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I'm going to take the other side here -- there are very legitimate cases where consultancies make a lot of sense: cases where you need to do something that requ

I'm going to take the other side here -- there are very legitimate cases where consultancies make a lot of sense: cases where you need to do something that requires expertise way out of your business domain. Example 1: Pharma company wants to roll out SAP Payroll system Example 2: Telco wants to roll out billing system The problem with these situations is that: - SAP experts rarely want to work at a Pharma company - Billing system experts rarely want to work at a Telco - The company should not hire -- and then after a year, fire -- workers after a specific job (e.g., SAP implementation) is done. Also, if the company is in the middle of nowhere, and the job is only for a year or two, why would anyone relocate there? - You cant become an expert by being at one company and seeing it done (and fail) once. You become an expert by doing it at many places - You cant hire a bunch of recent grads and do these projects, they require mentorship from people who have done these projects many times. The consultancies provide that.

commandlinefan 4y ago
> you need to do something that requires expertise That's the way it should be - the problem is it's impossible to vet the consultancies that actually have that expertise against the consultancies that claim the experience and are good at using smoke and mirrors to trick somebody into thinking they have it.
- TuringNYC 4y ago
  Depends on the competency. I'd venture Accenture has done half of all SAP major implementations in the world. For popular software packages, there are typically project testimonials from dozens of other fortune 500 companies, and there is usually a "Gold-Partner" type guarantee from the software vendor themselves. When the consultancy messes up, they risk losing the Partner label or tier. https://www.sap.com/partners/find.html https://www.sap.com/partners/find.html https://pf-prod-sapit-partner-prod.cfapps.eu10.hana.ondemand.com/profile/0000828182 https://pf-prod-sapit-partner-prod.cfapps.eu10.hana.ondemand... Obviously this works for popular packages with defined success criteria, but that is a lot of business for consultancies already, and i'd argue, a great reason to go with a consultancy.

commandlinefan 4y ago

> you need to do something that requires expertise That's the way it should be - the problem is it's impossible to vet the consultancies that actually have that expertise against the consultancies that claim the experience and are good at using smoke and mirrors to trick somebody into thinking they have it.

TuringNYC 4y ago
Depends on the competency. I'd venture Accenture has done half of all SAP major implementations in the world. For popular software packages, there are typically project testimonials from dozens of other fortune 500 companies, and there is usually a "Gold-Partner" type guarantee from the software vendor themselves. When the consultancy messes up, they risk losing the Partner label or tier. https://www.sap.com/partners/find.html https://www.sap.com/partners/find.html https://pf-prod-sapit-partner-prod.cfapps.eu10.hana.ondemand.com/profile/0000828182 https://pf-prod-sapit-partner-prod.cfapps.eu10.hana.ondemand... Obviously this works for popular packages with defined success criteria, but that is a lot of business for consultancies already, and i'd argue, a great reason to go with a consultancy.