Information technology consulting projects have been hitting the headlines
recently – and for the wrong reasons. It seems that every month another tale
emerges of expensive projects that go over budget and over schedule, that do
not work properly, do not deliver what they say they should and that the
end-users never wanted in the first place.
Steve Watmough, managing director of IT specialist Xantus Consulting, says:
“The industry as a whole is getting a reputation for poor delivery. When it
comes to IT projects clients are about to spend a lot of money, and they are
entitled to ask: does it deliver quality of service?”
A recent project Xantus worked on was delivered on time and worked perfectly
from day one. “The client was really shocked that everything went so well,
which was a bad indictment of the profession,” says Watmough.
Is IT just an easy target for blame? According to this year’s crop of IT
specialists recognised by the MCA in the Consultant of the Year Awards, the
problem could lie elsewhere. Richard Forrest, 31, is consulting senior
manager at Deloitte, the business advisory firm, and this year’s winner of
the IT consulting prize. He has worked at Deloitte since 1998 and
specialises in advising UK and international law firms and corporations on
all aspects of IT projects, including procurement, outsourcing, data
management and strategy. Forrest is well aware that IT is often the
scapegoat.
“Many IT project failures are not just down to the IT part of the project,” he
says. “If something is not working, then the problem could lie with business
processes. But it is often the case that the IT part gets the blame because
it is the most tangible element of the project. It is often seen as an easy
solution that should be able to provide all the answers.”
Forrest’s law-firm clients expect to pay a premium rate for a premium service
and, he says, the challenge is often about unlocking the value of IT for his
clients, such as in current projects working on providing reliable ways for
lawyers to access documents electronically from both inside and outside
their offices and share them securely with relevant parties. “It shouldn’t
be about IT projects for IT’s sake,” he says. “It is more often about
delivering a programme of business change rather than just a change in
technology.”
Runner-up Nigel Green, 51, executive consultant with Capgemini, agrees: “IT
consulting has moved away from the technical space into the business space.
The decisions we make aren’t really about the IT, but about what fundamental
and behavioural aspects in businesses we’re trying to support.”
Green recently worked on projects involving the criminal justice system,
including a 10-year project to build an IT infrastructure, and says much of
the work was not about the information systems themselves, but the behaviour
of the groups that would be using it.
“An example would be where the police service, because of the way it operates,
would need to have a system that can give them information very speedily,”
says Green, “whereas the Crown Prosecution Service has a different value
system. It’s all about the tension created by different needs, and if you
don’t acknowledge that, then the system won’t be used by either party.”
Failure to recognise these different needs can lead to problems. In fact, says
runner-up Dominic Knight, 41, a director at Price Waterhouse Coopers who
specialises in IT projects in the public sector, consulting isn’t
necessarily about handling the technology itself, but about helping people
use it. “The greatest IT system is useless if it is not being used or isn’t
in line with what people want,” he says. “Our role is to identify how
companies can achieve their objectives, so it’s about what you are
ultimately trying to do rather than being excited by the technology
solution.” The role of a consultant is to ensure IT is brought in for the
right reason, says Knight. “Sometimes IT is just not the correct answer. And
you’ve got to look at the risk to the business, the impact of change and
what resistance there might be.”
Forrest agrees: “Clients might approach me and ask about cost savings by
outsourcing IT, but I can say no and that they need to take a different
approach if I think they may not understand the risk to the business. There
might be a more appropriate solution, and that’s what IT consultants do –
they look at the whole picture.”
Sometimes the problem could be a gap between what the consultants promise and
what an IT system can actually deliver, says Watmough. “It is can be hard to
avoid overpromising, especially when you are up against stiff competition
who are also overpromising. IT projects are very complex, use different
systems and complicated components, and yet people are given the idea that
you’re just going to connect everything and it will not only work but be
able to solve your business problems from day one.”
So what makes a good IT consultant? According to Watmough, IT consultants need
a good grasp of the client’s business and the issues they have to deal with.
“You have to be open-minded, to understand the behaviour of the client and
what they are trying to achieve,” he says. “Good consultants will be able to
draw on a broad range of experience and delivery projects in the IT space –
to not just work by methodology and process but to think about the clients’
business needs.”
Green has been in IT consulting for 25 years and says that his thinking has
moved away from the technology side of things to the business arena.
“Challenges don’t really fall into the technology space,” he says, “It is
more about the way that IT is applied. IT has to respect the very business
system that it is designed to support, and this way of thinking is much more
interesting than talking about server infrastructure.”
Good and open communication between clients and consultants is vital if
projects are to work. Says Knight: “You have to be honest with each other. A
big project can start from one big idea straight through to delivery without
anybody thinking about the impact, what changes need to be done. You need to
be forensic on every level.”
Working for the public sector is very rewarding but comes with a set of
pressures all of its own, he says. “Budgets are very constrained in the
sector, and it’s all done by committee, which can be an issue. It can be
hard to sell to people that they need to spend a fair bit of cash just on
finding out whether a project is right for them or not. Because once it
starts, it can be a bit like a supertanker – changing course halfway is
rather difficult.”
Not only that, but as policy, departments and even governments can change in
the course of a project, budgets and priorities could alter quickly.
Therefore, communication is key, says Knight. “Often IT is not the best
answer – people trust us more if we are not automatically suggesting IT
solutions. You could do yourself out of an individual job, but this way you
would build up a much better relationship with the clients. You should
always tell a client if they’re going in the wrong direction. It can be hard
to hear – and IT people are often blinded by technology and buy into a
whizzy new product, but we have to ask, ‘What problem is it solving?’”
And it is not just a one-way street: the client has a large part in the
success or otherwise of a project. Watmough says that the best IT projects
deliver where you have a “genuine IT leader”; “The days are gone when there
is a gap between IT and strategy,” he says. “Today’s modern chief
information officer is a businessman foremost as well as understanding the
technology function.”
“Business and IT have a responsibility to each other,” adds Forrest. “The
business sponsorship has to be there, and if their needs change, then that
has to be clear, too. Things go wrong when both sides lose sight of what
needs to be done, things get added on and you end up with a complicated
system that is never used.”
