Marketing of computer consulting in the new millennium
Robert W. McAdams
the signs I've seen so far are that things have not been good for
computer consultants. Groups like the ICCA have seen more than a 50%
attrition in membership, due primarily to small, entrepeneurial
consulting firms going out of business.
At the same time, the reasons for expecting computer consulting to
flourish seem as strong as ever: Continuing reductions in the cost of
computer hardware have made it increasingly attractive for companies to
try to reduce personnel costs in IT, making it more and more attractive
to purchase software written by outside vendors rather than to hire
teams of computer experts to write it in-house. And that has made it
less and less likely that companies will have the in-house expertise
needed to advise them on computer technology and to address their custom
software needs.
It is true that the globalization of the computer business (which has
been facilitated by the internet) has put U.S. software developers in
competition with software developers in other countries, where the cost
of living is much lower. But the segment of the computer industry for
which this is least true is the consulting business. In the 17 1/2
years that my company has been in business, I have had only one contract
(lasting about 4 months) that did not require any onsite presence. It's
going to be pretty difficult for a consulting firm in India to send
someone onsite!
The question, then, is why so many computer consultants in the U.S. seem
to be having problems. Why would a consulting firm that operated quite
successfully in the 1990s be having trouble now, if it is doing the same
things to find business that it did then? Have the marketing techniques
that were effective a decade ago lost their effectiveness? And, if so,
what techniques are effective today?
Bob McAdams
Fambright
Charles Calvert
<r...@fambright.com> wrote in <49B5649B...@fambright.com>:
[snip]
>It is true that the globalization of the computer business (which has
>been facilitated by the internet) has put U.S. software developers in
>competition with software developers in other countries, where the cost
>of living is much lower. But the segment of the computer industry for
>which this is least true is the consulting business. In the 17 1/2
>years that my company has been in business, I have had only one contract
>(lasting about 4 months) that did not require any onsite presence.
On the other hand, many of my contracts have not required an on-site
presence outside of initial meetings.
>It's going to be pretty difficult for a consulting firm in India
>to send someone onsite!
That's the catch, though. They keep the sales and sales engineering
people here, and have the development teams in India, Singapore,
Romania, etc. Some don't even bother with the sales engineers, and
instead partner with local companies. I get a lot of calls from
companies who want me to outsource development work to them. They
have an off-shore development center and will charge me anywhere from
$15 to $45 an hour, depending on the type of work.
I've seen less willingness to work with off-shore companies in recent
years. People have been burned and word has gotten around that
off-shore companies are no different from on-shore, except that they
can be harder to understand, are in a different jurisdiction (making
contract enforcement harder) and the communication can be harder due
to distance and time differences.
Also, people are tired of taking to some guy named "Steve" who has an
unintelligible accent when they call for help with their new laptop.
Rightly or wrongly, that may be factoring in.
>The question, then, is why so many computer consultants in the U.S. seem
>to be having problems. Why would a consulting firm that operated quite
>successfully in the 1990s be having trouble now, if it is doing the same
>things to find business that it did then?
For one thing, the rate of change has accelerated and there are more
options. My company is doing both desktop and web development, using
C, C++, VB 6, C#, PHP, awk, perl, Ruby, MS SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS
Access, Crystal Reports, Joomla, HTML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript and
other technologies. It's hard to keep up. Everyone wants an expert
in a specific technology (e.g. we want someone with 10+ years
experience with Rails).
The ups and downs of the economy haven't helped, either, as prices
have been driven down. I've seen a lot of churn among consultants as
well, as people have entered and left the business during economic
fluctuations.
>Have the marketing techniques that were effective a decade ago lost
>their effectiveness?
Many have not, but some may have. Networking is still very effective
and helps to keep me in business, much as it did in the late 90's.
Writing for magazines appears to have significantly reduced
effectiveness, as many of the technical magazines are going under.
>And, if so, what techniques are effective today?
Most of the things that are new revolve around technological
variations of existing techniques. I do some of my networking via
mailing lists these days. In fact, I've gotten a couple of clients
from one list alone[1]. There is also blogging (which is replacing
magazines) and participation in on-line discussion fora. One of my
recent clients found another contractor who was a specialist via a
discussion forum.
I've gotten around $400,000 in contracts over the years by having a
listing on the Software Contractor's Guild web-site:
<http://www.scguild.com/>.
[1] Actually, my wife is the list member; it's for women only, but she
keeps an eye out for any needs that we can fulfill.
--
Charles Calvert
Moderator - alt.computer.consultants.moderated
Submission Address: ac...@celticwolf.net
Contact Address: accm...@celticwolf.net