Getting the Most Bang for
Your IT Consulting Buck
Carriers need to be unambiguous about requirements to avoid scope
creep and runaway projects. By Doug Bartholomew
It would only be natural when you’re looking to hire an infor- mation technology consultant to focus on the consultant’s skills as a systems designer or software architect. But that’s only one part of what’s
needed to succeed on an application development assignment at a major insurance firm.
Just ask Chip James, AVP for infor-
mation technology at Columbia, S.C.-
based Colonial Life. “A big part of any
IT consultant’s job is interacting with
the team and being able to communi-
cate with the team,” James says. “One
person we hired was a technical rock
star, but he was going around dropping
personality bombs all over the place. It
doesn’t matter how good someone is
with the technology if they leave a huge
wake of HR or team issues behind them.
In fact, with that kind of collateral dam-
age, your project may not survive. We
made a mistake by not looking closely
at the non-technical skills this person
had.”
That’s just one of the many pitfalls
that can await an insurance company in
the hiring, controlling and, when nec-
essary, firing of IT consultants. There are
plenty of potential woes— poor scop-
ing of the work, project creep, cost
overruns, and runaway projects—that
can befall unwary business executives
or IT managers who fail to closely monitor IT consultants at every step.
Given these challenges, what are
some best practices for engaging, man-
aging, and dismissing IT consultants?
And more important, what are the steps
that a client firm can take to ensure that
it’s deriving the most value from a con-
sultant?
First of all, the IT organization or
business group selecting the consultant
would be wise to keep the big picture—the business benefit of the project— foremost in mind at all times. In
