General Consultant Discussion

Did anyone go to this SLA event that I think was just held? I presume not as I think that I may have asked for feedback. Either that or it was terrible and nobody wants to fess up?

I tried to attend and register, but no one would take my money. i thought it might be really good.

@JerryNorman attended. I think he got a bit out of it.

My business partner Gary Crouch attended. Overall, he thought it to be worthwhile. The Clift Note version is that Rob and Ed are anticipating the resell business is going away and thing will revert back to a consulting focus, rather than purely focused on software. They recommend concentrating on your strongest customer relationships and building new services relative to technology, business processes, software selections, reporting , business intelligence, etc. These are the things we do that bring value that aren't tied to software margins. I think what we have here at 90 Minds supports that concept of taking care of our needs that is not dependent on the publisher.

Just got this recap in my email...

I went and I thought it was more than worth the time and $$. For those of us who have been living the journey to ""Firm of the Future"" it wasn't earth-shaking, but much it was helpful for me in seeing better a path to get out of the ""ERP Ghetto"". The point of the ""David & Goliath"" book is that a) headline ""facts"" are often wrong, and b) sometimes weaknesses can be strength. Rob Johnson did a great job of leading us through some thinking related to ""how can we change our business so that we create more valuable consulting for our customers?"" This is beyond annual agreements and Pricing On Purpose projects. Part of this will come from ""Asking Great Questions"" as Ed Kless showed. Part of it is recognizing that there is probably significant value that is not directly involved with our main current purpose with them that we can offer to customers. Partly as a result of this thinking, I had a 1-hour conversation with @JohnHoyt (another attendee) today exploring the possibility of his getting involved with Marketing Automation effort with his current customers. The SLA Retreat was at least as good as the Feb MOTM, in a similar, but also significantly different way.

I attended the SLA conference - my first one, since I missed last fall. As most know, it is a different type of group with emphasis on management, our organizations and strategy, of course. The Day 1 presentation was built around David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell with parallels of this and similar stories to our situations and how to succeed even if we are the small guys. Rob Johnson's message to us was ""If any of your revenue comes from a software publisher, you are in trouble."" We in 90 MInds I feel have been on top of this, so we are prepared fot the alternatives. I, for one, believe there is a great deal of potential as consultants with little or no dependency on publishers. So the message based on the book was to kill the dependency on the publisher and reinvent yourself - using innovation and differentiation. We also discussed helping customers with things other than software and technology. Part of this was two customers of one of the local resellers came in to discuss their experiences and what they are looking for. On Day 2, Ed reviewed how to ask questions and the best and worst questions. We also had a conference call with Laura Lorenz of Leading Results that runs the Sage Marketing Academy. She reviewed the state of marketing today and what is working - very valuable tips. Next conference is in Portland in October.

I don't know the answer to this but after all the margin is gone (and I agree it will be) and license prices can't be raised any more (due to competition) what will be the pitch? Sell life insurance and leave the license and technology consulting to the software publishers? If you think about the insanity of this concept ""Come to a session and let us tell you how to get out of your business so that our employers can move into it

My perception is that Rob and Ed are really trying to create a partner agnostic organization with SLA. I just don't know if they are going to be successful given their day jobs. I see and understand the duality of the situation and at times, share your skepticism and/or cynicism. That said, I don't believe the message they brought is contrary to the writing many of us see written on the wall.

How about VARS mirror the publisher. If a customer wants service they have to be under a VARS own support plan which collects 100% of the money and sends none to the publisher. Hourly break fix not available. Somehow virtually all software publishers were able to adopt that strategy yet most VARS have not been able to and instead mostly wring their hands about how unfair the market is and how the VAR is the ""last line of defense"" and won't start to overcharge their customers even in the face of overwhelming evidence that break fix / hourly is a losers game.

I think all the publishers are looking at salesforce and thinking, ""I'm gonna do like they do!"" sf consultants make often very good money, and pay to sf for certs, but get no commissions. Now, I think sf is a unique situation. And sf makes its sales from a very, very aggressive (mostly inside) sales force. So I think Sage & Co are crazy if they think they can do this same model. So I don't think margins will actually go to zero. And I think we will continue to need a strong software brand (Sage 100, X3, Epicor, MS Dynamics, etc.) as a marketing hook. I don't think ""generic ERP consultant"" will fly anytime soon. That said, if we can't figure out how to deliver more value to existing customers (and get paid for it), I don't think the $$ will add up. This is what the SLA Retreat was about.

Wayne, that's purely a VAR issue and in insecurity issue. Too many of us have implemented access plans such that I don't buy into that mentality any more. We are responsible for driving our ships. If we aren't, blaming the winds is pretty futile.

I also don't think the Rob and Ed are pushing the publisher agenda. I really don't get the sense that Ed is regurgitating the corporate message. It seems to me that it's more like he is trying to be an oracle and let us know what the future brings and help us wake up. There are a lot of firms out there - small and large - still doing break / fix at an hourly rate and relying on their cut of the M&S dollars to keep their business profitable. I guess it's ok if you have a 3 - 5 year end game / retirement but it's not a long term model for success.