Local IT consultation watch or despair? (2)-Stray "parasitic companies"

Zhang Qiang (not his real name) is an independent consultant. during the financial crisis, his consulting company laid off workers and many consultants like Zhang Qiang rushed to the market.

Now, Zhangqiang has set up a "leather bag company" and has a group of consulting resources like him. When a multinational company needs to outsource a project, it quickly organizes independent consultants from four or five different companies into a consulting team.

"Like other consultants, we wear a suit, tie, and a briefcase, but the name of a business card can always be printed with other company names ." When talking about this, Zhang Qiang will inevitably feel a bit disappointed. Compared with his original work, he does not have a sense of belonging now.

In the IT consulting industry, many companies like Zhangqiang account for more than half of the total number of consulting companies. This kind of company is a bit "virtual". You don't have to sign a ticket with a customer, and there is no cost at ordinary times. You can pull a list from the private relationship with the top executives of multinational consulting companies. They have long-term cooperation, good reputation, and hundreds of thousands of consultants. They rely on the outsourcing "small money" to survive, and some of them can also survive well. However, "this kind of 'Parasitic company 'is more harmful to China's consulting industry ." Deng Hongjian said so.

Two years ago, this independent consultant was very popular and in short supply, and the consultant's salary rose. This year, as many consulting companies have been laid off due to a slump, a large number of such consultants have been idle.

"In the financial crisis, many enterprises have problems with their survival. If they cannot sell their products, how can they engage in IT Consulting ?" Zhang Qiang said that in the eyes of many companies, "consulting" is a soft service that is "virtual" than software. It does not have much impact if you do it one day earlier or one day later. "The boss has flown to the United States and Europe to attract customers. How can I manage it ."

Therefore, the international economic environment and domestic industrial environment have both played a role, resulting in idle consultants. "For example, if the IBM package gives me a project, I have a lot of independent consultants to choose from. You don't have to do anything. If it is 40 thousand yuan a month, I can get at least 5000 yuan ." Zhang Qiang believes that in the face of the reality of "more people and less work", there are always people who have to bow their heads first.

Smart people are involved in consulting. "The current market situation is a group of smart people. They are still happy to be able to beat their heads with something tasteless and disappointing ." Deng Hongjian personally witnessed the informatization experience of two enterprises: using the same software product, the two enterprises started the project almost in the same week, however, different consulting companies lead to different results. During the selection, the company selected a domestic IT Consulting Company. It took only six months to launch the entire project smoothly. After six months of operation, the company began to promote the project to national branches.

Another company hesitated between a multinational consulting company and a well-known local consulting company. The local company quoted 3 million yuan, while the multinational company reduced the original 8 million yuan cost to 5 million yuan, the company did not hesitate to choose a multinational company.

Although local consulting companies are relatively small and their operating costs are lower than those of multinational companies, this cost advantage is only 20% different. "Because of the business pressure from the headquarters, this offer is already very low for multinational companies, so we have to reduce the level of consultants, even one project manager, and all other consultants are outsourced ." Deng Hongjian told reporters that many of the following multinational consulting companies are parasitic on a group of independent consultants. The most important aspect of the IT consulting project is teamwork and coordination. Consultants from different companies are difficult to coordinate and cooperate with each other when assigning tasks, as a result, the above project has been delayed and has not been launched yet.

Such things are common in the IT consulting industry. In the eyes of customers, IT consulting is not just a result of the snow, but a icing on the cake. The excessive competition caused such a vicious circle.

Do local IT consulting companies have to give up brand building and scale development if they want to survive?