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Professional IS Consulting - Coggle Diagram
Professional IS Consulting
Engagement lifecycle
Risk assessment and internal inquiry(pre-bid activities)
Are we allowed to do this work?
What could happen if we take this work?
Could we cause a significant outage?
Would our final report be given to anyone else?
Is the client reputable? E.g we could perform a KYC - know your customer, look up the news, parent company?, …E.g reputation (tabaco firm), conflict of interest
Do we have the right people?
Potential conflict of interest?
Legal issues?
Winning the work(proposal is a key method to win the work)
Review the RFI, EOI, RFT, RFQ
Determine client requirements
Identify who your bid team is
How do we do this work?
proposal
know your audience
who
The final decision makers will likely be senior. They will refer your proposal to functional staff for evaluation of technical aspects. depends to the clients about the technical level of the report, Are they technically-focused or -minded?If the client is an engineering firm, defence, aircraft, or electricity company then yes they will want lots of technical information.
What do they want?
What is the client asking for?
What is the best way we can solve this problem for them?
What don’t they want?
Do we sell the something they do not want to need ?
structure of proposal
Executive summary: broadly what are we going to do, how much is going to cost me, what is the impact and what am I going to get?
Introduction: introduce the contents of the proposal, and present the backgrounds nd scope of the work requested. Summaries the landscape of the proposal.
Our understanding of your needs: open the dialogue with the client by saying we believe this is your need to solve the problem. Focus on the problem itself. Do not just restate their text from RFT/RFP
Engagement methodology and timelines: how are we going to do the job, with what approach, and process, and how are we going to do it? how long will it take? Using Gantt charts, milestones. If in a shorter period, then you might need to put more resources into it.
Pricing and assumptions: the most important thing that clients care about. Total price, consider the budget that the client has in mind, discounts?, assumptions
Team CVs: organisation intro, people who going to do the job, the leadership to evaluate whether they are the right people in terms of skills and experiences. Build trust and confidence, to reduce the risk.
Similar work we have performed: if you did well in the previous proposal, they might give you a reference, tell your success stories, what were the benefits
format of proposal
Avoid clutter
A well structured proposal:
Is easy to read and navigate
Assists the client in properly evaluating the proposal
If you have detailed technical specifications then include them as appendices
Use diagrams and pictures to aid understanding of complex elements.
pay attention to details
Make sure you satisfy all essential criteria
Watch out for any price cap
You do not want to be knocked out because you forgot to include some requested element. Initial proposal evaluation will likely be done by functional staff as a 'box ticking exercise. These knock out proposals that miss criteria.
before you submit your proposal
Ask to meet the client
If you can walk the client through the major points of your proposal
Test their reactions
Good indicators for your approach, budget, team, etc
objective of proposal: make the shortlist - prepare for the presentation, contract negotiation begin
Prepare the response
Review, review, review and sharpen
Prepare for questions, and consultations.
Contractual negotiation
Negotiate scope and legal clauses governing delivery.
negotiation
what
why
strategy
win lose
lose lose
win win
types
"Take it or leave it" style - lack of flexibility
• What is involved in this situation?
• What factor is different between the parties involved?
Ambit Claims
Items being demanded - items are included in a list of items to be demanded simply as leverage against the other party. E.g i need these things and i will told you when I need other things. Example1: Union log of claims about work hours, break times etc
Example 2: Trade agreements, Diplomat agreements.
"Open Book" negotiation
What does this mean?
What is required between the parties involved in order for this style of negotiation to work?
emotions at negotiating
Micro expressions/ body langage
Story Telling
Trust and emotions can play a big part in negotiations
Present multiple options
Sign Contract
Confirm budget, time, resources
Delivery and project management
Performing the work
giving professional advices
part a. define and understand giving advice
types
vendor
trusted partner
expert for hire
trusted advisor
how do people buy product?how to convince them?
rational : done research, show evidence… the most common way buy consulting bc we typically go through formal tender processes.
Intincive: we did not necessarily intent on that but we buy things bc we think that is the right answer. From consulting point of view, we want client but fronus on instinct but the instinct needs to be based on our reputation as providing a good, reliable info.
emotional: buy something bc you like it. We want client like our our people.
b. communication and giving advice
Advising the Client
How do we start to bring all the information we’ve gathered and analysed into recommendations and advice?Particular type of communication style can be used to present this type of information to clients
Structured Communication Style
Situation – describe what is the current situation. E.g our online presence doesn’t appear to be enticing our customers
Complexity – describe the tension/ issue in the situation. E,.g our competitors have invested a lot of money developing their on line presence
Question – describe the question in response to the issue/ tension. E.g how do we regain the customers that we may have lost to our competitors?
Answer – suggest answer to ease out or mitigate the issue/ tension e.g there are several options
3 more items...
Managing advice
Expensive versus inexpensive
versus free: clients are more likely to act on expensive advice given by expensive advisors.
Surprising versus expected:
clients hate surprise! Surprises should always be ralsed tactfully and verbally with the client before broadcasting or publishing in writing
Evidence-based versus opinion
- hypothesis driven: advice always carries more weight if supported by solid evidence
Cost, benefit, risks
: advice is more valuable when quantifieid in terms of these factors
Some consultants like to use power statements
. E.g by installing this advice you will cut unauthosied access by 80%. This technique will improve response times to less than 1 second
Attractive versus tough
: bad news or difficult advice is best delivered verbally to the client before broadcasting to others or publishing. Give the client time to assimilate before expecting fast response.
Conflict with other company goals
: advice that conflicts with other client goals will likely be disregarded and may attract client dissatisification. E.g you suggest reducing costs by closing the client’s office in KL bc of low profits, but the client believes it is important to maintain a presence in major SE asia capital cities
tools: reporting writing
report format
Executive Summary (one page)
Introduction:
Your approach
Answers to key questions
Findings and recommendations
Roadmap? How to get there in steps
Include reasons and brief summary of alternatives considered (plan b)
Appendices:
tools: communication workshops
workshop preparation
tools: meetings
preparation
conducting meeting -speaking
Conducting meeting - Listening
tools: interview
types
Face-to-Face
Video
Telephone interviews
Instant messenger interviews
E-mail interviews
Conducting interviews
Individual or group?
What will your roles be?
Active listening
Notes and feedback
Kick-off meeting
Ongoing project management (timeline and task completion, budget).
Deploy Methodology
Close-out and QA
things to consider
Review of outcomes with leaders
Final Presentation
Steering Committee
Sponsor
Final iterations
Can include an internal legal review of deliverables.
Sign Off
objective for closing out
how do we know it is finished
Steps to closing the project
reports for closing report
important consulting skills
presenting skills: it fits in the selling phase, negotiation phase, project delivery phase... a powerful tool, that presents info, and tells stories to people in a variety of ways to deliver a clear message to clients about the problems they have encountered. Communication is an art.
designing presentations
lifespan of presentation
Beginning: Introduction: stick to the job you for which you have been hired
Middle: Present main argument with supporting evidence or examples. No new material in this section
summary, conclusion, Q&A
Research
Invent ideas for good material
What is the topic?
Business/ Project related
Working Memory
Redundant information, Reading and hearing the same words
Who is the audience?
, Audience size?Know the responsibilities of the attendees, If possible use name tags, Seek intelligence about your audience
Avoid "Death by Powerpoint"
What is the occasion?
What is the purpose of the presentation?
Design Decisions
Style of presentation, Length, Language, English, Technical language, Using the client's language and terminology to reflect your understanding of the organisation, Public service or government language, Commercial or private company language
Use of presentation aids
Slides (Powerpoint, Prezi, 2D or 3D)
Video (Vimeo, Youtube)
Audio
Does location support the use of AV?
Are you presenting demo of online system in real time?
presenting technique
basic elevator presentation
key purpos: brief
timeframe: approximately 3mins
one clear message
distills complex data to support this message :
captures audiences attention
prompts for elevator pitch
types of presentations
Informative Presentation:
Key Purpose: Balancing education with examples
Timeframes: Approximately 10 - 50mins
Goals need to be achieved by end of presentation
Audience needs to be able to understand a number of issues by the end of the presentation
This can be done with effective use of:Examples, Analogies, Metaphors, Jargon, Abbreviations
Enhance your ethos
Speaking knowledgeably of the topic and engaging the audience rather than read to them or repeat from slides
Complex Presentation
Key Purpose: Persuade and Advocate
Selling and raising profiles
Timeframe: 20 minutes
Persuasive with strong argument
not argumentative
Outline the problem & potential solutions
Goal is to gain overall agreement amongst audience
Delivering Presentations
Speaking Confidently....
reading vs speaking
body language
use of expression
Evaluating & Critiquing
handling questions
After we gather all the information throught our communication tools, we now focus on do analysis.hypotheseis driven problem solving is a technique - How we can use this as a way opening up a et of questions and exploring some possible solutions for the client.
. Process for hypothesis driven
Define the problem
Structure the problem
We can prioritise different ways
build workplan
conduct analysis
synthesise and recommend
. hypothesis statement
We believe that creating {this feature} for {these people} will achieve {this outcome}.We will validate this when we see {this result} impact our business in {this way}.
limitations.
validate hypothesis
problem solving - Really important part of consultants life, solving problems
types of problem solving
Structured problem solving:
unstructured problem solving:/ ill-structued problems
criteria selection
options
analysis
decision
action
problem definition
semi structured
problem solving stages
strategising
implementing
understand the problem
problem solving presentation principles
The cause - the issue that actually creating the problem
The solution- could be the final report or presentation
The Problem - understand your needs, give the change to client wither confirm that or to reedit it.
problem by nature contains:
type
process
domain
solution
tame vs wicked problems
dealing with problems, conflict and difficult people
Understand teaming and team mgmt , understand different personalities. Could be during the workshops
tools to manage conflict
Gain perspective
Help others gain perspective
3.Analysis first, solution second
Focus on the path forward