.

[FelixDeCat]

...

 

[slugg]

Let me advise you to use spell check. I'll send you an invoice.

 

[Chess]

Let me advise you to use spell check. I'll send you an invoice.

BAZINGA :thumbsup:

 

[IndyColtsFan]

They are just a bunch of overpaid advisers.

You're paying for years/decades of experience more than anything.

 

[xeemzor]

Clients are just as bad, if not worse.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Clients are just as bad, if not worse.

I'd say "worse" without a doubt.

 

[meloz]

They are just a bunch of overpaid advisers.

If you / your business actually had any in-house competence, you would not need consultants in the first place.

I have more sympathy for consultatnts than their clients. It is the poor consultant who has to put up with the 'this-is-how-we-have-always-done-it-here' half-wits.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

If you / your business actually had any in-house competence, you would not need consultants in the first place.

I have more sympathy for consultatnts than their clients. It is the poor consultant who has to put up with the 'this-is-how-we-have-always-done-it-here' half-wits.

I'm dealing with that now. They have business practices that could be streamlined and really make no sense and capture metrics that they'll never use, but they still want them because "they've always collected them." Our initial charter was to convert applications from one platform to another and simplify them, but if anything, they're more complex due to client stubbornness.

EDIT: Also, my favorite request was to add a certain feature to one of the new apps that only one single person uses and very infrequently at that, at the cost of approximately 40 hours of dev time AND significantly increased complexity.

 

[xeemzor]

I'm dealing with that now. They have business practices that could be streamlined and really make no sense and capture metrics that they'll never use, but they still want them because "they've always collected them." Our initial charter was to convert applications from one platform to another and simplify them, but if anything, they're more complex due to client stubbornness.

Change management is always the hardest part of consulting. One of my coworkers has described the job as teaching industry best practices, incorporating bad design choices at the client's request, and spending the next 2 years convincing them why the industry standard is better.

Teaching smart BI practices to older executives(50+) is damn near impossible. They want to collect everything but never use it in their decision making. Those guys don't understand how computer work and never will.

 

[Jaepheth]

wow... haven't visited depair.com in ages.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Change management is always the hardest part of consulting. One of my coworkers has described the job as teaching industry best practices, incorporating bad design choices at the client's request, and spending the next 2 years convincing them why the industry standard is better.

Teaching smart BI practices to older executives(50+) is damn near impossible. They want to collect everything but never use it in their decision making. Those guys don't understand how computer work and never will.

In one case, they have existing Lotus Notes apps and have about 50 Lotus Notes views in many of the apps for "data analysis." We've discussed this with them and told them that 50 views aren't necessary in SharePoint; you can have a few baseline views and then click "Export to Excel" and you can slice and dice from there with pivot tables, etc. The client agreed. Weeks later, they asked where the 50 views were. We said "We discussed using Excel as your data analysis tool." A few weeks later, "Where are my 50 views?"

 

[xeemzor]

In one case, they have existing Lotus Notes apps and have about 50 Lotus Notes views in many of the apps for "data analysis." We've discussed this with them and told them that 50 views aren't necessary in SharePoint; you can have a few baseline views and then click "Export to Excel" and you can slice and dice from there with pivot tables, etc. The client agreed. Weeks later, they asked where the 50 views were. We said "We discussed using Excel as your data analysis tool." A few weeks later, "Where are my 50 views?"

Always get them to agree in writing for everything Got burned way too many times before to let anything slide.

 

[JEDI]

They are just a bunch of overpaid advisers.

hey man,, im being paid 6figures to surf ATOT right now, on your dime.
thx!

 

[Jeff7]

If you / your business actually had any in-house competence, you would not need consultants in the first place.

I have more sympathy for consultatnts than their clients. It is the poor consultant who has to put up with the 'this-is-how-we-have-always-done-it-here' half-wits.

"We want things to work better, but we don't want to have to change anything."



It's not just consulting.
<-- Engineering.

They want something new that'll be more efficient, but they don't want to move equipment around, or put in new wiring, or change the processes, or hire people with the necessary skillsets, or move around existing people to where they'll be needed.

The only solution left is Magic®.

 

[Ns1]

EDIT: Also, my favorite request was to add a certain feature to one of the new apps that only one single person uses and very infrequently at that, at the cost of approximately 40 hours of dev time AND significantly increased complexity.

:awe: :biggrin:

 

[uclabachelor]

They are just a bunch of overpaid advisers.

You should quit your job and get into consulting then. Work an hour and get paid for the whole day!

 

[KB]

EDIT: Also, my favorite request was to add a certain feature to one of the new apps that only one single person uses and very infrequently at that, at the cost of approximately 40 hours of dev time AND significantly increased complexity.

Deal with this all the time. I know its coming when I get asked.. "Can you make a button that when I click it...."

 

[smackababy]

In one case, they have existing Lotus Notes

Stopped reading right here. They are fucking idiots. As a person forced to use Lotus Notes, I understand how fucking awful it is.

 

[rh71]

my wife's company hires IT consultants who actually do the work that the employees don't have experience with... so...?

I see it as more we-know-lots-and-we-charge-more-since-it's-convenient-to-just-use-us.

 

[smackababy]

my wife's company hires IT consultants who actually do the work that the employees don't have experience with... so...?

I see it as more we-know-lots-and-we-charge-more-since-it's-convenient-to-just-use-us.

It isn't that they charge "more", as the reality is the companies have to hire consultants to perform a job OR train someone internally to do it. If it is likely a one off type of job, it is far cheaper (and quicker) to just pay the extra money to have a consultant do it, rather than try and train a current employee for the task.

 

[xeemzor]

Stopped reading right here. They are fucking idiots. As a person forced to use Lotus Notes, I understand how fucking awful it is.

Lotus Notes is, by far, the worst end user facing enterprise application. The UI hasn't been updated since 1993. Companies would save so much money by killing it off and moving everything to SharePoint. Sadly, we still use it for a bunch of our internal stuff

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Stopped reading right here. They are fucking idiots. As a person forced to use Lotus Notes, I understand how fucking awful it is.

Most of these apps are 15+ years old, back when Notes was still a semi-viable platform. Now it is just a pain in my ass.

hey man,, im being paid 6figures to surf ATOT right now, on your dime.
thx!

You know what they say -- there's a sucker born every minute and fortunately for you, they hired you.

 

[Naeeldar]

Lotus Notes is, by far, the worst end user facing enterprise application. The UI hasn't been updated since 1993. Companies would save so much money by killing it off and moving everything to SharePoint. Sadly, we still use it for a bunch of our internal stuff

Most companies don't want to pay the cost of moving that databases to SharePoint and retiring databases that could be retired etc... If it works the business tends ot not understand why they need to spend extra to move over. Never mind that as a nice as Notes was in it's day for databases, these days it's UI is as unfriendly as you can get for the typical user.

Edit: Not to mention for a lot of Notes Shops, it takes 3 years to get everything moved over as they are trying to do it as cheaply as possible. And 3 year long projects since 2008 hasn't exactly been popular.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Lotus Notes is

Stopped reading right there. Its IBM Notes, you silly consultant! :biggrin:

 

[cubby1223]

wow... haven't visited depair.com in ages.

My experience in consulting says it's one employee within the company who holds onto a key piece of knowledge who becomes threatened at any hint of a consultant (a.k.a. someone who can do his job better than he can, and can precisely pinpoint his faults in his work) and clams up into a stubborn ball prolonging the entire process, sabotaging the projects, so that this employee can remain the only person holding onto that key piece of knowledge, protecting his own salary at the expense of everyone else and even the company.

It's the company employees delaying the process, but it's the consultant who doesn't have the inner personal connections throughout the company who nearly always gets blamed.