Daily Post 1305
POST COVID 19 PROJECT AGGREGATION
Whatever might the cost cutting and the consequent nature, quality, complexity, gestation period et al of the projects undertaken in the post Covid 19 world, for sure it would radically different from anything that happened so far. Riding high on the self proclaimed levels of professionalism and expertise, the consultants, system integrators and project management units have had a field day for long. Who was piggybacking on whom is not an unknown story! That the arrangement was superfluous is also a known story. Given the hard hitting nature of Covid 19, there is no way this arrangement can go further.
With the cash crunch already being felt the world over, when businesses, industries and practices are on verge of getting wiped away, how does these three hold on to their businesses and help the customers still find a meaning in their existence. All these were able to make hay as the sun shines for the inability / incompetence of the domain experts to perform their jobs, the owners of the projects handed it over to these officially created intermediaries. With the demand on essentials skyrocketing, the funding available cannot afford for all the three – Consultants, System Integrators and Project Management Units.
Lots of projects will vanish into the blue, lots funded not initiated would dry up and the worst even in the progressing ones there would insurmountable handicaps, financial and otherwise. Before these enterprises and professions also vanish into the blue, the survival mantra is of one single competent technical enterprise aggregating Consultancy, SI and PMUs job into one, bringing in quality, pace, accountability and meticulous execution to the projects. Cost will go down drastically in this manner, a must for cash crunched times. Who would able to pay three times for nearly the same job or the continuation of it.
What has to change radically is the approach to ownership of the project and whatever come may to deliver on time, quality and price. If this does not happen, even this great aggregation model will meet failure at its best and at its worst it might not be able to take off at all. We are entering into the harshest times projects have ever experienced in human existence, the judgement of the project work will also be the harshest. There would be no second chance. What was taken as normal till the other day, may be treated as hoodwinking and can also become tantamount to criminal beach of trust or criminal conspiracy. The context will decide your acts.
THE CONSULTANTS CAN’T CONSULT EVEN THEMSELVES TODAY.