What is consultingware?

First I want to say that this is my attempt to define the environment that I work in today and create a model to work from.

Defining consultingware?

Ever sense I read the phrase, consultingware, in Joel Spoolsky’s book More Joel on software I felt that that’s the kind of company I’ve worked for. He defines it as

"Number one: if you ever find yourself implementing a feature simply because it has been promised to one customer, RED DANGER LIGHTS should be going off in your head. If you’re doing things for one customer, either you’ve got a loose cannon salesperson or you’re slipping dangerously down the slope towards consultingware. And there’s nothing wrong with consultingware; it’s a very comfortable slope to slip down, but it’s just not as profitable as shrink-wrap software."

Not a positive view but customers sometimes want a feature that no one else wants and that’s where consulting comes in to the picture. The difference from consulting is that a consultingware company has their own product or a product from a third party vendor that generates revenue for them that they implement for their customers. This can apply to department of a company and there can even be different departments in the same company trying to push different products.

An example of a product company that has utilized this model here in Sweden is the software vendor EPiServer who has built a business model that promotes consulting firms to sell and implement their products to customers by giving the partner company kick back , a customer can’t even buy a license directly from the company. The product is more or less useless from its original state and needs customization. Because of this business model more consulting firms will be tempted to go towards consultingware.

This should not be confused with consultware, software products that comes to life through consulting.

In the book The Nomadic Developer by Aaron Ericson this types consulting firm is called push the SKU consulting.

Why and when should you hire consultingware firm?

When you need a solution within a specific domain i.e extranet, intranet, e-commerce, e-learning and so on. Using a consultingware firm can add value to the solution by the experience they gathered on previous projects with the product and lowering the risks buy choosing a product that has been tested with other clients.

When using a consultingware firm with their preferred products the general consultants assigned to the project will normally have higher productivity then a general consultant due to the fact that they have access to knowledge of previous implementations and colleges that worked on similar projects.

You should be careful when working with a consultware firm when you:

• Need help to choose which product to use.
  They will normally recommend the product they use and they probably need more time to learn the new product which may cost you.
• Need help on another domain than the product specializes in.
  This can lead to implementations that try to adapt to the product and not creating the best solution. That said for integration purposes between two products a consultingware firm can be a good choice.

Here is a checklist that can help you choose a conusltingware, yes is the preferred answer:

• Can they give you a demo of examples that they have done?
• Are they "gold" partners? Are they listed on the product company's home page?
• Have they made an implementation of the latest version?
• Have they contributed with a plug-in or add-on to the product?

What’s the challenge when running a consultingware firm?

There are two major issues you have to deal with when you go towards becoming a consultingware firm. First of all you have try to resist the temptation to manage projects by how many licenses you sell. This is hard because you have no cost and still make money which sounds wonderful but it only last short term if you can’t deliver great solutions. The second issue is that you have tied parts of your success to the success of the product there for it’s important to spend time improving the product with add-ons and sharing them with the community using the product. Hosting events for the product local user group is highly beneficially. For each company that buys the product the bigger you customer base gets and the more money you can make.

How do you thrive in a consultingware firm as a consultant?

A part of your success as a consultant relies in your skills. So if the product your company is specializing in is successful there will be more work and your skills will become more attracive. Here is some advice how to achieve that:

• Contribute to the product community by creating add-on, preferably open source, and answering questions on support forums.
• Constantly challenge the product by trying new technologies and competing products to get inspired to create new add-ons.
• Join the local user group and go to meetings and share your knowledge and learn what others are doing.
• Have an constructive, open and honest dialogue with the product company to help them build a better product.