Technology Consulting by Prasanna

1. A GOLDMAN
SACHS SUPPORTED
STARTUP AT IIMB’S
NSRCEL
Career Conversation
Technology Consulting
by
Prasanna Rajappa, Mentor

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Agenda
• Understanding Technology Consulting
• Skillsets Required
• Critical Success Factors
• Career Growth as a Consultant
• Other Activities Expected of a Consultant
• How can MBA Help
• Preparing for Consulting Role
• Sample Case Study Questions

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What is Technology Consulting
Consulting Definition:
Business of giving expert advice to other professionals.
Technology Consulting Definition:
Business of advising businesses on best use of technology and organizing technology functions,
processes to benefit their businesses.

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Technology Consulting Pillars
Strategic Manage (PMO)
Architecture Implementation
• Business-IT-Data Strategy Alignment
• Capability Maturity Assessment
• IT Portfolio Restructuring / Prioritizing
• Multi-Year Capability Roadmap
• Develop Business Case
• Operating Model Transformation
• IT / M&A Due Diligence
• New Regulatory / Compliance
• Tech Debt / Risk Planning
• Legacy Modernization Planning
• Monolith to Micro Services
• Data Lake to Data Fabric
• Build vs. Buy
• Product / Tool Selection
• IT / M&A Due Diligence
• Digital Transformation Initiatives
• Business Analyst - Framing a
business requirement into a system,
data, analytics requirement
• Process / App / Data Discovery
• Business – IT Gap Remediation
• IT Business Management
• IT PMO
• IT Workforce Transformation
• ITIL (Service lifecycle)
Advisory services related to
technology strategy and CIO
/ CDO org’s processes
Legacy Modernization | New
Development | Technology
Rationalization | Structure &
Operating Model | Setting up
COEs | Business – IT Alignment
Recommending architecture
best practices for better
performance
Architecture Standards, Guiding
Principles | Establish Architecture
Framework | Product / Tool
Selection | Architecture Patterns |
Cloud Migration Architecture
Accelerate implementation
by bridging gaps with
technical, functional skills
Functional / process / domain
consulting | Business Analysis |
Requirements Elicitation and use
case / story grooming
Enforce discipline in program
mgmt. processes, mitigate
risks to successful execution
Project / Program Management |
Executive Status Report | Risk
Mitigation | Change / Scope
Management | Budget &
Resource Planning

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Consulting Types
Level
of
Abstraction
Premium
What should be our objective over
the next 3 years?
Where should we be headed to
achieve investor expectations?
Management Consulting
What capabilities do I need to
achieve those targets?
How do I achieve my management
targets?
Process / Technology Advisory
How do I simplify my system
landscape?
What should be my architecture
to build those capabilities?
Process / Technology Architecture
I need skills to implement and
manage the implementation
Process / Technology Implementation
Security Audit & Recommendations
Compliance Audit & Recommendations
…
Niche Skills
Low
High
High

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Technology Consulting Examples… (1/2)
Guess the consulting pillar (Strategic | Architecture | Implementation | PMO):
• A multi-national FMCG invested on data and analytics initiatives locally in multiple BUs. CIO
decides to centrally oversee and govern data investments. Consulting firm is invited!
• A banking company has undertaken a data warehouse migration activity. The progress is very
sluggish, new business requirements are put on hold leaving business unhappy. A consultant is
invited to provide a point of view by the program owner!
• A VP of an organization has put together a proposal for investment to modernize their Supply
Chain Analytics solution. The CIO is not fully convinced. VP hires a consultant to help!
• Manufacturing company ‘A’ has acquired another manufacturing company ‘B’. ‘A’ is going
through an ERP migration and is 50% complete. ‘B’ is going through an ERP upgrade and is
65% complete. The CFO wants to have a POV on the ERP strategy for the New Co AB?
• A global organization is splitting into two companies. There is a whole bunch of initiatives to be
planned and executed to get to successful Legal Day 1. The CFO requests a consulting firm to
oversee the planning for split-up!

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Technology Consulting Examples… (2/2)
Guess the consulting pillar (Strategic | Architecture | Implementation | PMO):
• A VP of a Retail Group requires a Point of View (POV) on applying AI top optimize their supply
chain process. You have been hired as a consultant to put together a POV!
• A global beverages company uses SAP HANA – Sales and SCM data, SAP BO, and SAP
Analytics. The consumers are Sales and Finance team. The company has been using it for 4-5
years now and the users are not happy about it. Your company has been invited to help!
• A famous telco is going through a major digital transformation. There are multiple technologies
and multiple teams involved, and there is a lot of coordinated effort required. Your firm has
been roped to help!
• A famous international airport would like to implement AI driven solution to implement airport
safety features and they reached out to your firm to put together a proposal.
• A national insurance company would like to improve their fraud analytics on claim processing.
You have been hired as a consultant to achieve this.
• A retail bank would like to build an analytics model to underwrite customers on loan processing.
You have been hired as a consultant.

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• Structured problem solving
− Focus on how to solve the problem, than actually solving the problem
− Socratic Method: Current State | Target State | Gaps | Roadmap | Mobilize
• Look at things holistically
− Not supposed to solve a tactical problem
• Ability to understand and talk the language of both technology and business
− Experience in business domain (Manufacturing, Insurance, Banking, Telco)
− Experience in specific process / functional area (supply chain, analytics, full stack development, data engineering, quality)
− Experience in building technology solutions / SDLC
• Ability to talk the language of executives / SVPs
• Ability to look at a problem objectively, analytically and not looking to arrive at a solution immediately
− Hypothesis driven problem solving
− 80:20 rule
− Data driven decision making
Skillsets Required… (1/2)

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Skillsets Required… (2/2)
• Lots and lots of listening and information processing
• Ability to get on to good conversations with any one
• Storytelling
− Framing the problem | Delivering the solution | Why, What, How | Inductive vs. Deductive Method | Horizontal vs. Vertical
− Keep it simple. One framework or principle around which the entire story is developed
− Avoid negative keywords: lack, ad-hoc, missing, does not exist, absent, etc.
• Power points and Excel Files

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Critical Success Factors
• Get ready for a life-style change – Lunch / Dinner / Travel
• Extremely Reactive – Fire drills
• More and more time before the customers
• Building relationships and network within and outside your organization
• Continuous reading developing strong point of view on technology and domain trends
• Story telling
Clients sell projects to consulting firms purely based on their relationship and trust with a specific
firm
How to Develop the Trust or Belief?

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Career Growth
• Designations and positions may vary, but the usual path is finally towards a Partner or Director
• In some firms – partners and directors are the principal sales person. Some companies might
have dedicated sales team
• Consulting teams are usually small in size with a group 3 – 8 people. Business Analysts and
PMOs can work as part of a bigger team, but the core team size will be small
• Building relationship or growing network is critical for a successful consultant

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Other Activities
• Support in Pre-Sales / Business Development Effort
• Thought Leadership – CIO Wired, Books, Trends, Articles, Interviews, Points of Views (POV)
• Knowledge Enhancements – Certifications, Events / Summits
• Asset Development
• Partnership / Tools Evaluation / GTM Strategy
• Practice Support – Mentoring, Hiring

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How can MBA Help?
• Spreadsheet Model – highly recommended for aspiring consultants
• Strategy – understand and define it in your own words
• Finance and Accounting – annual statements, NPV, ROI, Cash Flow Analysis, etc.
• Operations – achieving efficiency vs. effectiveness (E.g., should IT be efficient or effective?)
• OB and HRM – understand organizational inertia, value system, people resistance to change
• Marketing – understand the needs of clients
You should connect all the academic framework together to solve problems for a customer

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Preparing for Consulting Role: Resume
Case 1: You do not have prior consulting experience, but tech background
Look for transferrable skills from your prior experience and build your resume (avoid chronology listing):
• Structured Problem Solving: Business Analysis, Analytical Skills, … something out of your way to solve a challenge
• Technology Solutioning: SDLC, Tech / Cloud skills, Specific Product Skills, SQL, Analytics / ML
• Firm Initiatives: Org contributions in addition to your primary work… hiring, presales, training, mentoring, books,
articles, POVs, patents
• Domain / Functional Skills: E.g., payment systems, supply chain optimization, digital transformation, industrial
automation, analytics, design thinking, etc. Add any market research, benchmarking work if you have done
• Co-Curricular, Extra Curricular Interests: Sports, Arts, Certifications
Look at the JD and align your prior experience to that
Case 2: You are from a non-consulting and non-technology background
Look for transferrable skills (as listed above) from your prior experience and build your resume (avoid chronology listing):
• Do additional preparation to fill-in your gap on cloud / analytics / any other relevant product (project, certification)
• Overweigh your tech setback with deep functional knowledge you have gained through experience and how you have
solved some real-time business problems using technology, specific tools you have extensively used as an end-user
Look at the JD and align your prior experience to that
Case 3: You are from a consulting background
Highlight your work experiences as a consultant (Chronological listing will easily work)

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Preparing for Consulting Role: Interviews
• Practice consulting case studies, build multiple frameworks based on problem areas. You need a consistent method to
crack cases
• Be ready to define keywords such as strategy, vision, mission, objectives, goals
• Analytics role: Be ready to identify data entities relevant for an industry, explain what is regression, neural network, etc.
• Digital: Be ready to define Digital Enterprise in your own words
• Supply Chain: Explaining efficiency vs. effectiveness, specific areas such as Planning & Scheduling, Inventory
Forecasting, Lean Processing and any tools you have specifically used before
• Be ready to answer why you pick consulting as a profession
Suggested links:
• Case in Point
• The McKinsey Way
• Sample case questions in company portals
• Read about TOGAF, ITIL Frameworks – they will enrich your knowledge and help build framework
• https://www.accenture.com/sg-en/blogs/blogs-careers/secrets-to-a-successful-case-study-interview-2
There will be 3 rounds usually: Attitude & Fitment | Case Evaluation | HR

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Example Frameworks

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Sample Case Study Questions:
1. Three-year cost reduction of 30% for a global i-bank
2. Growth strategy to achieve 3x growth in 3 years
3. Assessment for IT Strategy alignment with Business Strategy
4. Cloud spend / cost reduction strategy by 20% with a structured process in place
5. Cloud transformation plan for a client over 3 years from on-prem
6. ERP consolidation post M&A, there are 4 ERP systems in place post acquisition of company A over
company Best
7. Application Rationalization for large media customer
8. Developing an intelligent supply chain for a manufacturing giant
9. What do you think is the impact on Supply chain for a Digital Enterprise
10. A major credit card company is seeing reductions in card usage by its customers in a sluggish economy,
How will you as a consultant help decide if this reduction is because of economy or if they are losing
customers to a competitor

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Questions

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Thank You!