 Technology
Best Practices
Is Your
Software Serving You Well?
By:
Craig Trautman
Why should you consider a consulting company to assist
with your software selection process? The answer lies in
this statement: “Don’t be a jack of all trades and a
master of none.” Success comes simply from being really
good at what you do. For most small and mid-sized
companies, the key to success lies in a talent (be it
for art, design, cooking) and not in the supporting
functions that go along with providing the talent to its
customers.
Application development and
IT consulting companies specialize in evaluating your
business processes and goals to determine the best
approach for your company. Whether it be an
out-of-the-box solution, a custom built application, or
a combination of the two, a consulting company can
provide you with an invaluable perspective, experience,
and knowledge that has been built up over many customers
over many industries. Here’s a real life example:
A pharmaceutical corporation’s headquarters was tasked
with tracking and reporting on all product documentation
modifications. This requirement spanned every product
and language for all countries where they were marketed.
They needed to report on any modification at any point
in time and determine that key milestones were being
met.
They decided to work with a
consulting company that had had previous experience
across multiple industries to assist in the business
process analysis and application selection. After the
business process and application requirements phases
were completed, the consulting team provided the
pharmaceutical company with the results. The business
process analysis showed that the requirements could be
met using their current processes and associated
resources. The application requirement analysis showed
that some out-of-the-box solutions existed, but that
they would require business process and resource
changes. The pharmaceutical corporation faced a
decision. Either change their business processes and
re-train their employees and implement an out-of-the-box
solution, or maintain the processes that had made them
so successful and create a customized solution. They
chose the latter.
The end result was that the
consulting company created a web-based application that
allowed remote employees to enter in milestones as soon
as they were completed. The application also allowed the
headquarters location to report in real time on
modification status.
Strategic advantages to consulting:
-
Companies typically have
unique needs that cannot be managed effectively by
internal resources due to the lack of expertise.
Additionally, most companies do not have the budget to
hire the talent or re-focus existing resources to a
short-term project.
-
When looking for a
consulting partner, look for competence, the desire to
work with the customer to create the best possible
solution, and a company that's dedicated to working
within your existing internal processes. A radical
change to your existing business processes is a change
to what has made you successful.
-
Look out for the part time
vendor: a kid working out of his basement. You want to
use a company that has a track record for quality work
and a firm that's likely to be around for a while to
handle ongoing maintenance work.
-
Picking the right partner
from the outset will help you avoid repeating the same
project because the first partner got it wrong. That's
why it's important to pick a company that has relevant
experience and one that will closely work with you
during the planning, development and implementation
stages.
|
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Craig Trautman is the CEO of
Intagras, Inc.
Intagras
provides Business Process Consulting and Application
Development services. Craig has over 10 years of
consulting and project management experience with small
to Fortune 100 businesses. Richard Villarino,
Intagras
Manager of Business Development, also contributed to
this article.
Contact Richard at 813-226-1867 or
info@intagras.com. |
|
Published September 2007,
Volume 1, Number 6,
Bay
Area Business Magazine
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