Which brings us to the good point with the HP/EDS story; many people forget that moving to “delivering shared business outcomes” implies that the SI/consultancy also shares the risk with the client. If your outcome is to save money, and you don't (save money that is), then you didn't deliver the outcome so you don't make a profit. (In the worst case, you'll make a large loss.)

I agree that for the large efforts (“create a new mobility strategy”) this will mean breaking the large problem down into streams of smaller projects, avoiding the monolithic projects of the past. Each step of the journey needs to create incremental value, as neither consultancy or client can tolerate the risk of a multi-year transformation.

And finally, there will some money to be made from “did it, done it” stories of the past, at least in the mid term, as does positioning as a flex resource. However, as we know from the Sieble -> Saleforce stories, demand for that sort of engagement is shrinking quite rapidly.

1. To augment or add to existing or specific skill sets internally
2. To run a specific project / deliverable(s)
3. To reduce cost, mitigate risk

In most of these, the client is usually accountable/responsible for the underlying project, with specific deliverables being handled by the SI.

Expanding on this, you would move to a BPO/BTO where you 'lift and shift' or 'your mess for less' type engagement. In either of these the key difference is the SI taking ownership for bigger picture outcomes – as opposed to smaller project based milestones. Additionally, the win for the SI is in being able to transform the stuff they now own. For example I work with an SI whos rule of thumb is for every 3 client employees, they can do it in 2. Better processes, technology etc.

The challenge they have this with is demonstrated by the recent case from HP/EDS against Murdoch and BSKYB – selling outcomes is costly when it goes wrong. see here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e2bd88fe-0ae2-11df-8a… But you also have to stick your neck out to win in the first place.

In this, Sky have been awarded £200M in damages – a hefty fine.. I think the original contract was about £48m.

“Did it Done it” now just allows you to be on the long list. SaaS and other such approaches reduce some of the risk, but there has to be a new way. SaaS still needs best practice consultancy – at the end of the day its just the same platform managed/hosted by someone else. Even the best SW deployed badly is still not fit for purpose (sorry, I know preaching to the guy who wrote the book here).

Maybe the answer is SI's do need a larger number of smaller projects – or they just take ownership of the bigger picture, innovate over 7/10 years through transformation & Innovation and hand back a much neater environment should they need to.

I’m not sure either of these are different than what they do today though. Just my initial thoughts.

Nigel