In the most general definition of the term a consultant is:

One who gives professional advice or services : expert (source Webster’s online dictionary )

So that seems reasonable. You have a problem or a project and need someone to come in and take care of it. Hopefully someone who knows what they’re doing. I might add someone who actually cares about your business and makes a point to provide minimal disruption to your work flow. It would be nice if they actually solved the problem too. :)

So you look up a consulting firm in the yellow pages, maybe visit a website and decide to give the firm a call. Everybody’s the same to this point, no matter how slick the brochure or professional the website is, you don’t know anything about them. They haven’t done a thing for you yet. So how do you evaluate a consulting firm?

What to look for in the first meeting…

It’s simpler than you think as long as you keep the following in mind…

1. A reputable consulting firm isn’t afraid to answer questions.

2. A reputable consulting firm NEVER charges just to look at your problem. If they demand payment just to walk in the door, look elsewhere. Your best interests aren’t in line with theirs. You’re interviewing them after all.

3. A reputable consulting firm will have good references from businesses similar to yours.

4. They will never propose a solution without thoroughly reviewing your environment.

5. They will never talk down another firm just to get your contract. (this one is a BIG red flag)

6. They will never have a set price in your first meeting. Pre-canned solutions only work for beans and fruit salad.

7. They won’t tell you that everything will be perfect if you go with them. (another BIG red flag, perfect is impossible or at a minimum subjective)

8. They will work around your schedule. (For example; If a server needs to be rebuilt it should be done when nobody needs it)

9. They are not afraid to include emergency service as part of their contract price. (Especially important for maintenance agreements)

10. You should feel comfortable with the individuals. If you can’t establish a rapport with them it’s best to move on.

11. The person/people actually doing the work should be available to you at this point or at least at the second meeting (You weren’t planning on making the decision at the first meeting were you??) The sales guy may be great but it’s the guys doing the actual work that you’ll have to live with!

12. Gold, Platinium, <Insert Vendor here> uber magtanium certified partner claims are meaningless. While it's good that a consulting firm has a grasp on the latest technologies, you must remember that these vendor brandings are little more than a marketing tool. Vendor specific certifications have more to do with sales volume than ability. Most require reseller agreements that force a percentage of sales to utilize the vendor's products even if competitor's product would be a better fit. Think of it this way, An attorney can practice law as soon as they pass the bar exam but that doesn't automatically make them a good lawyer. References from similar businesses to yours are far more valuable.

What to look for before you write the first check…

So you’ve made your decision and went with a firm that met all the above criteria or at least what you feel is important.

Great, so what’s next. Well, more bullet points of course!

1. A good consultant will want to spend a day or so finding out about your existing IT setup.

2. If you have an IT person, a good consultant will want to spend a good deal of time with them.

3. They should be looking at more than just the server room. Problems that show up in one area

often start in a completely different area.

4. They shouldn’t be afraid to talk to your users. It should really be mandatory as there’s no better way

to gather information about what needs fixing than to talk to those directly affected!

5. After the assessment is completed the consulting firm should provide a detailed report on the issues they found.

6. If you have an IT person they should also have a copy of this report.

7. It should be easily readable and accepted by your IT person for its accuracy.

8. Assuming your IT person has a grasp of the area, there should be no issues with accuracy or false statements by the consulting firm.

9. The firm should provide a timetable for individual projects with set milestones for each stage of the project.

10. For maintenance agreements a clear statement of availability and response time must be specified.

11. A good consulting firm should never ask for any money up front except for hardware costs. If they’re successful they shouldn’t be concerned about getting paid at this point.

12. As the project moves along the consultant should be providing regular updates.

13. If the consulting firm makes a mistake that causes an issue for your business they should be willing to pay for it. This can be either in the form of not charging for the remediation or providing a discount that amounts to the cost of remediation.

14. For maintenance contracts, billable hours should be explained with a complete billing detail. I don’t know about you but I'd like to know what I’m buying!

15. If there’s a problem you need to know exactly whom to contact! Nothing’s worse than trying to track down a project manager when you don’t know their name!

16. There should be no secrets! It’s your IT resource and you have a right to know what’s going on! Good consultants make sure to provide complete documentation of everything they do. They should also be willing to provide any information your IT staffers need regarding the project. That includes training if necessary.

17. Understand the payment terms. Nothing makes for more tension than paying a consultant every 30 days when the terms are net 7. Make sure both of you understand and agree to the terms and stick to them.

18. Don’t let money ruin a good relationship, if there’s a problem let the firm know. If you need to modify terms by all means say something! It’s unfair to make someone wait and wonder if they’re going to get paid for the work they’ve done.

What else should I know???

A consultant is meant to be a supplement not a crutch. If you have competent IT staff on board then there should be no need for a consultant to handle day to day activities on a regular basis. I’ll be blunt; a consultant is an expensive way to prop up an ineffective IT department. If your consultant is handling printer jams, adding users, troubleshooting workstation issues and handling issues that have nothing to do with what you contracted them for, they aren’t a consultant anymore, they’re a crutch. There’s nothing wrong with assisting with workstation issues especially if they are related to a more serious problem but a consultant shouldn’t be doing the work just because your IT staff doesn’t want to do it or take the time to learn.

To be blunt, if this is the case it may be time to reevaluate your choice in IT staff. If you find that the consultant knows more about your IT resources than your IT staff and your IT staff doesn’t seem to take an interest, you may have discovered an issue. Depending on the needs of your business, you may want to contract with the firm to handle the administration duties. A reputable firm will even negotiate a lower rate since they’ll have a more stable income.This kind of relationship takes some time to develop however and is somewhat rare in smaller businesses.There is a level of trust and a responsibility that some consulting firms don’t want to get involved in. This doesn’t make them bad consulting firms; some firms just prefer project work as opposed to ongoing maintenance.

Supplementing a small office with little or no IT staff is an ideal case to use a consulting firm for maintenance duties.Often individuals in these staff positions are not trained IT people.Rather they just happened to be computer savvy person on the staff and inherited the rest of the duties. Configuring a network server or a firewall is not a project for them. For this type of client it’s easier to either negotiate a flat rate with a fixed number of hours per month or pay as you go. For a small business with less than 10 employees a maintenance agreement should be less than 10 billable hours per month on average. There are exceptions to the rule but generally server maintenance and updates shouldn’t need to exceed 10 hours unless a serious issue has developed.

So that’s it.I’ve told you what to look for and even covered some of your responsibilities. Most of us are in this business because we really like what we do. There are some bad apples out there and they usually show up somewhere around point 5 in the first section.

And of course, shameless self-promotion, feel free to call with any of your IT consulting needs!