Does the consulting industry harm the electric power informatization process?

According to industry news, large enterprises are currently facing increasingly vigorous information needs, and the consulting industry is showing an early industrialization trend. However, due to the rapid development, its serious lack of experience may have a negative impact on the Informatization Process of large enterprises. An obvious example is that a well-known consulting company recently had to transfer a large number of implementation projects to smaller consulting companies due to the long implementation front, it is also known that the consulting implementation team of the company is the same, and the unified order is made.
It Enterprises have also transitioned to the consulting service industry in the past two years. Small consulting companies, such as Niu Mao, have been set up. A dozen people have started a consulting company, like a law firm, taking over such outsourcing services has become the first step in their survival and development. They have also solved the cost and talent shortage problems for large consulting companies. If this is true, it does not seem to be a good situation for customers. In response, an information-based top management of a Power Generation group told me that they knew that many consulting companies would support such small consulting companies, such as a well-known power company. ERP Similar situations exist in the project. He believes that: " This is not good, but it is inevitable. Enterprise Informatization sometimes comes at the right time, so it is necessary to make a big move, sometimes there is a trade-off, and the pattern is fixed, and then gradually improved. For projects, outsourcing is always better than self-outsourcing. To control quality, you only need to do your best and be aware of risks. " However, for many years, the attitude of state-owned enterprises, represented by electric power, to domestic and overseas consultants has been unclear, even including some world-class top leaders. The reason for doubt is whether they really understand Chinese enterprises, and whether they have convincing industry experience. These enterprises have little doubt about their overseas informatization experience. However, as we all know, the success of large-scale informatization projects often depends on the early consultation and diagnosis, implementation, and deepening application, and whether it can provide users with a truly suitable informatization construction solution. Therefore, how should we select the most appropriate advisory provider, determine whether it is suitable for supporting the current situation and sustainable development solutions, and assess the effectiveness and benefits of Informatization Construction, it is still a problem in the Informatization Process of enterprises. 2009 A large power company ERP Implementation and deepening of application experience began to attract industry attention. Their opinions and opinions on different occasions may be considered and referenced by other power companies. For example, when talking about the implementation and application process of its local enterprises, it is revealed that the most important concern of the consultants is to settle accounts after the implementation as soon as possible, they are not concerned about the special applications involved in the implementation process or the deepening of the application. Even if they are concerned about the lack of experience, they may not be able to solve the specific issues of user concern. If you don't want them to take the lead, you have to invest more than several times of effort and sweat. Because the project is already on the string, it is equivalent to riding a tiger. " Many consultants follow us to learn. " A power company leader once said that. " Rather than our implementation ERP We are helping them train consultants. " In this case, the most important force in the Informatization Construction Process of Large enterprises is the user, and it is almost impossible to rely solely on the consulting service provider. The management of the power industry is complex, with a large number of processes and various business types involved. Consultants who have just been involved in the consulting business have no industry experience in year 35 and basically cannot enter the status. Large enterprises ERP This kind of information projects often involve fast pilot processes and huge implementation scale. The battle lines are often spread across provinces and cities across the country. It is impossible for a consulting company to supply so many people at once. From this, it is not difficult to understand why the trend of consulting Industrialization suddenly becomes apparent. Experience must be accumulated. However, is it too costly for power companies to pay for the growth of the consulting industry ?! At the same time, this phenomenon does not have any benefits for the growth of consultants themselves, as said by a famous consulting consultant of an overseas company. :" This is what I often say. As a result, there will be fewer and fewer businesses until there is no business. " Currently, the consulting service for electric power informatization is divided into the following three categories: one is the Consulting Service trained by professional consulting companies and the other is the three products that have served electric power enterprises for many years. It An enterprise is a software enterprise that serves power enterprises. The advantages and disadvantages of these three types of consultants are obvious. Consulting companies usually have rich management experience, mature implementation methodology, and professional project management capabilities. It Compared with the close-to-water architecture, enterprises are familiar with various businesses in the power industry, have rich capabilities and experience in solving specific problems, and have richer resources in the power industry, this is what they have always been proud. It Capital for transformation to management consulting and large-scale informatization projects; software enterprises that have served power enterprises for many years are divided into overseas and local: Some overseas software enterprises have professional consulting teams, it also has an independent global development center ( GDC ) Or a local development center (for example HP And IBM ), Respectively, to complete the consulting business and secondary development and software customization business. As local software vendors have been stuck in project-based sales for many years and are more familiar with local enterprise needs, their experience in secondary development and software customization is also rich. With the increasing number of informatization projects for large enterprises, many enterprises with certain industry experience or project experience It Professionals have moved into the field of consulting. Smaller consulting companies have sprung up to serve the survival of small and medium-sized projects, it will also form a cooperation alliance with powerful large-scale consulting enterprises. This is the formation process of the situation described in the beginning. The growth of consultants is similar to that of the cold day. Insiders said, " Most of the consultants are college students who have just graduated for one or two years. They have not even been in the power plant and are using their methodology framework to work hard. " The number of senior consultants is limited, and the energy is limited. Too many well-known consultants cannot afford it. When encountering a super large project or a difficult project, the common practice of a consulting company who receives a ticket is to invite a well-known Consultant " Independent consultant " Or even print business cards for them at any time. " Points " It is common for brand enterprises to make orders. They said: " To tell you the truth, a real level of senior consultant will not stay in a big company, or start a small company, or become an independent consultant. " Independent consultants have a high degree of freedom and are usually not dedicated to serving an enterprise, but at the same time oriented N Enterprises. As a result, the services of independent consultants may not last long and leave after a project is finished. " Our knowledge can only be transferred to power plants and not to these software companies. This is our core competitiveness. " The reason is very simple. The conversation between an electric power company and an independent consultant is understandable to the children who have just graduated for a year or two. The Independent consultant is not obligated to train the consulting consultant for them. " These companies will not succeed if they hire senior consultants and recruit some children at low cost to implement electricity informatization. " A senior person believes that in this case, " The first problem is that non-Chinese people in any foreign consulting company cannot really understand China, so consultants are at risk. Second, people in Chinese companies who can understand the national conditions will not go to foreign consulting companies, i'm not a fan of you. Third, when you are out of the game, you will never really understand the nuances of the game. " Some consulting companies also put young people and experienced consultants together to do what they can, and experienced people do experienced people. This is understandable because any company has two types of employees. However, the reason for a similar situation is that the power enterprises themselves are not able to get rid of the issue. First, we are too superstitious about well-known overseas brands. Even though they may know that a consulting consultant is just a temporary ticket " Independent consultant " And may not cancel the cooperation. The final result may be a blind eye closed. They have their difficulties. Here, I will try again. Or, as an expert said: " I think it should be a foreign consulting company that provides intellectual counseling for large Chinese companies, and a large Chinese company sets up an independent subsidiary to implement it. This is also the path that most industries have taken. " Second, there are indeed many problems in the informatization process, and the launch time of large enterprises cannot be too long. However, the informatization foundation of some branches is poor, such as Xinjiang and Xinjiang, many people do not understand Chinese, and training is a problem. Under such circumstances, it is conceivable that the consulting company should dispatch consulting or training consultants with relatively insufficient experience. The consulting company will not lose money to do business. Party A shall pay less and, of course, go to inexperienced consultants. In addition, power companies have always been skeptical about the value of consulting. A well-known consultant said: " Party A does not really recognize the value of the consulting consultant. In order to survive, the consulting consultant is not willing to study a certain type of problems in depth. Just like many domestic production enterprises, it is always crude to create many unqualified products. Why? It is nothing more than minimizing costs and striving for production! It is also possible to reduce wages and benefits for workers !!! Of course, the worker will not do his work seriously. He must complete more products and have more products to earn more income, but the high quality is not high income. " An information manager of a Power Generation Group also admitted that: " We now agree that companies and people that require them to be responsible for the results must go through our agreement, and it is too costly for them to do the work, not necessarily cost-effective for ourselves. Not the result! If you are Party A, what do you think? Can you accept it? It is a bit of a drum for small companies to have strong confidence. If you don't want to give them money, and you don't know whether they are outsourced, it's better to let them back and accept him, hold on to the process, and hold on to the results. " Another Another senior informatization leader of the Power Generation Group believes that: " This is an inevitable outcome for enterprises to realize their mission and strategic needs through informatization. The consulting company originally solved the problem of how to do it, in most cases, it is up to them to do anything. This must be " From two to one. " The first thing to blame is the enterprise itself. There is a process of changing ideology, but now it's too late. Hurry up and try again if it doesn't work. It's similar to the overall problem in China. After a long time, looking back may not have a positive effect, but the efficiency is too low and the waste is too great. " At the same time, informatization is only information, and after all, it cannot solve the problem of the system. To sum up, the industrialization process of the Information consulting industry may cause almost unimaginable consequences. Maybe we should think about what is the root cause of this phenomenon? Is localization of foreign consulting companies involved? Should the business model of large software enterprises be transformed? How can local consulting companies rush to catch up? How can I conduct professional and market segments in competition and cooperation in the consulting industry chain? What kind of Consultation training mechanism and assessment mechanism should be established? How do I define the criteria used by the user to select a consultant? Informatization in China itself is an industry or field in progress. It is normal to have a lack of experience and methodology. Like the young consultants, we cannot deny their efforts because of their lack of experience or experience, or even drop all kinds of consulting companies with one stick, what's more, users also have user problems. The problem is not terrible. The key lies in how to solve the problem. In any case, changing the status quo is a problem that must be solved. I believe that only in this way can we truly benefit the smooth informatization construction of large enterprises in the entire electric power industry and even various industries.