2. Partner Meeting Workshop
What does it cost to differentiate our offerings?
What does differentiated offering means to clients,
consultants and sales team?
What is the value of differentiated offerings to
clients, consultants and sales team?
What are the impediments to creating
differentiated offerings? How can we
overcome those impediments?
What types of differentiation will resonate in the
market place and why?
What are the top five broad differentiation ideas?
How do we operationalize these top five ideas?
How can we differentiate
global consulting offerings
in the market place
3. Differentiated Offering Context
Market Winning Factors
Offering
Leadership
Operational
Excellence
Customer
Liaison
- Domain based leadership
position in the market
- Leading perception as
innovator in Gartner’s magic
quad
- Continuous innovation in
disruptive tools/
methodology
- No leading cause of lost
pursuit (client/ engagement)
- Client retention/ repeat
business
Client Perception(1)
• Deep domain knowledge
• Pedigree CVs
• Depth and Range of coverage
Sales Capability
• Market intelligence
• Deep customer liaison
• Quick turnaround
Differentiation
Indicators
Consultant Capability
• Service delivered perceived benefit is
more than cost (client value add >
total cost to client)
(1) Extracts from Treacy and Wiersema, 1995
What does differentiated offering mean from the client’s perspective and from sales/ consultant point of view?
ImpedimentsContext CostValue Ideas
4. Differentiated Offering Value
What value is achievable when client perception is managed and organizational expertise optimized?
Value Realized Impact on Business Metrics
Repeat business
Market leading product/
processes for the client
ensuring enhanced
brand perception
Differentiator ‘KPIs’
Sales:
- Close coordination with
consultant to tailor make
solution
- Ready access to relevant
information at client site
Consultant:
- Solution relevant tool/
methodology
- Deep expertise in market and
solutioning process
Rapid validation of
frameworks/
methodologies built to
solutionize
Client:
- Close coordination with
consultant to achieve market
leading product/ alleviate
operational roadblocks
Hygiene in Client Engagement
Vendor led intelligent
association with client on
account of latest and
processed market information
Quick turnaround to client
Expertise in execution ensures
minimal product deficiency
down the line
Discovery env. facilitates
account mining and garners
more business opportunity
Operational cost
reduction on account of
continual innovation
Minimize pursuit loss
rate and optimize
resource util.
ImpedimentsContext CostValue Ideas
5. • Best in Class consulting
aligned with business goals,
optimal TCO
Future State Vision
2
• Define Future State with the
“Desired Vision” to leverage
benefits of the existing state
Differentiated Offering Cost
At what cost to the organization should we achieve the market leading differentiation?
Current State
1
Harmonization Plan
3
• Identify, prioritize and plan out initiatives
• Implement transformation initiatives
Capitalize on the benefits
of rationalized approach
to IT consulting
The roadmap will:
• Upfront investment will be high as change is implemented
• Additional capital employed in training consultants/ sales
• Outline alignment with strategic priorities and goals
• Leverage current abilities of Business Consulting
• Optimize TCO, Reduce/ Eliminate redundancy
• Introduce industry best practices and benchmarks
Future State
STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT FUNCTIONAL HEALTH
4
• Baseline processes/ methods
• Resource allocation plans
• Pursuit approach plans
ImpedimentsContext CostValue Ideas
6. Impediments (part 1)
What are the impediments to achieving differentiation?
Priorities Constraints
Change too early in
the process will
backfire
Change plan has to be
managed well to
achieve well
synchronized ops
Minimal invasive
procedures to ensure
change
Deep expertise to be
developed and
relevant frameworks
and tools to be
adopted
Facilitate quicker
turnaround
ImpedimentsContext CostValue Ideas
7. Impediments (part 2- Close the Sales Loop)
Client Sales (conventional):
Mkt. leading
methodology
to address
issues
Scenario/ Feedback
Based Learning
Deep industry
expertise and
Mkt. info
generate a
compelling
pitch
Client Sales (new):
Continual Skill Development
Deployment Ready
Enhanced Skill Map
ImpedimentsContext CostValue Ideas
8. Overcoming Impediments
Suggested grading of process step to be introduced/ eliminated
A process step represented by a bigger circle
positioned close to the origin is critical to other
process steps
Stage 1Stage 1
Cost
• Criterion 1
• ...
• Criterion n
Time
Quality
1
2
3
• Criterion n+1
• ...
• Criterion m
• Criterion m+1
• ...
• Criterion r
Stage 1Stage 1
Cost
• Criterion 1
• ...
• Criterion n
Time
Quality
1
2
3
• Criterion n+1
• ...
• Criterion m
• Criterion m+1
• ...
• Criterion rLeverage
existing
Decision Support
Implementation
A
B
C
Leverage
existing
• Can existing process be
leveraged completely?
A
D
D
D
Decision
Support
• How much of this activity is
utilized towards analysis
(customer info, analysis,
etc.)
B
Implement
Decision
• How easy is this to
implement?
C
Depende
ncy
• Size depicts the extent to
which other process steps
are dependable
D
We perform the above exercise for all process steps in as-is and to-be states to determine Set of process steps per
phase of the change in the overall approach to introduce differentiation
ImpedimentsContext CostValue Ideas
9. Are we there yet? Benchmarking
Traditional Emerging Intermediate Advanced World-class
Systems and
processes
The way sales resources
are deployed to meet
customer needs at lowest
cost
End-to-end process
Sales planning
Loss elimination, operation excellence
Maintenance systems. Processes
Quality systems, processes
Safety, priority on people management
Management
infrastructure
Formal structures and
processes used to manage
technical systems and
achieve business objectives
Organization design
Performance management
Talent management, capacity building
Continuous improvement tools, initiatives
Support functions
Capabilities, mind-
sets and behaviors
The way people think and
feel about their work and
conduct themselves in
their workplaces
Alignment
Execution
Continuous improvement renewal
0 1 2 3 4 5
Firm A Leader
ImpedimentsContext CostValue Ideas
10. Example of process steps in to-be state
Market Winning
Strategy
Optimal
Implementation of
Strategy
Clear view of Market,
Competition and Client
Deep rooted
understanding of the
issue
Real time access to
operations solution
and resource
availability
Client Sales Consultant
Strategy Formulation:
• domain expertise, identification of KPIs
and e2e impact of KPI on business value
• flavors of telecom domain strategic
objectives, know how of the market
(business angle), what strategic
objective to adopt
Strategy Implementation:
• tools enabling clear choice between
different flavors of strategies
• framework processing variables such as
IT portfolio lifecycle, rationalization, that
enable clear implementation of
processes, programs and software
• assess usability of application
• record of root cause analysis for
application level failures
ImpedimentsContext CostValue Ideas
11. Differentiation bid
ImpedimentsContext CostValue Ideas
Closing the Sales Loop:
• Mobilize sales: Depending on the extent of strategy formulation and implementation at the client’s end, the
sales team will liaise closely with the client contacts as a first step
• Pitch discovery: With the help of readily available information (Market, competition and client), the sales team
will recognize business perspective of client’s dilemma
• Perfecting the pitch: Again, sales will be accorded ready access to not only information about the client, but also
latest set of tools/ frameworks enabling a deep analysis of similar issues
• Differentiate: Quick t.around coupled with deep, accurate data will help differentiate strongly from competition
• Delivery: consultants procure buy-in of implantation plan and work closely to deliver optimal value
Catalysts:
• Partnership leading to complete alignment and coordination between consultants and sales
• Pedigree CVs as this has been proven to add to differentiation:
http://www.9lenses.com/why-consultant-differentiation-so-difficult
• Recognizing the client’s true need in the sales funnel
http://www.rattleback.com/differentiating_technology_it_consulting_firms
• Clear BVA enabled by utilization of leading methodology and tools. Helping the client visualize value proposition
http://www.slideshare.net/ParCon/introduction-36634755
