Getting the best hired guns - vendors for year 2000 projects - Industry Trend or Event

Software Magazine, Oct 15, 1997 by William Ulrich

Consulting Support can mean the difference between success and failure for Year 2000 projects. Accordingly, IT organizations should select their vendors carefully.

The fixed deadline for Y2K compliance provides little leeway for mistakes in vendor selection. IT organizations forced to switch vendors midstream are in double jeopardy -- they are already late in the project and finding a replacement vendor will be difficult because the best vendors will already be booked.

There are several ways to mitigate this risk. The first is to use multiple vendors. Another is to limit vendor selection to top-tier consultancies. These organizations depend on long-term relationships with their customers for future business and are large enough to guarantee access to project resources. A third approach is to engage the IT organization's preferred vendor(s).

Virtually every consulting firm with any legacy experience has entered the Year 2000 market. Even firms without a direct connection to Year 2000, such as client/server development firms, position themselves as a potential solution by recommending themselves as an alternative to migration. The style, cost, and level of service provided by a consulting firm varies widely by its type. Understanding the types of firms on the market enables IT organizations to select the range of services that best meet their requirements.

Tier 1: The "Big Six" and Equivalents

This category consists of the largest multinational consulting firms and outsourcers. These organizations are present in all major markets, offer a full range of services, and have access to enormous numbers of consultants. They are methodology-oriented and have strong, large-scale project management experience. Given their size, geographic distribution and long-term stability, they are well-suited to handle widely distributed century-compliance projects. These organizations tend to be quite expensive compared to their peers, but they're a good choice for IT shops seeking to outsource major portions of their projects.

Tier 2: National Project- Oriented Firms

These large IT-oriented consulting firms, which have thousands of consultants and a wide distribution of offices, have been the most aggressive in pursuing Year 2000 business. They tend to have the most experience in supporting legacy applications, and have project management capabilities. Firms at this level have Year 2000 methodologies and either their own tools or partnerships with major tool vendors. Because their pricing structure is significantly less than Tier-1 firms, they are a strong choice for larger project consulting and outsourcing for most IT organizations.

Tier 3: National Supple-mental Staffing Firms

This category comprises consulting firms that specialize in supplemental staffing services on a multiregional or national basis. These firms are generally not project-oriented, but can assemble a project team. Some have begun specific Year 2000 practices but most supply resources to their clients' existing projects or supplement the resources on projects won by Tier-1 and Tier-2 firms. They may have relationships with tool vendors or conversion factories. They are not suited for managing large century-date projects, but they are cost-effective for project work and supplemental staffing.

Tier 4: Regional/Local Con-tract Programming Firms

These firms specialize in placing contract programmers. They rarely have access to strong project management experience and are typically too small to have methodologies or relationships with major tool vendors. While some of the firms attempt to bid project work, they rarely have the experience to handle major projects. Their primary advantage is their ability to supply lower-cost resources to supplemental staffing projects managed by their clients.

Year 2000 Firms

Several consulting firms specialize exclusively in Year 2000 support. These firms tend to concentrate their services in the enterprise planning and assessment phases of the project, but they may branch out as their clients progress to implementation and testing. Although they gain considerable Year 2000-specific experience, they do not have the resources and national presence to handle very large projects. As a result, they are most useful in a horizontal, consulting deployment strategy.

Independent Consultants

A large number of independent consultants are entering the Year 2000 market, and the best can save IT organizations significant time and money in starting their projects. IT organizations are best served by engaging independent consultants directly rather than through a larger consulting firm. This practice enables the consultants to be truly independent in their recommendations. Independent consultants are a good choice for strategic planning, vendor selection, and ongoing project quality reviews.

Offshore Outsourcers

Numerous offshore consulting firms have entered the market. Indian outsourcing firms have received the most press, but offshore resources are available from Eastern Europe, the Philippines, and even the Canadian Maritimes. The largest offshore outsourcing firms have offices in the U.S. and staff their projects with a mixture of onsite and offshore resources. This geographic diversity enables these firms to take advantage of time zone differences to run three-shift migration operations. Given their cost structure and skills, offshore vendors are an excellent option for project work that can be easily packaged and for rarer technologies not supported by programming tools.