integration practice: how to make biztalk practice more profitable?
TRANSCRIPT
I n t eg ra t ion Prac t ice
How to Make BizTalk Practice More Profitable
Managing an integration practice is significantly different than managing integration projects
With it comes all the on-going challenges such as hiring, delivery, training, and transitioning between projects
Idea in Brief
Challenges
{ }1LOW LEVERAGE
•If your integration practice looks the following pyramid watch out
•This is essentially the problem of balancing the right number of finders, minders, and grinders (partners, managers, & staff/consultants) per project
{ }2PROJECT PIPELINE FRAGMENTATION
•BizTalk has become 15 years old & mature product and much hype around SOA (service-oriented architecture) has dwindled
•Thus, the maturity of the platform has resulted in a slow and fragmented pipeline of new projects
{ }3HIGH BENCH COST
Having to maintain BizTalk practice just to keep your foot in the door may result in the following scenarios
•Resources not billed 1500 hrs/ year/ consultant
•Difficulty in achieving 70% realization for each consultant’s maximum available time
{ }4SYSTEMATIC UNDER DELEGATION
No other habit harms a consulting practice profitability as much as the habit of high-priced
people performing lower-value tasks
It puts you (as a practice) at a competitive disadvantage. You may find it difficult to market
your firm as an efficiently staffed integration services firm
Solutions
{ }1PROJECT/ENGAGEMENT MANAGEMENT
Improving the net income per engagement through
•Properly staffing
•Rightshoring
•Insourcing vs. Outsourcing
{ }2CROSS-TRAINING & SKILL DEVELOPMENT
•Cross training also helps in achieving an important goal of target billing on average 1,500 hours/year/consultant
•Using experienced offshore partners to acquire BizTalk resources for 200-300 hours per year that will let you maintain a practice
{ }3BLENDED PRACTICE MODEL
•Establishing and maintaining close relationship with near shore and offshore partners to manage the infrequent workloads
•Local partners that have an established/new practice in BizTalk
{ }4 EFFICIENT SCHEDULING OF PROJECTS
•Integration projects are difficult to manage
•You can pad your project’s schedules. This is to say that a 6 weeks project can be negotiated as a 10-12 weeks project
•This allows the practice lead to improving the realization of each resource on the team
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