differentiated delivery model. Each model has advantages and disadvantages.
The traditional onshore model characterized by high fees and long delivery time frames generally has fallen out of favor today.
The traditional model with an offshore component uses offshore labor to reduce costs, Reid explains. Although the cost may be lower compared to that of the traditional onshore model, the traditional offshore model also is characterized by the same large teams and long delivery waits. Offshore models raise some quality issues. "Requirements can be lost in translation. There are communication challenges and cultural difference," Reid notes.
The competency center model blends offshore and onshore models and takes advantage of off-the-shelf components to deliver best-of-breed systems. It also expands the middle layer of people.
The differentiated model is characterized by much shorter time frames and more knowledge and skills being spread around. However, it is harder to scale. Still, "it allows for better, fast, and more measurable results and better pricing," says Reid.
In projects where deep, specific knowledge is an advantage, the competency center model works well. The majority of projects, which are characterized by large amounts of integration, are well suited for the differentiated model.
Thanks to these experts and their own interaction, participants in the IT Consulting Leadership Symposium were able to benefit from a wide range of opinion and advice.
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