All tagged consulting
On December 12th, I moderated the #securityinsiderchat on Twitter, where more than twenty cybersecurity experts gathered to discuss their predictions for 2018. It’s always a pleasure and a privilege to learn from a diverse gathering of people and to read their ideas over the course of nearly 300 tweets. Plus, it’s an excellent opportunity to post animated cat gifs in the context of work.
When planning any migration or deployment of new technology, businesses should carefully consider the best way to communicate the intent and need of the new technology to those users affected by it, as well as to those who work in supporting roles. This article will examine the effects of communication (and lack thereof) on two different client projects.
Consulting firms can suffer irreparable damage to their reputation if they lose client data due to a cybersecurity incident. This article examines the current threat landscape and provides strategic guidance to prevent professional services firms from becoming the next breach statistic.
This article discusses how businesses can apply three fundamental best practices for adapting current security programs to mitigate insider threats as applications and data migrate to the cloud.
Attitudes towards remote professional services engagements have changed as technologies have improved to encompass screen sharing, audio, and video. However, there is a persistent myth from the Marissa Mayer school of management theory that work can only happen when people are physically together. This article explores where many common types of professional services can be delivered.
Like sailors who can feel a storm brewing on a calm day, most consultants can sense a train wreck pending in an ITIL change control meeting. This article discusses a proactive communications best practice for avoiding or reducing the odds of contentious meetings after the fact.
Last night, I gave a presentation on the quote to cash process at the IEEE Consultants Network in Vancouver, Canada. My favorite audience question was, “how would you recommend a firm start encouraging our professional services managers to look under the couch cushions?”
“Going under the couch cushions” is my semi-joking name for a strategic backlog review. I have children, and there are only two things I find under my couch cushions: spare change, and messes that need cleaning up.
In professional services, the spare change you find in the backlog comes from those customers with an odd number of hours left and an open Statement of Work
Many times they only have a vague sense of what is in the Statement of Work. After all, the Statement of Work is a contract. And contracts must be for attorneys, not project managers, and certainly not for technical staff.
“Our new manager has a background in finance and is an external hire to the firm. It is all about billable rates and utilization now, not doing what’s right for the client. What do you think I can do?”
Several years ago, I worked as a senior consultant at an embedded Professional Services Organization (PSO). Our team developed business processes and technical solutions that saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. We received no recognition from executive management, and it took time and distance for me to understand how to avoid the same fate for my current team.
Just under a year ago, we started a web series at work for our senior consultants to work directly with clients in front of a live audience on YouTube. I’ve learned some things along the way that might help similar Professional Services organizations in their social media marketing efforts. Called, “the show,” the intent was to do something more ambitious than a dull vendor teleconference.
I thought about our old customer survey process in the course of preparing for upcoming staff reviews. The old process consisted of sending a customer a short email and a link to a five question survey. If the customer hadn't replied within a week, we sent them a reminder about the survey. The email addressed the customer by name and included my phone number in case the customer wanted to speak to me. The customer survey used the Netflix rating system, which is a five point rating scale ranging from "I hated it," to "I loved it." This isn't a unique process. We recently chose to replace it with a process we feel will be more effective.
The team I support deals in matters of regulatory and security compliance. We have specific competencies in privilege management and auditing of privileged users. It's an honor to be the trusted advisors to Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies.
