You’re in a tricky situation: under a tight deadline, fighting with outdated technology, or staggering under the weight of technical debt. You could assemble a team within the organization to diagnose the cause of the problem and develop a solution – but it might take longer than you have. You need a fresh take, combined with broad experience and up-to-the-minute industry knowledge. It’s time to hire experts.
But why wait until you’re up against a wall? You could make using experts a normal part of your executive strategy. Regularly working with expert partners will position your company to take full advantage of outside expertise – and unlock value from your people, processes, and technology.
Why use experts?
Bringing experts in on a regular basis to solve challenging problems, train employees, and offer strategic advice sets your company up for ongoing success. Besides a wealth of experience and knowledge, experts can also provide a crucial outside perspective on your organization. Here are just several ways that experts can help your company thrive.
Experts raise the bar
Your developers may be capable and dedicated, but when you want them to up their game, it’s time to call on an expert partner. After all, they’ve been immersed in a singular work environment – with its specific technologies, workarounds, and interpersonal dynamics – for some time. When we engage with a customer, we come to the table deeply familiar with the latest solutions and how to best take advantage of them. Our team can serve as advisors, mentors, and subject matter experts. They’ll not only accelerate the process of developing efficient, modern software; they’ll also bring your staff up the curve more quickly and leave them knowledgeable and confident.
For example, there are plenty of companies that migrate to Azure without actually leveraging Azure. We can offer you tips, tricks, functions, features, and advice for avoiding pitfalls and expensive mistakes. We can help your team use the right tool for each job and understand the financial implications of various choices.
Experts offer a fresh perspective
Have you ever felt trapped by organizational inertia, struggling with the same issues over and over, stuck in the same ways of getting things done? Do key projects tend to languish or fail to meet expectations? Having seen the inside workings of a variety of companies, consultants bring a unique perspective. We’ve seen what it looks like when things go sideways, and we have experience moving projects forward under all kinds of circumstances. Partnering with experts offers you something even more valuable than learning from your own mistakes – learning from everyone else’s (including ours!)
Even if you’re attempting something totally original, experts can offer you the confidence of being professional improvisors. Our experience gives us the comfort and desire to tackle your innovative projects, with the assurance that they’ll be successful.
What does this look like? One of our customers, a software company in St Louis, had a relatively out-of-date version of their major app offering. They were well-staffed, but their application wasn’t demoing well in sales situations because it looked dated and ugly. The customer knew they were losing out on sales, so Microsoft brought us in to turn things around. The customer needed to get the new app to market quickly, so they needed a shortcut to the right answer. We re-imagined and re-architected the software, and now it looks brand new. More importantly, it’s winning sales again – and we left their team in a much better place of action, so they can continue to innovate.
Experts can help you get the best performance out of your people
You can read a stack of books about scrum and Agile, but they won’t necessarily lead to successful Agile transformation. Our Agile coaches can adjust your practice so that you’re using metrics correctly and building a sustainable team culture. Like sports performance coaches, Agile coaches know how to get the best performance out of people.
One of our customers, a cybersecurity firm, is working to deliver to 100,000 new clients on a tight timeline. They initially wanted to build in-house, but ultimately decided to turn to an expert partner. With cybersecurity, liability, and insurance involved, the project absolutely can’t fail. We’re leading the charge to deliver a watertight product on time and boosting the capacity of their app dev team so they can take it and run with it.
Experts help you get more value out of your data
You’re probably sitting on an abundance of data that isn’t being used to its full potential. Whether you’re looking to increase efficiency, identify new sources of revenue, or improve decision-making, an expert partner can help you build a data-driven culture, backed by powerful tools. We can help you discover what data you have, in which formats, and what questions your teams want the data to answer. Then we’ll integrate multiple data streams from different systems and build customizable reports that give your people convenient, real-time access. Finally, we’ll support you in building systems that ensure your data stays accessible and secure.
What happens if you don’t use experts as part of your strategy?
If you don’t regularly seek an outside perspective, it’s likely that your technologies and skills will become stagnant. You won’t be able to leverage technology and get the most value out of your business. You could try to hire to add some fresh eyes to your team – but the labor market is currently tight, and onboarding and relationship-building take time. You need a team that can come in and immediately begin solving your most pressing problems.
Back in 2010, we engaged with a customer to retire some .NET code and make the switch to a new platform. What we found was a mountain of software written by two developers who had worked there for their entire careers. It was like two interns had continuously repeated their intern year, without learning or improving. We had to start from scratch. This was a company that loved their people, but they relied on them too much. Had they brought in experts sooner, they might have avoided the hassle and expense of having to completely rebuild.
On top of steering you away from potential hazards, expert partners can also give you the confidence to move forward on a new path. A successful engagement should leave your team feeling like they can continue to innovate and problem-solve on their own. If you want tailored advice about how you could use experts as part of your strategy, reach out today. At the end of the day, if you’re not regularly working with experts, you’re leaving value on the table.
