Consultants Do It Longer…for no good reason

I understand that a consultant needs to provide some demonstrable reason for their existence. As one who spends time consulting on a variety of projects, I completely understand this desire. But why can’t those things be reflected in the work they do? Why is there a need to create eighty-page reports to discuss what’s wrong with a site and what can be done to change it, especially when all of the information in the report is 1) redundant and 2) hardly rocket science?

The second one I have the answer for. Part of that is, if there is no one in-house able to identify these things, they’re important to bring up. But if a client asks you for an assessment and recommendations, to spend energy and time to tell them that “here’s what we think is wrong and here’s what we’ll do if you hire us” is a bit silly. The client isn’t asking you to do it. They might later, but they’re asking you to help them assess strategy and to make recommendations objectively.

I know that’s asking a lot. To say “please give me recommendations and I’ll ask your competitors to do it.” But what happened to serving the customer well and if you do, eventually getting rewarded for that?

In an era where everyone is an expert at something, people need to dig deep and really assess how they’re treating their clients. Everyone has to eat, I get that. But why waste people’s time with assessments that fail to assess, with surveys that don’t produce demonstrable results or site visits that don’t answer questions.

You can get away with cute IT tricks when you’re an in-house IT person. That’s what they’re trained to do and everyone expects that. But when you’re being paid as a hired gun to come in and solve issues and problems, you should come in and make it look easy. Make it go faster than they expect, make it go smoother and take up less of their time.

Things are already complicated enough in institutional environments. Whether we’re talking academe, government or other bloated ships out there, no one really wants someone else to come in and make life more miserable. Even if the outcomes are better than what they have, I’ll be pleased to see when experienced firms out there are spending more time on the product and presentation, rather than the dollar signs they get regardless of whether they try or mail it in.

Tying Up Loose Ends: On the way out

As I’ve alluded to, but haven’t discussed until now publicly I’m leaving my job and headed to a new one in a week or so.

I’m proud that we implemented the college’s first CMS ever and we’re on the cusp of another CMS project later this year just for admissions. Financial aid, admissions and scholarship applications are all online and as a result, it’s contributing to increased traffic to the web site. The news archive and additions of podcasts and video have also been great. It’s the best looking site in the state and once it gets to Phase 2 later this year, it’ll be even better. It went a lot faster than I expected it to honestly.

I will say that every institution is different, but I’ve enjoyed the opportunity and the challenges that come with working at a two-year institution. There are a host of very specific issues that come from this environment that don’t necessarily have a lot of discussion. Most of these come from the inherent difficulties in working in understaffed environments where there are considerations coming from all sides, split positions where the roles aren’t clearly delineated and a lack of desire by those in power to alter those roles because it would require an entire reorganization of personnel resources.

This isn’t just a community college problem. Some colleges have gotten in front of this and others have failed miserably or ignore it completely. Just slapping a title on someone and expecting them to fulfill a role related to new media or technology isn’t enough. There need to be institutional resources devoted to reworking college marketing and recruiting areas to be integrated with new media. Some schools have counselors devoted to it and I’m sure they can speak to their roles and the importance/benefits of their existence, but I think in the not-too-near future, we’ll have entire New Media marketing offices at colleges at are somewhere at the intersection of admissions and pr/marketing.

I have no idea where that rant came from, but I feel like we’re just beginning to scratch the surface on the discussions of where these new technologies can help offices and people behind the scenes accomplish these goals more dynamically and effectively. I’m not moving to a place where this has been fleshed out much better, so that’s not an indictment on where I came from – at all – as much as it’s a discussion about what we need to be airing out and discussing as a web developer community. Technology is a great thing and while it can be fun and dandy to discuss all of the wonderous ways we can reach out to new people out there, none of it matters unless there are people on the ground floor trained to figure out what all of it means.

Trained is the operative world. So many people are just Level 1 web consumers. They use the web because they have to. They haven’t embraced web technology as a way to truly improve their lives and as a result, it makes them unable to understand what innovations and improvements exist.

On the flip side, there are people who have ‘taken it too far’ and want to be constantly integrated and connected in every way possible. I think that’s an institutional decision if you want admissions counselors twittering to students, IMing and talking to them constantly. I think that’s a pretty big waste of time, but I’m not entirely convinced of the benefits of myspace and facebook in demonstrable ways short of the collection of friends as trading cards.

The ascent of new media professionals in all areas – not just higher ed, but in business and medicine – will provide us with a much broader arena in which to discuss ways that all of these startups can create actual value, rather than just buzz in Silicon Valley and fairy tales of IPOs and billion-dollar valuations from their founders.

With that, I’ll be offline for a little bit. When I come back, I’m going to start to contribute more regularly with my observations/ideas/thoughts. Or at least, that’s the plan…