IT Success!: Towards a New Model for Information Technology

9.8. How consulting companies can help

You will almost certainly require outside assistance in getting from here to there. Needless to say, there are lots of consulting companies with the expertise to help you put together a change programme. As explained in Chapter 8 (section 'The role of external service providers (ESPs)'), ESPs usually have the resources with the workshop facilitation, process and data modelling skills that are usually lacking in most IT departments. But they also have an agenda which is fundamentally different to yours, and that is to place warm bodies in your organization for as long as possible. This might lead them to sell you on the vision of things which might or might not be attainable in terms of change management.

So be selective when working with consulting companies and favour small change programmes over larger ones, e.g. one or two attainable objectives involving not more than two or three people over a maximum period of six months. Remember, a change management programme is not like a software development project in which consultants are actually doing most of the work. In a change programme, consultants can only point you in the right direction in terms of processes and train your people, who ultimately are the ones who are going to make it work. So if a consulting company ends up proposing an unduly large change programme, the chances are it's not going to be in your best interests.