Implementation Consulting
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An Implementation Consulting firm helps clients (typically businesses or governments) carry out a process they need help with. This differs from “Management Consultants” (who usually give business-strategy advice to clients) because Implementation Consultants often actually do the task rather than just advise on it.
Additionally, the term “implementation consultant” is roughly synonymous to:
- Operations Consulting – because they help improve the operations of a business.
- Function-Focused Consulting – because they carry out a specific function or task for their client(s).
- Corporate Consulting – because they help corporations execute a certain process that helps them achieve their goals
- And sometimes it is a subset of Management Consulting – because Management Consulting is very broad and sometimes includes many types of consulting (depending on the firm).
Implementation Consulting firms tend to specialize in a specific service, but some bigger ones have many teams and offer clients a broad variety of services.
Keep on reading below to understand Implementation Consulting within minutes.
What are some examples of Implementation Consulting Services?
There are many types of Implementation Consulting Services, but below is a list of some popular ones:
- Market Research and Marketing
- Environmental Engineering/Management
- Software Implementation
- Firm-Wide Staff Training
- HR Services
- Economic Analysis
- Accounting and Financial Services
- Design
- Financial and Litigation
What do Implementation Consultants do?
A client approaches the consultants if they have a service, process, or task they need help completing. Then, the consultants help plan and then carry out these processes for their clients.
There are many reasons a client might request these services:
- Not experts in a specific area and would like a team of people that are to complete the task
- Do not have the time or resources to carry out a process easily.
- Allows clients to have a team of consultants working on a specific project that completes tasks more efficiently.
- Want an outside opinion or resource to help improve the current area of the business.
- Possibly cheaper to use consultants versus doing it yourself.
- Perhaps the client has a short term/temporary project and prefers to not hire a specialist full time, but rather a part-time consultant.
Who are Implementation Consultant’s Clients?
Before understanding what value an implementation consultant can provide, it is helpful to fully understand who their clients are that pay for their services
This varies depending on the specific consulting firm, however, clients usually fall into one of the following categories:
- Businesses (Fortune 1,000 Companies like Microsoft, PepsiCo, etc.)
- Financial Companies (Private Equity Firms like KKR, Carlyle Group, etc.)
- Non-profits (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)
- Governments (U.S. Department of Energy)
Businesses tend to be the most common type of client.
What is the difference between Implementation Consulting and Management Consulting?
Although Implementation Consulting sometimes is considered a part of Management Consulting, the main differences are:
- Management Consultants focus on strategy and business solutions for their clients, but do not usually carry out those solutions for the client.
- Whereas an Implementation Consultants oversee and actually “implement” the solution/process for the client.
Although Management Consulting is the more well known amongst the two, Implementation Consulting actually has more demand from clients. Why? Because companies tend to have more implementation projects than strategy ones. As a result, some Management Consulting firms are expanding into implementation consulting and take on those tasks for clients as well.
Simple/Real-Life Example
What is the purpose of an implementation consultant? Can’t these companies just do the work themselves?
A simple analogy is: if you are throwing a very large party and need to serve your guests, it often makes sense to hire a catering company. Rather than spending many hours preparing meals on your own, you can hire a team of specialists who can do it better, more quickly and possibly even for cheaper.
While these consultants are not caterers, they are specialists at executing a unique process often within a specific area of work.
Some Examples of Implementation Consulting Projects:
Environmental Engineering/Management:
Example: a local government wants to build a recreational center over a landfill. They hire an environmental consulting firm to properly handle the landfill to make sure it’s safe to occupy. Below are the environmental consultant’s responsibilities for this project:
- The city worries that the landfill contains chemicals that can trickle up through the ground and release harmful gases.
- The consultants carry out several weeks of extensive research on the landfill and potential solutions.
- Then, they design a mechanism/system to collect and clean gas underground.
- The rough drafts of this design are sent back and forth to supervisors until it is roughly complete
- Once the design is roughly complete (and you’ve done the necessary research for each component), use a computer aided software to run a simulation of dangerous gas emissions from the landfill. This allows the experts to predict how the current design will perform.
- The results of this simulation provide feedback on how the system’s design is and as a result, final touches are made.
- After creating a design and calculating necessary details, the consultants relay the information to the engineering team so they can actually execute the design.
- Finally, double check everything and consider all potential areas of risk. This is important because if you miss something, the recreational center’s future users are put in danger.
Market Research Consultant:
Market research typically means gathering information about the relevant group you want to learn about.
Below is an example of a pharmaceutical company using a market research consultant to help get feedback on their consumers’ needs:
- Create an online bulletin board for potential consumers to answer questions based on specific issues they face.
- Consolidate this feedback for clients to help them find gaps in current forms of treatment.
- Once clients have this information, they can offer product solutions to directly solve their consumers’ needs.
How Do Consulting Firms Get Paid For Their Services?
When a consulting firm and a client agree to work together it is called an “engagement”. Within these engagements, there are three main ways they receive a fee:
- Fixed Fee – Before working on a project together, the consulting team and the client agree on a flat fee, which usually includes an upfront down payment. Additionally, they will agree on specific “deliverables” or tasks that the consulting firm should complete within the given time frame.
- Milestone Based – The client and consulting team map out a list of milestones and how much the consultants will be paid for accomplishing each.
- Time plus material – The consulting team and client agree on a price per “billable hour”. Essentially, this means when a member of the consulting team does relevant work, they bill the client for the hour of work at a predetermined rate.
The specific payment price depends on:
- Which firm – more “premium” firms tend to charge a bit more for their “premium services”.
- Size of the consulting team – bigger teams (with more consultants), require more of the consulting firm’s resources and thus cost more.
- Length of the case – If a project will take more time, it will cost more to provide this service.
Why do companies need a Consultant?
Aren’t these companies, governments, etc. very large? Why can’t they solve their own problems?
Yes, they have a lot of resources, but solving these problems can be difficult and expensive and require subject matter expertise:
- Because consultants work on projects that take many months, allocating the company’s resources can be more costly than paying consultants.
- Furthermore, if a company is focused on running their business, solving their other problems part-time sounds like a poor strategy. However, having an outside team of consultants solve a problem they have solved many times before will be much more cost/time efficient.
Typical Consulting Hierarchy:
While this can vary from company to company, a typical path at a consulting firm looks as follows:
Some general examples of tools/methodologies an Implementation Consultant might use
This varies greatly, depending on which type of consultant you are. For example, Marketing Consultants do not use the same tools as an Environmental Engineering Consultant. However, some general tools that consultants often use are:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – Tools such as Salesforce, helps manage customer activity and information.
- Surveys Tools – Tools such as Qualtrics. Sometimes used for Employee Engagement Surveys which measure the extent to which employees feel engaged and valued.
- Market Research Tools – For research on consumer needs and/or broader industry
- Data Analysis Tools – Such as Excel and Tableau
- PowerPoint/Slide Building – For presentations
Necessary skills for a successful Implementation Consultant?
- Organized and efficient – Often need to complete a project by a deadline, so it’s important to work efficiently.
- Team player – often working in team settings with fellow consultants and your client to accomplish a group task.
- Communication skills – Able to communicate well with your teammates and your client is important to getting the job done well.
- The Specialization – For a more specialized implementation role, like software or environmental consulting, you need background knowledge in appropriate fields.
Some Challenges of Implementation Consulting?
- Repetitive work, especially if they are a specialized firm that does the same tasks over and over again for different clients needing those services.
- Depending on the type of firm, sometimes you need to travel a lot (Monday – Thursday) to your client’s sites/locations.
- Depending on the type of firm, operational work can feel a bit robotic and not always the most creative.
- You need to navigate and tolerate clients that are tough to work with.
Some Benefits of Implementation Consulting?
- On average, compensation is good
- On average hours are good (compared to many management consulting firms), but this depends on the company you work for.
- For specialized consultants, your colleagues are experts in the field which is exciting and a great opportunity to learn.
- Build strong relationships with coworkers, other consulting firms, and clients.
- For those that regularly travel, expenses are often covered (hotel, food, travel, etc.)
- Relatively quick promotions (can get first promotion within 1-2 years)
Should I go into Implementation Consulting?
If you have a specific skill set and/or interest that is available at an implementation consulting firm, you should consider looking into it further. You will get to work with experts within your specific area of work and will get to help clients accomplish their goals. Furthermore, as a consultant you build strong relationships with coworkers and clients.
As an implementation consultant, the work-life balance is usually strong and you apply your expertise to solving different problems for every project you are assigned on. For example, an environmental consultant will get to work on many different types of environmental engineering projects for their clients. Whereas an environmental engineer at a non-consulting company will get less exposure to different types of problems.
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