IS Consulting Process
(IS 6005)
Masters in Business Information Systems 2006 / 2007
Programme in Professional Information System Practices
Fergal Carton
Business Information Systems
Last week
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Gap management: think up an approach?
Some scope definitions
In-house vs. package question
Why don’t MNC’s go custom route?
– Time, risk, reliability, skills, …
• What is unique to the business?
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
This week
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Demo EBSCO access
Skills profile
IS consulting profession
Key roles and skills ERP team
Consultant skills
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Analytic abilities
Technical abilities
Project management abilities
Relationship building abilities
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
EBSCO
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
EBSCO
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
EBSCO
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
EBSCO
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
EBSCO
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Skills profile
•Ability to manage analytical skills necessary to gain an
understanding of the client’s business and the opportunities open
to it
•Ability to maximize the use of Technology to add value to the
business
‘Create good business/IT ideas…..’
•Ability to manage consulting project as a formal exercise
‘….that can be put into practice….’
•Ability to communicate ideas and positively influence others
‘….and that people go along with.’
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Is IT consulting a profession?
IT and
“Consultant”
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Is IT consulting a profession?
IT and
“Project Manager”
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Analytical Abilities
• Identify what information is available in a particular
situation
– More information means more confident decisions
– Background research of existing information
– Effective questioning of those who have relevant information
• Identify what information is needed
– Too much information - Paralysis by analysis
• Process that information to identify the important
relationships within it
– What is the information saying about the business and the opportunities
– Draw conclusions from patterns of relationships and causal linkages
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Analytical Abilities
• Draw meaning from that information and use it to
support decision making
– Impact of conclusions on courses of action open to client and their
significance to the consulting project
– Use information to make a case for a particular course of action, to
convince others and to overcome objections
• Understand the business context
– Helps to develop client confidence
– Pre-project research sources: internet, business news, magazines,
library, books
– Client Research Guidelines (Freedman, Ch 2, Exibit 2.1)
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Analytical Abilities
Freedman - Exhibit 2.1
Client Research Guidelines
Company name: ___________________________________________________
Primary business: _________________________________________________
Industry: _______________________________________________________
o Publicly held?
If so, today's share price: __________________________
o Trending up?
o Trending down?
Mission statement: (annual report or website)
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Business objectives:
___________________________________________________________
Key clients: ______________________________________________________
Competitive position: ______________________________________________
IT strategies: ___________________________________________________
Key managers: ____________________________________________________
Revenue growth over last year: ________________________________________
Profit growth over last year: _________________________________________
Key business drivers: _______________________________________________
Key performance metrics: ____________________________________________
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Other comments:
_______________________________________________
Analytical Abilities
• Evaluate the opportunities and challenges
that the environment offers the
business/department
– Helps to devise rewarding consulting projects
• Assess the business’s internal conditions
– E.g. Human skills, capacity to change
• Analyse the way in which decision-making occurs
within the business
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Who is involved in decision
What role/s does each individual play
Who might gain/loose
Need to create a win/win situation
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Technical Abilities
• Technical expertise is a process, not an event
– Technical training and IT must be considered as a lifetime learning
experience
– Strive to gain depth & breath in the technologies that drive
competitive advantage
– Sources: Interent, magazines, vendor presentations, user group
meetings, networking, formal training
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Project Management Abilities
• Define objectives and outcomes
– What is success
– Is objective achievable
– Is it clearly understood
• Develop formal plans
– Tasks: defining, ordering, allocating, communicating
– Understanding resource implications
• Sequence and prioritise tasks
– Well defined order and priority
– Tasks in parallel if possible
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Project Management Abilities
• Manage (budget for) the financial resources that are
to be invested in the consulting project
– E.g. Capital expenditure, market research, resourcing the project
• Recognise human expertise necessary to deliver the
project
– Understand how team members can specialize their roles
• Manage personal time
– Increase productivity and avoid last minute panics
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Relationship Building Abilities
• Build rapport and trust with the client
– Difficult to define
– Feature of all communication (not just face-to-face)
– Not just what is said, but how things are said
• Question effectively
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Way to build rapport and control the direction of the conversation
Open questions, closed questions
Ask the right questions (preparation)
Ask them the right way (practice)
• E.g. avoid interrogating, vary styles, positive open questions, closed to
confirm, statement with a quizzical look/rising tone, etc..
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Relationship Building Abilities
• Communicate ideas succinctly and precisely
– Different areas use different language (e.g. finance, marketing)
– The Key is not the consultant’s knowledge of the area, but how the
consultant uses that knowledge to create value for the business
– Most impact when he/she talks the same language as the client
– May need to translate technical jargon into plain language
• Negotiate objectives and outcomes
– Client may not have a clear idea of what is wanted for the business or may
have unrealistic ideas which are not achievable within the project
– Disappointment for both the client and consultant results more from unclear
expectations than poor outcomes
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Relationship Building Abilities
• Convince others through verbal, written and
visual mediums
– Having good ideas is not enough
– Conviction results if ideas are communicated in a manner that is
appropriate to the audience
– Ideas must have substance - Use information to make a case for a
particular course of action
– Some information included in the initial communication and some
held back as a response to questions and/or objections
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Relationship Building Abilities
• Develop selling strategies
– Consultants must sell ideas, sell themselves and their organizations
– Consultancy does not respond well to a ‘hard-sell’ approach
– Focus on what you can offer the client with a view to building a
long-term, mutually beneficial relationship
• Work effectively as a member of a team
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Consultancy team and extended client team
Requires careful definition of individual roles and responsibilities
Requires interpersonal, motivation and conflict resolution skills
Align interests of the team individuals with the overall task that the
team faces – sometimes necessary to compromise individual
concerns in the interest of the group, as a whole
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process
Relationship Building Abilities
• Demonstrate Leadership
– Ability to focus and direct individuals to act in a certain
way
– Draws together many relationship skills (e.g. articulate
vision, motivation, communication) into one behavioural
strategy
– Leadership is not a fixed property, but is situational –
may shift between members of a project as the project
evolves and the situation changes
– Leadership Core Competencies
• Project Management Institute (2005) Vol. 6, Issue 1.
MBS (BIS) / 6005 / IS Consulting Process