Blog

It is well known that the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of strategies and plans for digital transformation and the need for successful digital transformation is greater than ever today

The technology itself and how companies implement and use it is evolving rapidly. Since everything moves so quickly and many companies have to carry out and implement large transformation projects – and quickly – it may be necessary to call in external consultants to enforce them. The problem is that the current approach to technology consulting is not adapted to adequately respond to this rapidly changing technology landscape and the changing needs of businesses.

When it’s time to seek advice

First of all, it’s important to understand when outside technology advice is needed and actually helpful. There are plenty of issues with keeping CTOs and the C-suite up at night, but there are a few key areas where outside insights and perspectives can be hugely valuable. For example, are you worried about the effectiveness and success of your tech team? Analyzing the performance and results of internal teams is a difficult and potentially sensitive endeavor. A third party can share a fair, objective point of view.

Investments in technology are expensive. Therefore, it can also make sense to stress test the architectural vision with regard to future business priorities. Organizations can find this approach helpful as this type of work can help accelerate team learning, build support for the future vision, and dramatically reduce costs and time to market. Technology teams also often wrestle with build vs. buy decisions, and again, a third party can help the team assess whether developing their own technology will result in a strategic advantage in their market.

There can also be situations in which internal paths and processes have been investigated but have not produced the desired result, such as For example, failure to implement new processes, availability or scalability issues with your current architecture. Or the time-to-market is still slow despite the growing tech team. It can even be a worry that cannot be allayed before an important, upcoming digital project. In all of these cases, it may be time to bring in external consultants.

The success of this engagement will then depend on the advice itself. So who are the right partners?

The need for real experts

Tech advice is a very different beast from the advice needed for other areas of business. It requires deep technical know-how and experience. However, many tech consultants are just that, consultants – they are savvy and skilled at providing advice, outlining strategies and plans, but lacking the vital firsthand experience to really understand the situation and help companies approach them properly. Ideally, the consultants themselves must have been CTO, tech ops manager, engineer or architect.

As a result of this consulting experience rather than technical experience, traditional consulting firms can too often try to retrofit the answers and practices they know. Different companies may all face the same problem, but each company is unique – the cause of this problem can be for very different reasons. Indeed, thinking outside the box will not provide the necessary insight, but requires a deep understanding of the technology – even down to a single line of code.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but it can also help identify potential issues within or within the tech team. It can show how a company has grown, focus on overall strategy and approach, help pinpoint the real problem, and make sure the right models are being used.

Offering new approaches, not solutions

Once the problems are identified, the feedback on how to solve them must be honest – in some cases the reins even have to be passed on to another third party. Surely the answer should never be reports and investigations again, and the contract will run for many months. The old guidance model is based on the need to ensure that more work is done by organizations that are likely to be doing unnecessary work in order to maintain their presence. This should not be the case with technology consulting. The goal should be to get in and out as quickly as possible – not to become a fixture. As mentioned earlier, technologies and organizations evolve quickly, they do not stand still, and all consulting assignments must repeat this and be short, concise, and most importantly, effective.

However, there is an important distinction to be made here. No consulting firm should just come and fix the problem, but should be able to identify the problem and show the ways and means of solving it so that the organization can fix it on its own. The analogy often made is to give food to a hungry person – he is no longer hungry, but he becomes hungry again. However, if you teach them to fish, they should stop starving. This approach should also help ensure that the same mistakes are not easily repeated, or, if they do, that the technical team has the knowledge, tools, and training to address the problem before moving on escalated and without having to intervene (possibly expensive) external help.

Well, the sign of good advice is in fact not required. If a job has been done well, the advice does not have to stay or be called back at short notice. Tech consultancies that don’t subscribe to these new avenues will eventually die out.

About the author

Tanya Cordrey is a partner at AKF Partners. AKF Partners is a consulting company that specializes in helping companies grow and scale their technology services, processes and organizations. Hypergrowth can be both lonely and stressful. Who can you trust for advice and action when there is too much to do and too few people to do it? We are in your position as leaders, not consultants, and we can help you start, grow, scale and be successful.

Selected image: © Bull Run