Social media and intranet case studies, best practices, & evolution by Toby Ward.
View Article  Who wants a job as an intranet consultant?

I've done some writing on the intranet consulting profession over the past few months.

 

READ:

10 things to ask your intranet consultant

Avoiding dangerous intranet consultants

How to hire an intranet consultant

Hiring an intranet consultant or manager

 

Now it’s time to put my money where my mouth is. My company, Prescient Digital Media, is hiring. Although candidates who live in Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, New York and Boston may have an edge, I really don’t care where the person lives if they’ve got the skills and the experience. The ideal candidate could potentially work from home.

 

Here’s the job description (feel free to poach this listing if your company or firm is also looking to fill a similar position):

 

Title: Senior Consultant & Account Manager
Status: Full-time Permanent (Part-time or Flex-time arrangement is an option)

 

Prescient Digital Media is a rapidly growing Internet and intranet business consulting firm. Based in Toronto, Prescient delivers strategic e-business consulting and planning services to organizations in both the private and public sectors throughout North America.

 

We are currently seeking a Senior Consultant who is attracted by the prospect of an exciting and fast paced work environment with great potential for career development.

 

Reporting to the Vice President of Client Delivery, as a Senior Consultant you will be responsible for managing all aspects of client engagements. You will employ superior analytical skills, proven project management expertise, excellent written and verbal communication abilities and a strong understanding of intranets and websites. You will be a member of a highly specialized team of consultants responsible for assisting clients to develop and achieve their business objectives for their Internet, intranet and extranet sites.

                                                 

Major Responsibilities:

 

·         Communication excellence: There will be a high degree of communication with clients and potential clients. Written and verbal communications will be one of your key strengths.

·         Engagement: You will possess the ability to independently and efficiently manage a project from start to finish with minimal supervision.

·         Analysis & Reporting: You will be able to gather and analyze client business specifics, as well as user requirements and develop detailed reports and recommendations based on this information.

·         Planning: You understand the intricacies of strategic planning, modeling and facilitation including research techniques and tools such as surveys, and focus group testing, and are able to effectively execute these practices.

·         Marketing: You will have experience in delivering powerful presentations and demonstrations. As well, you will be called upon to contribute web-related articles to Prescient’s monthly newsletter.

·         Teamwork: Knowledge sharing and collaboration with colleagues, as well as our partners and clients is essential to your success as a Prescient team member.

·         Business Development: Identifying opportunities to extend client engagements to help drive Prescient’s growth.

 

Requirements:

 

You will have a BS/BA degree or equivalent work experience combined with 6+ years of relevant online business and consulting experience. MBA preferred. Candidates must possess a strong e-business understanding and be comfortable dealing with senior management within client environments.

 

The successful applicant will have well-rounded, multi-vertical business experience; exceptional executive communication, presentation, negotiation, analytical and conflict management skills; and a high commitment to customer satisfaction.

 

The Reward:

If you are a self-starter looking for a challenging, creative atmosphere, then Prescient is the place for you. Our leading methodologies and innovative corporate culture keep us on the cutting edge of our industry, and fuels our exceptional year-to-year growth. We offer a flexible work environment with great career advancement potential. Compensation will be based on a combination of salary and performance-based pay.

 

Location is flexible and working from home is an option for the right candidate. Interested candidates should email a copy of their resume. No phone calls, please.

 

Please visit our Job application form if you wish to apply or to recommend a colleague.

 

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View Article  Avoiding dangerous intranet consultants

To hire an intranet consultant, visit Prescient Digital Media to see their intranet consulting services.

Intranet consulting is a relatively new discipline. Intranet consultants are far more rare than their Internet counterparts (although some double as both), but almost always have a greater business acumen than the Internet consultant, but less advertising / marketing experience. A big-five consulting firm has some very smart people with mixed intranet and Internet experience, but can be outrageously expensive.  

 

The IT consulting jungle is full of perils and possibilities -- and it's a fine line that separate the two,” writes Paul Chin in his Intranet Journal article Avoiding Dangerous Intranet Consultants. “You take the left fork and you get exactly what you're looking for; you take the right fork and you wake up with the IT equivalent of a black widow spider crawling up your back.

 

 

Paul describes the “five deadliest intranet consultant species” to avoid:

 

·         The Snake Oil Salesperson - Modus operandi: Snake oil salespeople push you to choose one solution over another too forcibly and enthusiastically without providing you with any legitimate justification for their suggested solution.

 

·         The Lonely Derelict - Modus operandi: Lonely derelicts don't seem to take their job very seriously, show little enthusiasm for what they do, act as though they don't really want to be there, and only accepts a handful of small jobs a year.

 

·         The Self-Proclaimed Idol - Modus operandi: Self-proclaimed idols are condescending, acting as though they know everything and you know nothing.

 

·         The Doomsdayer - Modus operandi: Doomsdayers love to expose all the so-called faults with your current IT environment. They're extremely negative and like picking at, and highlighting, all your technological shortcomings.

 

·         The Slacker - Modus operandi: Slackers appear for initial requirements gathering meetings and then disappear for days or even weeks at a time.

 

I have to snicker when reading these as I think many of us know people that fit into each of these categories. Fortunately, I don’t know too many “Idols” in the intranet space, but there are many of the others particularly the “snake oil salesperson.” Typically the ‘snakes’ are those with firms that list a number of ‘partnerships’ on their corporate websites (a.k.a. reselling partnerships where the firm in question is paid a commission to sell a certain off-the-shelf product such as Vignette, SharePoint or another software company). In other words, they’re not technology neutral or truly interested in finding the best solution for your requirements, they want to sell you software that pays them a commission.

 

As I highlighted in How to hire an intranet consultant, there are a number of things to look for when considering an intranet consultant:

 

Good:

 

·         Intranet client case studies

·         Detailed biographies with demonstrated project experience

·         Experienced individuals that will be assigned to your project

·         Client references with names and numbers (not just unnamed anonymous testimonials)

·         Detailed pricing

·         Corporate strength and documented financial viability

·         Proven and detailed project methodologies

Caution:

 

·         Only screenshots and mock-ups

·         One or two paragraph bios that focus on favorite movies and hobbies with a cute or too-cool-for-school photo

·         People on a list in some far flung office that won’t actually be working on your project

·         Unnamed and anonymous testimonials

·         Vague pricing ‘guess-timates’

·        Tiny shops with no documented financials (P&L) & no methodology documentation

 

RELATED READING:

How to hire an intranet consultant

10 things to ask your intranet consultant

 

Or to hire an intranet consultant, visit Prescient Digital Media to see their intranet consulting services.

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