Consultants – who needs them?

Charles Drayson

Jan 4 · 5 min read
This might be a question or your rhetorical reflection on the value of consultants in general. Procurement teams certainly seem keen to examine vendor proposals that include consultancy fees. Sometimes, the consultancy fees are a significant up-front expense. Worse, some products require regular spending on consultants to keep a product running over time. Your skepticism might come from hard-learned lessons. There, I’ve said it. But, in some vendor organizations, the consultancy team is home to the vendor’s top talent and most experienced staff.
Some vendors, including Legito, deploy consultants during the pre-sales stage of a deal. That means you can ‘try before you buy’ – it’s a chance to see what they can do and maybe build rapport with someone you might engage. Pre-sales is a test of how well a vendor understands your needs. It’s also a chance to assess how well you have investigated the problems you want to solve. Ideally, come with a small specific MVP in mind (Google the Gartner definition).

Legito is a no-code solution designed for organizations to build and maintain solutions using in-house subject matter experts (not developers). Nevertheless, there is still a period where you start with no knowledge before building competence and confidence. That’s a period when you are impatient to make progress. You will have questions that might be hard to resolve from the training resources. You might get stuck. Ask for help. Legito select consultants are for two qualities: they know the product, but crucially, they have experience of making it work for real projects. Quick-start projects are where they can add the most value. They will save you time and help you learn on the job.
 

Two approaches to using consultants:
•Build the first project yourself and get help from consultants as needed
•Outsource the first project to consultants

I came to Legito after 15 years using a competing product as a customer. My first project started with an intensive period teaching myself from user guides (it was a code-based product), and then I spent a day with a consultant before returning to the project. I had spent enough time with the software to learn the basics, and enough time to expose the topics where I needed 1:1 support. I knew where I needed expert input, and the consultant added much value. A few months later, I had another day with a consultant. By that time, I was ready to grasp more advanced concepts that made the solution polished. I used the first approach. It reduced my budget, and I believe it’s the best way to develop your expertise. But, it takes longer, and you will make mistakes that require re-work. We learn from that.

The second approach is good for speed, predictable timescales, and the assurance of having a successful first project on which to build. However, I don’t think you learn as much from observing rather than doing. You might still need to resort to the first approach when you move to the next project. However, at least you will build on a firm success base. Expect to pay more if you outsource the first project. You can mitigate the extra cost if you give the consultants a tight brief and a clear picture of both the ‘as is’ business process and the ‘to be’ business process. If you don’t have clearly defined requirements, the consultants will need to spend time on a discovery process. That can be economical if your internal subject matter experts are scarce or valuable resources (e.g. fee earning staff in professional services organizations).

Consultants – who needs them?

Charles Drayson
Jan 4 · 5 min read
This might be a question or your rhetorical reflection on the value of consultants in general. Procurement teams certainly seem keen to examine vendor proposals that include consultancy fees. Sometimes, the consultancy fees are a significant up-front expense. Worse, some products require regular spending on consultants to keep a product running over time. Your skepticism might come from hard-learned lessons. There, I’ve said it. But, in some vendor organizations, the consultancy team is home to the vendor’s top talent and most experienced staff.
Some vendors, including Legito, deploy consultants during the pre-sales stage of a deal. That means you can ‘try before you buy’ – it’s a chance to see what they can do and maybe build rapport with someone you might engage. Pre-sales is a test of how well a vendor understands your needs. It’s also a chance to assess how well you have investigated the problems you want to solve. Ideally, come with a small specific MVP in mind (Google the Gartner definition).
Legito is a no-code solution designed for organizations to build and maintain solutions using in-house subject matter experts (not developers). Nevertheless, there is still a period where you start with no knowledge before building competence and confidence. That’s a period when you are impatient to make progress. You will have questions that might be hard to resolve from the training resources. You might get stuck. Ask for help. Legito select consultants are for two qualities: they know the product, but crucially, they have experience of making it work for real projects. Quick-start projects are where they can add the most value. They will save you time and help you learn on the job.
 

Two approaches to using consultants:
•Build the first project yourself and get help from consultants as needed
•Outsource the first project to consultants
I came to Legito after 15 years using a competing product as a customer. My first project started with an intensive period teaching myself from user guides (it was a code-based product), and then I spent a day with a consultant before returning to the project. I had spent enough time with the software to learn the basics, and enough time to expose the topics where I needed 1:1 support. I knew where I needed expert input, and the consultant added much value. A few months later, I had another day with a consultant. By that time, I was ready to grasp more advanced concepts that made the solution polished. I used the first approach. It reduced my budget, and I believe it’s the best way to develop your expertise. But, it takes longer, and you will make mistakes that require re-work. We learn from that.
The second approach is good for speed, predictable timescales, and the assurance of having a successful first project on which to build. However, I don’t think you learn as much from observing rather than doing. You might still need to resort to the first approach when you move to the next project. However, at least you will build on a firm success base. 

Expect to pay more if you outsource the first project. You can mitigate the extra cost if you give the consultants a tight brief and a clear picture of both the ‘as is’ business process and the ‘to be’ business process. If you don’t have clearly defined requirements, the consultants will need to spend time on a discovery process. That can be economical if your internal subject matter experts are scarce or valuable resources (e.g. fee earning staff in professional services organizations).

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