A consultant is typically in a strategic planning position (although they can perform the work as well, I often do) as opposed to a contractor who typically has a defined work day, a defined series of tasks, and a defined process. Contractors are typically viewed as extension employees who usually receive a higher hourly rate in return for 1099 status and no company benefits.
True consulting work is infinitely more challenging and you are compensated for it. The idea that consultant's do less work is a humorous Dilbertized caricature but is not really accurate.
However, some consulting houses have charged consulting rates for contract work – leaving confusion and a bad taste in people’s mouths. Also, fledgling technologist – with little technology experience and even less business savvy, have been hired by consulting firms and billed out at $1,000-$1,500/day (U.S.) further damaging the perception within the industry.
When I had a small consulting firm, all my consultant’s were required to read Dangerous Company by Madigan and O’Shea. It wasn’t about technology consulting but chronicled the well publicized failures in management consulting – particularly in the ‘80s.
Same problem as technology in the late ‘90s. Every wanted talent and they paid very handsomely for it. Unfortunately, calling someone an expert or guru was a little bit premature. Consulting houses threw bodies at projects, not talent. Rather than tell the client they didn’t have any more experts and lose the business to another shop, they gave someone a title and billed for it.
Unfortunately, it still happens in both management consulting and strategic technology consulting.
I met with a company that wanted me to review several proposals they had for network upgrades. One had two $40,000 servers – “Enterprise Servers” The reason these were quoted is because, in meetings, the company executives had said they wanted reliable equipment in their “enterprise.”
The consultant selling the hardware/software/integration thought, “If they are an enterprise, they need enterprise servers.”
They were primarily file & print servers for 90 people.
I’m not against “Enterprise servers” and in talking to the “consultant” he told me he had gone through an 8 week consulting course when he started with the company. The bulk of that was identifying buzzwords to determine what to sell. Hmm??
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Oh yeah, there was a question to answer. First contract, take $40-50 US (I don’t know the equivalent) and let them know that the rate is really based on “minimum term/minimum commitment” – which is a fancy way of saying a duration of at least x weeks/months and a hours per day no less than y.
That way, if you are low, you’ve given a reason – the anticipation of more work.
I guess the meeting already happened but it is food for thought.
Matthew Moran
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Musings:
Todo esta bien.. Todo esta divertido (it's all good, it's all fun)
![[sad]](/data/assets/smilies/sad.gif "[sad] [sad]")
as companies like EDS and Accenture get all the goodies.