Following the spate of software mergers & acquisitions (the buying spree by Lexis Nexis in particular) over the past several years, there seems to be an increase in mergers by consulting companies and a dramatic increase in web-based training. Why is this and what are the implications?
A major contributing factor, especially in the LexisNexis orbit, is that LN thinks there are too many smaller consultants and wants to take their business in-house, offering “startup services” (which do not, however, generally provide any customization) and basic, canned, web-based training. These differ from the services a consultant would offer in that they are “cookie-cutter” approaches rather than being tailored to the specific practice areas and needs of a firm. At the same time, LN has raised the requirements for “Premier” consultants such that smaller consulting companies find it very difficult to meet.
The practice of what used to be termed “paper consultants” is widespread in the software industry – you go to class, pass an exam and are “certified.” But when it comes to the real world, you are still relatively helpless about best practices, “gotchas” and tricks of the trade.
It is almost impossible for a solo consultant or a small company to remain proficient in more than a couple of programs. If a firm is using 2 or 3 programs and a consultant is proficient in all of them, there is a significant synergy because the firm can then deal with only a single consultant. This is part of the pressure that produces “paper certifications” – “oh, yes, I’m certified in that program.” In addition, there has always been informal “virtual networks” of consultants – fellow consultants you can call in for another program.
Most recently, this has led to the consolidation of small firms each of which specialize in one or two programs into a group that assembles the various programs. Tom Rowe’s “Out of the Box” consulting group was an early example. More recently, the “Affinity Consulting Group” assembles five firms that specialize in Amicus, PCLaw, Tabs/Practice Master, HotDocs and Worldox into a single entity. Similarly, “7 Second Systems” groups a number of Time Matters consultants with several Time/Billing/Accounting specialists. They recently took out a major ad in Technolawyer under the rubric “Can Time Matters really be Easy to Use? — WE DID IT!” Other specialists (such as Steve Stockstill or Ken Kennedy) function as “consultant’s consultants” – offering specialized services primarily for consultants.
The obvious advantage here is that a single phone call yields the result “oh yes, our group can handle that.” The potential disadvantage is the a given element of the group has little control over the quality of services provided by other elements. So a precondition for a successful agglomeration is that the various people and companies involved have known and worked with each other for a number of years (as with the Affinity Consulting Group).
A major contributing factor, especially in the LexisNexis orbit, is that LN thinks there are too many smaller consultants and wants to take their business in-house, offering “startup services” (which do not, however, generally provide any customization) and basic, canned, web-based training. These differ from the services a consultant would offer in that they are “cookie-cutter” approaches rather than being tailored to the specific practice areas and needs of a firm. At the same time, LN has raised the requirements for “Premier” consultants such that smaller consulting companies find it very difficult to meet.
The practice of what used to be termed “paper consultants” is widespread in the software industry – you go to class, pass an exam and are “certified.” But when it comes to the real world, you are still relatively helpless about best practices, “gotchas” and tricks of the trade.
It is almost impossible for a solo consultant or a small company to remain proficient in more than a couple of programs. If a firm is using 2 or 3 programs and a consultant is proficient in all of them, there is a significant synergy because the firm can then deal with only a single consultant. This is part of the pressure that produces “paper certifications” – “oh, yes, I’m certified in that program.” In addition, there has always been informal “virtual networks” of consultants – fellow consultants you can call in for another program.
Most recently, this has led to the consolidation of small firms each of which specialize in one or two programs into a group that assembles the various programs. Tom Rowe’s “Out of the Box” consulting group was an early example. More recently, the “Affinity Consulting Group” assembles five firms that specialize in Amicus, PCLaw, Tabs/Practice Master, HotDocs and Worldox into a single entity. Similarly, “7 Second Systems” groups a number of Time Matters consultants with several Time/Billing/Accounting specialists. They recently took out a major ad in Technolawyer under the rubric “Can Time Matters really be Easy to Use? — WE DID IT!” Other specialists (such as Steve Stockstill or Ken Kennedy) function as “consultant’s consultants” – offering specialized services primarily for consultants.
The obvious advantage here is that a single phone call yields the result “oh yes, our group can handle that.” The potential disadvantage is the a given element of the group has little control over the quality of services provided by other elements. So a precondition for a successful agglomeration is that the various people and companies involved have known and worked with each other for a number of years (as with the Affinity Consulting Group).
Hello guys!! the idea of consulting Firm mergers is very nice at the present scenarios, so that they can share knowledge and man power to achieve goals and targets. However, the Firms should have a good trust on each other otherwise the chances of failure of this idea is high. Nice post!
Posted by: Coupon l l | February 27, 2012 at 01:32 AM