Why Big Consulting Firms Cannot Do Software Selection

Conflicts of Interest

Big consulting companies have major conflicts of interests with regards to software selection. The major reason for this is software selection is so often performed by the same company which is positioning themselves for the implementation work. Software selection projects are short, while implementations projects are long and lucrative. Secondly, big consulting companies are heavily tilted in their resources towards the big applications like SAP and Oracle. This gives a direct incentive to recommend software for which they have available consultants. This is the real reason that it is so unusual for a big consulting company to push an often superior “third-party solution.”

Lack of Concern for the Client

In our experience the large consulting companies have either very little or zero concern for whether the selection results in a decision that is the best one for the client. We have found their disregard for their clients shocking, however, the big consulting companies have a tremendous sense of entitlement. They often feel and act as if using their large consulting brand in this way is their privilege. Partners who bring home long multi-year projects in one of the vendors that the consulting company staffs are successful, those that do not will not be partners for very long. In fact, those with that predisposition will be weeded out far before they are up for evaluation to promotion to partner.

How We Work Differently

We are an independent company and do not have a partnership structure to report to or junior consultants that we need to staff. This allows us to offer an honest appraisal of the software that will best fit your needs. Secondly, we maintain a strong research capability, which most of the big consulting companies lack, and we have analyzed so many applications that it is very easy for us to analyze new ones quickly.