2 ms·

A cynical comment that has some roots in truth, but really needs some metrics defined to be useful :-) By time spent? Not on anything but the tiniest projects

A cynical comment that has some roots in truth, but really needs some metrics defined to be useful :-) By time spent? Not on anything but the tiniest projects which are likely to be loss-leaders anyway. By value added? For consulting company, sure, that's one way to look at it; for the customer, probably not :P For the purposes of my post, pre-sales/sales/RFP/whatever were assumed to be done prior to start of implementation. Though I will agree that how ERP project is pitched/sold may well have an impact on the delivery: - the IT vs BT categorization per above is likely implicitly or explicitly setup at these early stages - who the stakeholders/champions are / who signed off on purchase and why - the CIO because their previous product is EOL? The VP of functional department (HR/Finance/etc) because they want to realize value in changing processes? Etc - are the timelines and deliverables reasonable - is the goal / value realized / ROI well defined and agreed - are the requirements and scope well defined and agreed - etc (edited to change nested brackets into bullet points :P )

jariel 7y ago
I'm not being cynical. The lifeblood of major consulting is the sales life cycle, which includes branding, relationship building. Lobbying costs. Responding to RFPs. Advertising. Trade shows. Expensive offices (to give the appearance of credibility). White papers. Paying off Gartner etc. so they put you in the 'good quadrant'. Partners at some firms spend nights a week having people in the industry over for dinner, nice wine etc..
- arethuza 7y ago
  Having been on the buying side of large enterprise projects (up to $50 million) I was surprised at the number of vendors who simply look at a very small outline of the project and decide not to get involved. Later on, back on the selling side, I now appreciate that "qualifying out" opportunities is definitely a critical activity otherwise you well spend huge amounts of money chasing stuff that you probably won't win or, worse, win and make a loss on.

jariel 7y ago

I'm not being cynical. The lifeblood of major consulting is the sales life cycle, which includes branding, relationship building. Lobbying costs. Responding to RFPs. Advertising. Trade shows. Expensive offices (to give the appearance of credibility). White papers. Paying off Gartner etc. so they put you in the 'good quadrant'. Partners at some firms spend nights a week having people in the industry over for dinner, nice wine etc..

arethuza 7y ago
Having been on the buying side of large enterprise projects (up to $50 million) I was surprised at the number of vendors who simply look at a very small outline of the project and decide not to get involved. Later on, back on the selling side, I now appreciate that "qualifying out" opportunities is definitely a critical activity otherwise you well spend huge amounts of money chasing stuff that you probably won't win or, worse, win and make a loss on.