Consultants – who needs them?

Charles Drayson

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.

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).

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.

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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Thinking ahead to a Quiet January

Charles Drayson

January is an excellent time to get things done, especially if urgent tasks mean you never get enough clear time to work on your ‘someday / maybe’ list. The end of the calendar year coincides with the end of the business year for many organisations. Christmas holidays end and people go back to work in a period of relative calm in anticipation of the year ahead.

Trying new things

Another great feature of January: it’s a quiet time for you, but it’s also a quiet time for many of your colleagues. January is the ideal opportunity to run a small experiment or pilot project to try something new. The opportunity cost of a short January distraction is at its lowest, and you can harness the instinct to do something different in the coming year. If a January pilot project is successful, you could scale it in time for Spring.

If I can tempt you to do something different this January, there are one or two quick steps you might need to take in the next few weeks so you will be ready.

Think about signing up for a free trial to begin in January. Maybe get a couple of colleagues on board now – your subconscious minds can start processing ideas between now and January. If December looks like a crazy period, perhaps it’s an ideal time to observe the shortcomings in the current working patterns. Could you set aside a week in January where you avoid routine meetings or appointments that could wait, except for collaborating on your pilot project.

If you want to complete a pilot project in January, you will need to limit your focus to one deliverable, maybe two. Pick one thing that would prove the concept or sink it. The objective is to do just enough to give you the confidence to go ahead with some form of production rollout. The first production rollout doesn’t have to be big.

If you need help, ask.  In January, vendor consultants tend to have more capacity if you get stuck. New year resolutions are easier if you team up with others. Moreover, you don’t have to give up alcohol or count calories to get an exciting new venture underway.

Trying new things

If you want to complete a pilot project in January, you will need to limit your focus to one deliverable, maybe two. Pick one thing that would prove the concept or sink it. The objective is to do just enough to give you the confidence to go ahead with some form of production rollout. The first production rollout doesn’t have to be big.

New year resolutions are easier if you team up with others. Moreover, you don’t have to give up alcohol or count calories to get an exciting new venture underway.

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No code / Low code – what’s the fuss about?

Charles Drayson

Why is this important?

No-code and low-code platforms make it easier for ‘citizen developers’ to build useful tools for their organisation without reaching out for resources from an IT team. They put the power of the features directly into the hands of people who know what they want to build, avoiding the time and ‘lost in translation’ issues of giving the work to a developer.

The advantages of no-code / low-code continue after the build phase of a project – it’s easier to tweak, maintain and evolve the solution in future.

Combined with the availability of free trials, no-code makes it easier for a business team to run a pilot project without the hassle of engaging help from scarce resources like IT professionals. It enables quick start projects. We want HR teams, procurement teams, finance teams – all enterprise teams – to feel they can adopt the same solution quickly and get results customised for their team.

Legito is a collection of tools, all designed to get work done with documents and business processes. As the number of features grows, a no-code approach allows us to put new features into the hands of users without them having to learn more complicated scripts or re-write old scripts to work with new features. No-code means one less distraction between you and your desired results.

Play with the solution. Try stuff out. Code has to be learnt, but Legito merely needs to be uncovered.

Why is this important?

No-code and low-code platforms make it easier for ‘citizen developers’ to build useful tools for their organisation without reaching out for resources from an IT team. They put the power of the features directly into the hands of people who know what they want to build, avoiding the time and ‘lost in translation’ issues of giving the work to a developer.

The advantages of no-code / low-code continue after the build phase of a project – it’s easier to tweak, maintain and evolve the solution in future.

Combined with the availability of free trials, no-code makes it easier for a business team to run a pilot project without the hassle of engaging help from scarce resources like IT professionals. It enables quick start projects. We want HR teams, procurement teams, finance teams – all enterprise teams – to feel they can adopt the same solution quickly and get results customised for their team.

Legito is a collection of tools, all designed to get work done with documents and business processes. As the number of features grows, a no-code approach allows us to put new features into the hands of users without them having to learn more complicated scripts or re-write old scripts to work with new features. No-code means one less distraction between you and your desired results.

Play with the solution. Try stuff out. Code has to be learnt, but Legito merely needs to be uncovered.

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