Are consultants a waste of money?

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You are Absolutely Right No_Ax

There is a place for both contractors and consultants. The key is differentiating them. Generally speaking when I've worked on projects the people I end up working with are contractors. Nothing wrong with this at all provided they are not "sold as consultants" which far far too often is in fact the case. (meaning: overpaid contractors)

For the most part when you run any IT project, what you need is a ratio of 1 consultant to every 4 to 8 contractors. If you have a small team, one consultant providing technical project management, direction, delivery etc...is all you need. The contractors can then execute the tasks and everything will generally work out fine.

The main problem as you said, is that people lump the two together. They are very different indeed. Consultants gather information, perform detailed analysis, provide recommended courses of action and lead in the execution of them. A contractor generally provides the means to execute a consultant's well thought out plan.

This article would be FAR more accurate if it targeted "Consulting Firms" and highlighted the fact that far too often contractors are sold as consultants and the customer pays the price...and often a high one.

In my experience, customers that get good consultants are often very unhappy with the "other consultants" because they feel they need to manage them. A good consultant doesn't need daily or weekly management, rather they can provide management skills when necessary. Also a good consultant doesn't need to be told what needs to be done unlike a contractor. A consultant can readily identify gaps, issues, deficiences and make recommendations on improvements. This is what clearly separates a consultant from a contractor.

Now can someone please give a clue to the consulting firms?????

Posted by: GeiselS@...   Posted on: 06/25/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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