Fractional Tech Expertise – Defining The Need
Let’s face it. The term “consultant” is a dirty word. Well, at least it can be off-putting if you’ve ever had experience with contracting a consultant that kept on billing without any accountability or visibility for what they are billing you. In big business, this is unfortunately commonplace, especially when there is little or no contract performance monitoring in place. In my 25+ years in big business IT, I experienced both the pros and cons of using consultants several times over. So much so in fact, that I am often reluctant to use the word to describe some of our services. And as a practice, we don’t refer to ourselves, in any capacity, as a “consulting firm” to help avoid the stigma. We “do” consulting because our client’s need it and we can help.
In today’s business, across many disciplines including financial, legal, marketing, staffing, and technology, consulting serves a valuable purpose. But the classic “on retainer” model of traditional consulting (the origin story for much of the bad juju) is being displaced with a more efficient model - Fractional Consulting.
What is Fractional Consulting?
While there are many definitions floating around, Fractional Consulting is essentially “targeted” consulting, meaning the purpose of the engagement is clear, limited, and defined. The primary differentiators of Fractional Consulting are:
- Outcome-centric - the entire engagement exists solely to achieve an outcome,
- Transparent - the outcomes of the engagement are defined,
- Limited In Scope - bounds of the engagement are set to avoid unbudgeted activities,
- Measurable - the results are measurable in the terms defined outcome(s).
For example, a fractional staff augmentation engagement where you need a “C” level resource (e.g., CFO, CMO, CTO) on demand to help navigate your company through high-level strategy and decisions looks much different than a C type providing “strategic consulting on retainer”. In this case, the outcome is a “Strategy” deliverable which should manifest in a tangible document or set of documents delivered in a specific timeframe.
Whether your need is a specific strategic skillset in a discipline to augment your management team, or a project focused engagement, Fractional Consulting offers a risk-averse alternative to traditional consulting, allowing you to focus your resources and attention where they are needed most. Now, let’s get into some techy use cases.
Use Case: Selecting a Technology Service
A few months ago, we discussed The Technology DIY Trap , and how easy it is to get locked into a solution or toolset that, in the end, limits your company’s growth. In the tech world this is often referred to a “Vendor Lock-In”. Unfortunately Vendor Lock-In is very commonplace for small and mid-sized businesses because the vendors are very good at selling the whistles and bells of their products and services. They intentionally lower the barrier of entry to “hook you” into buying, sometimes even with free trials that offer less functionality. And if you can’t or don’t define exactly what you need in business, functional, and technical terms, the result is very often you buying something more or something other than what you really need. If the result is something more, the impact is often over-paying for the solution. But, if the result is something other, the impact adversely affects you ability to deliver efficiently, and scale as your business grows because you are “locked in”.
In today’s business, selecting a core tool/app/solution to run your operations has long term implications. Every business has some semblance of a CRM, Project Management System, and ERP system amongst others. If you can’t identify any of these it means you are doing it manually which may be fine now but will it be okay in a year or two?. These core tools directly affect your overall profitability, ability to scale your operations, and ultimately your customer satisfaction, which is the life blood of every business. Even if you define what you need in terms of what you understand, there are many aspects of tool selection that you may not have the expertise to predict. And therein are hidden risks to your success. For example, will this solution work with your other solutions? Is is secure? These appear to be simple questions, but rarely result a simple answer.
Often the first and most important missing piece of the puzzle is Requirements. The old adage, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” The requirements are the plan. The more diligence you invest into the plan, the more likely you are to end up with what you need. If you can map a solution to a comprehensive set of business, functional, and technical requirements, And that is where Fractional Technical Consulting is your friend- targeted expertise where and when you need it to ensure your requirements are comprehensive. Once you have these, your Technical Consultant can help you analyze which solutions will help you both now and three year from now.
Most small and mid-sized business don’t need or want the overhead of dedicated Tech Staff to run their day-to-day business. But it doesn’t mean you need to go without it when you do. And when you do, like you would hire a lawyer to defend you in court, hire a qualified Technology Professional to help ensure you get exactly what you need when selecting technology solutions to enable your business.
Wrapping it Up
At CMHWorks, we provide several types of Fractional Tech Expertise as well as fixed cost Technology and Security Assessments to assist you in reducing your technology risks, improving your efficiency, and gaining competitive advantage over your competition.
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