8/22/2007

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The IT consulting jungle is full of perils and possibilities -- and it's a fine line that separate the two. You take the left fork and you get exactly what you're looking for; you take the right fork and you wake up with the IT equivalent of a black widow spider crawling up your back.

Unfortunately, not every organization has the luxury of in-house IT personnel capable of whipping up programs on demand. Smaller companies or companies without technical staff might have to rely on external consultants to build their intranet. It's vital that you choose the right consultant with whom to bestow this responsibility.

In order for them to do their job, an intranet consultant might need to work on-site and require access to sensitive company information. A lot of trust must be placed on that person or team, so you better know who you're dealing with before you open the doors to your company's intellectual property and security infrastructure.

Here are the five deadliest intranet consultant species to avoid:

The Snake Oil Salesperson

Modus operandi: Snake oil salespeople push you to choose one solution over another too forcibly and enthusiastically without providing you with any legitimate justification for their suggested solution. They will attempt to steer you to a particular product or technology regardless of whether it suits your intranet and business needs. Even if their recommendations aren't compatible with your current IT environment, they will try to convince you that a few tweaks here and there is all that's needed.

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Field notes: Your intranet consultant must be vendor and technology neutral. It's their responsibility to understand how your business works, to listen to your requirements, and to come up with a feasible solution based on your existing IT infrastructure. And unless your current infrastructure is highly flawed or outdated, your consultant shouldn't tell you that you have to make drastic changes in order to implement an intranet. An intranet consultant needs to work in your best interest not for some vendor that's providing financial incentives to peddle their wares.

The Lonely Derelict

Modus operandi: Lonely derelicts don't seem to take their job very seriously, show little enthusiasm for what they do, act as though they don't really want to be there, and only accepts a handful of small jobs a year. Certain species are even seen using out-of-date technology because they can't be bothered to keep up with changes in industry standards or expanding their own skillset. It's believed that the lonely derelict is a distant cousin of the Maytag repairman.

Field notes: The manner in which intranet consultants treat their own business is a good indication of how they will treat your business. It's best not to entrust your corporate intranet to consultants who seem ho-hum about their own business because that attitude will carry over onto to the work they do for others.

In addition, an intranet consultant's client list should be proportional to the number of years they have been in business. If they have been in business for three years and you're only their second client, something's wrong. While an extensive client list isn't always an accurate indicator of consultants' services and performance, it can be a good sign that they're doing something right.

The Self-Proclaimed Idol

Modus operandi: Self-proclaimed idols are condescending, acting as though they know everything and you know nothing. They walk around with holier-than-thou attitudes and believe that you should be grateful simply to be in their magnificence. They expect a red carpet under their feet, rose petals on their workstation, and all their peons to bow before them. They tell you what you need rather than ask you what you need. They don't like to be questioned because they know what's best for you -- period.

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