Consultancy Consultant VS a One-Man-Band Freelancer.

[juststarting]

What is your top difference between the following two entities:

1. The One-Man-Band contractor ( Numbering courtesy of Ms Word ( soon to be RIPed by Google Docs)
2. The Consultant from a larger consultancy with varied technical staff.

The difference that I seek to clarify is the difference in the nature and type of projects these two entities are engaged on by clients. ( Now we all know which one is more intelligent ,better paid , handsome , understands politics etc. , but lets stick this one to the nature of work ).

Mine take is: One is more sought after when the client wants to integrate someone in their team i.e there is partial in-house expertise pertaining to the project. Two is sought when the project is more complex and there is no existing expertise in-house.

Is that what it boils down to ?

[BolshieBastard]

What is your top difference between the following two entities:

1. The One-Man-Band contractor ( Numbering courtesy of Ms Word ( soon to be RIPed by Google Docs)
2. The Consultant from a larger consultancy with varied technical staff.

The difference that I seek to clarify is the difference in the nature and type of projects these two entities are engaged on by clients. ( Now we all know which one is more intelligent ,better paid , handsome , understands politics etc. , but lets stick this one to the nature of work ).

Mine take is: One is more sought after when the client wants to integrate someone in their team i.e there is partial in-house expertise pertaining to the project. Two is sought when the project is more complex and there is no existing expertise in-house.

Is that what it boils down to ?

Consultants from large companies are nearly always employees.

[deckster]

Assuming this is a halfway serious question - the main difference (barring of course that all contractors are by definition incredibly intelligent, devastatingly attractive and filthy rich ) is that of motivation. I've worked with any number of consultants from Accenture, Logica, CGEY etc. etc. and they are all, without exception, focussed on where they sit within the organisation and getting their next promotion. Completing the project and getting client sign-off so they can move on is a close second. Actually delivering a working product is way down the list.

Contractors know that their next gig depends on performing well on this one, so there is a much bigger motivation to make something that works and will actually be useful to the client.

[juststarting]

Assuming this is a halfway serious question - the main difference (barring of course that all contractors are by definition incredibly intelligent, devastatingly attractive and filthy rich ) is that of motivation. I've worked with any number of consultants from Accenture, Logica, CGEY etc. etc. and they are all, without exception, focussed on where they sit within the organisation and getting their next promotion. Completing the project and getting client sign-off so they can move on is a close second. Actually delivering a working product is way down the list.

Contractors know that their next gig depends on performing well on this one, so there is a much bigger motivation to make something that works and will actually be useful to the client.

Motivation , good one. Haven't thought about that one.

[cojak]

Reason for employing big consultancies - someone to point the finger at when it goes t!ts up...

The prime motivation of the employees ('consultants') of these organisations is to get a bigger slice of the client's project budget, I'm fairly sure that their annual bonus is based on 'value-added' - more work-packages = more money...

I don't think I've been in a project that employed these types without there being bad blood at the end of a project.

[jmo21]

at my last permy job, we employed lots of Accenture bods in lots of different roles, dev, test, PM etc

their primary objective was to get more work, and more bodies on site

[BrilloPad]

Big consultants get the job. They give massive back handers.

HTH

[juststarting]

at my last permy job, we employed lots of Accenture bods in lots of different roles, dev, test, PM etc

their primary objective was to get more work, and more bodies on site

No matter whether the client actually needs it ? Yeah I have the same experience.

[NotAllThere]

...

Mine take is: One is more sought after when the client wants to integrate someone in their team i.e there is partial in-house expertise pertaining to the project. Two is sought when the project is more complex and there is no existing expertise in-house.

Is that what it boils down to ?

Not at all. With my current client, they had a requirment for new technology. Their consultancy partner had no one with those skills; they'd do it, but couldn't guarantee a fixed price. They asked me if I could do it - I responded "I don't know the technology, but it can't be that difficult", negotiated a price, and then did the work.

Your view seems to be more like the difference between a "bums on seat" contract and a consultant.

The difference between an independent consultant and a consultancy employee is obvious from the word "independent". When I work for a client, my interests are closely aligned with the client's. With a consultancy employee, their interests are in keeping their employee happy. Now that may be aligned with the client's, but may also be, as has been pointed out, working in such a way to get more billable hours and more consultancy employees on site.

[Scotchpie]

I was interviewed by a few of the biggies last year and the experience made me decide to go as a contractor.

Basically they weren't interested in my experience as much as whether I had "sold anything." One, whose been mentioned a lot in the news the last week or so, actually asked me outright in the interview, "When was the last time you sold anything, what was it and how did it make you feel?"

In short what they were most keen on is having a team of consultants who could sell knock-on services to the client or actively promote and sell their licensed software whether or not the client actually needed it.

I really got the impression that the role was first and foremost a sales position with actually helping the client a little further down the list. In fact your bonus was based largely on how many knock-ons you had successfully sold the client, or how much of an extension to your original contract you had secured.