Implementation Choices
Should a "Big 5" Firm Implement Your CMS?
by Matthew Clapp
23-Dec-2003
I guess I’m an old-timer, in content management years. Much like dog years, content management years go by fast. A very common question I hear is, “on whom should I rely to build my content management system?” This is a good question, because CMS buyers can turn to the software vendor’s professional services organization (PSO), outside consultants and integrators, and their own in-house tech staff -- or some combination of the above.
I have the interesting perspective of having participated in content management implementations from within a boutique consultancy, a “Big 5” systems integrator, and from within the buying firm itself. There is a time and place to go with these different options and I will attempt to offer some broad generalizations here as just a general guide. Your experience, of course, will vary.
For many large firms seeking to implement a CMS, it is sometimes an almost automatic choice to turn to one of the Big 5 firms that already may be on-site for another IT project. These firms include:
- Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting),
- BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting),
- Cap Gemini Ernst & Young,
- Deloitte, and
- IBM Global Services / PricewaterhouseCoopers.
But even if your company is a perennial member of the Fortune 500, that doesn’t mean you need to go with Big 5 consulting firm to design and implement a content management system.
Where the Big 5 Excel
The Big 5 excel at technology strategy and process. Although more pure-play strategy firms (e.g. McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group) are well-known for their business strategy, they are still not positioned as well as the Big 5 to offer advice on technology. In fact, when I worked at Deloitte, we were often called in just to make sense of the deliverables that one strategy firm in particular left behind.
Big 5 firms therefore typically make the greatest impact at the early stages of a project, when assessing organizational readiness, helping with change management, and re-engineering business processes. Through time and practice, they have become particularly good at cleaning up the mess caused by another consultancy or by the company itself.
So consider paying a Big 5 firm for a 6 week engagement to:
- find out what the core business problems are;
- identify a suitable department to pilot the project;
- define new business processes to prepare for and fully leverage a CMS; and
- assess the impact to the business.
One of the biggest hurdles implementing a new CMS is understanding your company’s business process -- in CMS terms, your workflow. It always amazes me how many companies do not have this well documented. For example, how does someone in Finance or HR currently get content posted to the website? A CMS will require new changes to this process and ideally will improve existing workflow inefficiencies. Some parts of the revised process may be new, such as creating metadata for content. However, these issues can -- and should -- be ironed out before a CMS is even purchased. Depending on the size of the project six weeks may well be plenty of time to this sort of assessment.
This is partly because eager staff from the Big 5 firm will work 20 hour days to get the job done. (Another thing you can count on with the Big 5: short of Armageddon, they will deliver by the dates they promise.) In fact, this part of the project may be only a break-even (or perhaps money-losing) proposition for the Big 5 firm. But they will do it, and do it well, because they are after a bigger prize…
The Bigger Prize
The Big 5 -- or for that matter any major systems integrator -- really wants to perform the actual CMS implementation. That’s where they send in more junior staff and programmers (or even outside contractors) at nearly the same high rates as their experienced planning teams, thereby making real profits for the partner.
Also, there’s more than hourly consulting fees for the Big 5 at the end of this rainbow. I discovered this lesson the hard way.
My first project as a Big 5 consultant placed me at one of the world’s largest telecoms. We were designing an application architecture that included all the best and most expensive pieces of gear. I asked for a copy of the business case and, after spending a night going through it, I devised some simple ways to complete the project for much less money by using some open source options. Then I learned something very quickly: you will never see the Big 5 offer such a solution because major software vendors offer commissions or what the Big 5 calls “fees,” for recommending that vendor’s products. These fees frequently range from 25-35% of the software list prices, but are occasionally even higher.
It’s sort of a vicious cycle. Partners have little or no incentive even to investigate non-fee-producing options. Therefore, open source or lower cost, more out-of-the-box CMS solutions are rarely if ever offered as possible solutions. In fact, my experience found that more times than not, the Big 5 partner already knew exactly which CMS solution she was going to pitch before she walked through the client’s door. This was something that never ceased to amaze me, but the lesson here is to beware of software recommendations from any Big 5 firm.
Getting Unbiased Help
Of course, most consulting firms -- large and small -- have biases. Here are some ways to avoid becoming victim to biased recommendations, regardless of their source:
- Conduct an open and frank discussion with the consulting firm’s project partner about whether or not the consulting company gets a commission for the recommendation they make, and make sure the results of that conversation are codified legally in your contract.
- Ask whether the firm has ever implemented or even seriously considered an open source solution or a product from a company with whom they don’t enjoy a partnership agreement.
- Ask for references from previous clients where they’ve implemented the recommended technology.
- Not every CMS implementation ends in success (in fact, some argue that most CMS projects fail). Ask about implementation failures and how the firm learned from it. Some Big 5 firms are beginning to have more candid conversations about this. Deloitte has done some good work trying to level with clients through their Straight Talk series.
At the end of the day, you need to take firm responsibility for the software your company selects. Fortunately, there are excellent resources out there for a company about to make the content management leap. Look especially for unbiased research to help make an informed selection.
Other alternatives for implementation
Beyond technology strategy and process issues, I would employ a smaller consulting firm for CMS implementation, testing, and rollout. These implementations can sometimes go on for months and you do not want to be paying each consultant $300 an hour to do work that you could easily find a smaller boutique to perform for $100/hour or less.
Smaller consulting firms are eager to win your business and will usually offer a discounted rate just to get in the door. You still need to choose very carefully, because CMS capabilities range from excellent to awful. For example, some firms have strong engineering teams, but may be very weak on content management process and strategy. Be prepared to check resumes thoroughly and conduct your own interviews for placement. Unlike the Big-5, boutique firms sometimes rush their own staff interview and screening process, so the burden of qualifying these candidates may fall to you.
Many buyers decide to go it alone and send their own engineering and project management staff to training for “re-tooling.” I believe this approach is generally a smart one. Your staff will be jazzed to get the opportunity to learn a new and highly marketable skill. However, this path does have one serious drawback. A seasoned content management consultant brings very important knowledge with them that is hard to put a price tag on: lessons learned. They know what pitfalls to avoid and how to avoid them.
So the in-house approach works best when combined with bringing in a vendor’s PSO. Bringing one or two of these consultants on to work with or train the rest of the staff can be a great strategic move. These are often most highly skilled technical staff you can get. They know the product and have been there and done it many, many times before. You need to recognize, though, that the vendor PSO is interested principally in getting the software implemented, and less concerned about whether, at the end of the day, you are actually managing your content more effectively. So only take this route if you have strong internal project leadership and can give clear direction to the vendor PSO rather than vice-versa.
My Recommendations
There is no single project plan that will work for every major CMS implementation. However, I would encourage you to explore the following approaches:
- Consider investing in objective research before you pick up the phone to call in outside consultants.
- Bring in a Big-5 firm when you really need help understanding your company’s business processes and you require an overall content management strategy.
- Take principal responsibility for product selection and avoid outside consultants with conflicts of interest.
- Send your staff to CMS training (general and product-specific), and if you plan to run the project in-house, think about bringing in a couple of your vendor’s PSO staff.
- Call in a smaller technology company to complete the implementation when you need to outsource the work and want CMS-specific expertise.