There has been a lot of disruption in the SAP HCM consulting market in the past couple years. When SAP acquired SuccessFactors and made it the focus for Talent Management functions, every SAP consultant working in that area suddenly became very interested in getting retrained. There has always been price competition, firms have emerged, split, combined and disappeared. Partnerships have come and gone – but the good ones survived. Independent consultants have flourished since the early days of the SAP HCM product, though it hasn’t always been a stable choice for some.
I’ve been consulting since 1996, and have worked with SAP HCM since 1993. I’m an old-timer, though I know a few older-timers. And while firms and consultants have come and gone, the successful ones seem to have two enduring qualities: integrity and value. I’ll talk about value first.
Consultants who believe they provide configuration skills, programming knowledge, or specific skills around a domain of SAP/SuccessFactors are missing a really big point. And clients who believe those are the skills they are contracting for also miss the point. The products really good consultants deliver aren’t only about the technical skills they have – that is simply the tool they use to deliver the product. The product is ‘value’ – and the client defines and measures that value.
When a consultant comes on to a project, it’s usually for a specific purpose: solve some problems! Value is created when we solve the problems in a way that satisfies the client. And the problems are most always larger than ‘configure the system’. It usually includes understanding the business, its requirements and culture and quirks, working with people to come to agreement on what to do and how to do it, testing the final system, change management, support, creativity and teamwork. The really good consultants do all that in addition to configuration and programming. Technical skills are a critical part in all that, but they are more of an enabler and not the product itself.
But even if a consultant delivers value, it has to be done with integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve found consultant resumes claiming experience they don’t have, working at clients they’ve never seen. I’ve seen consultants claim to write articles and presentations that, in fact, were my original work. Or those who stonewall and cover up when they don’t know how to do something (hint: none of us knows it all). Cheating on billable time and expenses – yes, I’ve seen that too. Saying that it’s OK as long as you’re not caught, doesn’t make it right. In fact, nothing makes it right.
A lot of this lack of integrity comes from two forces that have always been present in the SAP HCM consulting market: what I’ll call ‘body-shop’ firms and the lure of getting something-for-nothing. Body-shops are the ‘consulting’ firms that specialize in gathering resumes for open consulting positions, staffing them and taking a large margin on the consulting rate. Everyone in the industry knows the game – submit your resume with all the appropriate search-terms and the one with the lowest rate wins the position. So then the incentives are all working against the client – the ‘consulting’ firm maximizes their margin and the consultant stretches their qualifications to get the work. Clients usually end up paying for more than they receive. This model still finds a lot of takers because people like the idea of getting something for nothing: a well-qualified consultant at a low rate. People like to get a good deal, but more often than not this turns out to be a low-value, bad deal for clients.
Value and integrity – two traits for consultants to pursue that will lead to a successful career regardless of the technology disruption, and two traits for clients to look for in consultants who can help them be successful.
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