A team of veteran former consultants, all of whom also have experience in industry as buyers of consulting services, are trying to change how some companies buy consulting services.
The bet is that consulting clients would prefer a smaller markup on an engagement for help connecting with top consultants and project resource services. And they are betting that consultants—mostly solo practitioners and very small firms—would willingly join the marketplace, known as Projjix, in exchange for access to Fortune 500-1000 consulting assignments and help handling timekeeping, billing and other administrative headaches.
And so far, the bet is paying off.
"The world has changed, and the result is that companies are interested in reaching out to consultants in different ways," says Jim Hazboun, president and CEO of Projjix. "We're just at the beginning of this new market reality, in which companies want more choice, better pricing options, and greater access to consulting talent."
Hazboun says that large companies are recruiting a lot of former big firm alumni with project management savvy to lead internal projects. They still hire big firms—with their higher rates—for the large projects. But, increasingly, they're also turning to independent consultants or modest-sized firms to staff small projects.
So far, approximately 2,000 consultants have joined the Projjix marketplace. The vast majority are alumni of the Big Four accounting/consulting firms or other large consulting firms. Most have between 10 and 15 years of experience, Hazboun says.
Projjix beta-tested the marketplace with a core group of 15 companies and is expecting that number to increase significantly in 2010. Current engagements include: a publicly traded global energy company looking for business, technology and engineering consultants; a high-growth company looking for ERP consultants; and a national telecom company looking for IT consultants.
In addition, it's possible that Projjix could also soon make its consultant members available to larger consulting firms, who need to quickly staff up for an engagement.
—Jess Scheer
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