Technology Consulting by Prasanna

Technology Consulting by Prasanna

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  A GOLDMAN SACHS SUPPORTED STARTUPAT IIMB’S NSRCEL Career Conversation Technology Consulting by Prasanna Rajappa, Mentor
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  - 2 - Agenda •Understanding Technology Consulting • Skillsets Required • Critical Success Factors • Career Growth as a Consultant • Other Activities Expected of a Consultant • How can MBA Help • Preparing for Consulting Role • Sample Case Study Questions
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  - 3 - Whatis Technology Consulting Consulting Definition: Business of giving expert advice to other professionals. Technology Consulting Definition: Business of advising businesses on best use of technology and organizing technology functions, processes to benefit their businesses.
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  - 4 - TechnologyConsulting Pillars Strategic Manage (PMO) Architecture Implementation • Business-IT-Data Strategy Alignment • Capability Maturity Assessment • IT Portfolio Restructuring / Prioritizing • Multi-Year Capability Roadmap • Develop Business Case • Operating Model Transformation • IT / M&A Due Diligence • New Regulatory / Compliance • Tech Debt / Risk Planning • Legacy Modernization Planning • Monolith to Micro Services • Data Lake to Data Fabric • Build vs. Buy • Product / Tool Selection • IT / M&A Due Diligence • Digital Transformation Initiatives • Business Analyst - Framing a business requirement into a system, data, analytics requirement • Process / App / Data Discovery • Business – IT Gap Remediation • IT Business Management • IT PMO • IT Workforce Transformation • ITIL (Service lifecycle) Advisory services related to technology strategy and CIO / CDO org’s processes Legacy Modernization | New Development | Technology Rationalization | Structure & Operating Model | Setting up COEs | Business – IT Alignment Recommending architecture best practices for better performance Architecture Standards, Guiding Principles | Establish Architecture Framework | Product / Tool Selection | Architecture Patterns | Cloud Migration Architecture Accelerate implementation by bridging gaps with technical, functional skills Functional / process / domain consulting | Business Analysis | Requirements Elicitation and use case / story grooming Enforce discipline in program mgmt. processes, mitigate risks to successful execution Project / Program Management | Executive Status Report | Risk Mitigation | Change / Scope Management | Budget & Resource Planning
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  - 5 - ConsultingTypes Level of Abstraction Premium What should be our objective over the next 3 years? Where should we be headed to achieve investor expectations? Management Consulting What capabilities do I need to achieve those targets? How do I achieve my management targets? Process / Technology Advisory How do I simplify my system landscape? What should be my architecture to build those capabilities? Process / Technology Architecture I need skills to implement and manage the implementation Process / Technology Implementation Security Audit & Recommendations Compliance Audit & Recommendations … Niche Skills Low High High
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  - 6 - TechnologyConsulting Examples… (1/2) Guess the consulting pillar (Strategic | Architecture | Implementation | PMO): • A multi-national FMCG invested on data and analytics initiatives locally in multiple BUs. CIO decides to centrally oversee and govern data investments. Consulting firm is invited! • A banking company has undertaken a data warehouse migration activity. The progress is very sluggish, new business requirements are put on hold leaving business unhappy. A consultant is invited to provide a point of view by the program owner! • A VP of an organization has put together a proposal for investment to modernize their Supply Chain Analytics solution. The CIO is not fully convinced. VP hires a consultant to help! • Manufacturing company ‘A’ has acquired another manufacturing company ‘B’. ‘A’ is going through an ERP migration and is 50% complete. ‘B’ is going through an ERP upgrade and is 65% complete. The CFO wants to have a POV on the ERP strategy for the New Co AB? • A global organization is splitting into two companies. There is a whole bunch of initiatives to be planned and executed to get to successful Legal Day 1. The CFO requests a consulting firm to oversee the planning for split-up!
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  - 7 - TechnologyConsulting Examples… (2/2) Guess the consulting pillar (Strategic | Architecture | Implementation | PMO): • A VP of a Retail Group requires a Point of View (POV) on applying AI top optimize their supply chain process. You have been hired as a consultant to put together a POV! • A global beverages company uses SAP HANA – Sales and SCM data, SAP BO, and SAP Analytics. The consumers are Sales and Finance team. The company has been using it for 4-5 years now and the users are not happy about it. Your company has been invited to help! • A famous telco is going through a major digital transformation. There are multiple technologies and multiple teams involved, and there is a lot of coordinated effort required. Your firm has been roped to help! • A famous international airport would like to implement AI driven solution to implement airport safety features and they reached out to your firm to put together a proposal. • A national insurance company would like to improve their fraud analytics on claim processing. You have been hired as a consultant to achieve this. • A retail bank would like to build an analytics model to underwrite customers on loan processing. You have been hired as a consultant.
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  - 8 - •Structured problem solving − Focus on how to solve the problem, than actually solving the problem − Socratic Method: Current State | Target State | Gaps | Roadmap | Mobilize • Look at things holistically − Not supposed to solve a tactical problem • Ability to understand and talk the language of both technology and business − Experience in business domain (Manufacturing, Insurance, Banking, Telco) − Experience in specific process / functional area (supply chain, analytics, full stack development, data engineering, quality) − Experience in building technology solutions / SDLC • Ability to talk the language of executives / SVPs • Ability to look at a problem objectively, analytically and not looking to arrive at a solution immediately − Hypothesis driven problem solving − 80:20 rule − Data driven decision making Skillsets Required… (1/2)
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  - 9 - SkillsetsRequired… (2/2) • Lots and lots of listening and information processing • Ability to get on to good conversations with any one • Storytelling − Framing the problem | Delivering the solution | Why, What, How | Inductive vs. Deductive Method | Horizontal vs. Vertical − Keep it simple. One framework or principle around which the entire story is developed − Avoid negative keywords: lack, ad-hoc, missing, does not exist, absent, etc. • Power points and Excel Files
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  - 10 - CriticalSuccess Factors • Get ready for a life-style change – Lunch / Dinner / Travel • Extremely Reactive – Fire drills • More and more time before the customers • Building relationships and network within and outside your organization • Continuous reading developing strong point of view on technology and domain trends • Story telling Clients sell projects to consulting firms purely based on their relationship and trust with a specific firm How to Develop the Trust or Belief?
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  - 11 - CareerGrowth • Designations and positions may vary, but the usual path is finally towards a Partner or Director • In some firms – partners and directors are the principal sales person. Some companies might have dedicated sales team • Consulting teams are usually small in size with a group 3 – 8 people. Business Analysts and PMOs can work as part of a bigger team, but the core team size will be small • Building relationship or growing network is critical for a successful consultant
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  - 12 - OtherActivities • Support in Pre-Sales / Business Development Effort • Thought Leadership – CIO Wired, Books, Trends, Articles, Interviews, Points of Views (POV) • Knowledge Enhancements – Certifications, Events / Summits • Asset Development • Partnership / Tools Evaluation / GTM Strategy • Practice Support – Mentoring, Hiring
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  - 13 - Howcan MBA Help? • Spreadsheet Model – highly recommended for aspiring consultants • Strategy – understand and define it in your own words • Finance and Accounting – annual statements, NPV, ROI, Cash Flow Analysis, etc. • Operations – achieving efficiency vs. effectiveness (E.g., should IT be efficient or effective?) • OB and HRM – understand organizational inertia, value system, people resistance to change • Marketing – understand the needs of clients You should connect all the academic framework together to solve problems for a customer
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  - 14 - Preparingfor Consulting Role: Resume Case 1: You do not have prior consulting experience, but tech background Look for transferrable skills from your prior experience and build your resume (avoid chronology listing): • Structured Problem Solving: Business Analysis, Analytical Skills, … something out of your way to solve a challenge • Technology Solutioning: SDLC, Tech / Cloud skills, Specific Product Skills, SQL, Analytics / ML • Firm Initiatives: Org contributions in addition to your primary work… hiring, presales, training, mentoring, books, articles, POVs, patents • Domain / Functional Skills: E.g., payment systems, supply chain optimization, digital transformation, industrial automation, analytics, design thinking, etc. Add any market research, benchmarking work if you have done • Co-Curricular, Extra Curricular Interests: Sports, Arts, Certifications Look at the JD and align your prior experience to that Case 2: You are from a non-consulting and non-technology background Look for transferrable skills (as listed above) from your prior experience and build your resume (avoid chronology listing): • Do additional preparation to fill-in your gap on cloud / analytics / any other relevant product (project, certification) • Overweigh your tech setback with deep functional knowledge you have gained through experience and how you have solved some real-time business problems using technology, specific tools you have extensively used as an end-user Look at the JD and align your prior experience to that Case 3: You are from a consulting background Highlight your work experiences as a consultant (Chronological listing will easily work)
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  - 15 - Preparingfor Consulting Role: Interviews • Practice consulting case studies, build multiple frameworks based on problem areas. You need a consistent method to crack cases • Be ready to define keywords such as strategy, vision, mission, objectives, goals • Analytics role: Be ready to identify data entities relevant for an industry, explain what is regression, neural network, etc. • Digital: Be ready to define Digital Enterprise in your own words • Supply Chain: Explaining efficiency vs. effectiveness, specific areas such as Planning & Scheduling, Inventory Forecasting, Lean Processing and any tools you have specifically used before • Be ready to answer why you pick consulting as a profession Suggested links: • Case in Point • The McKinsey Way • Sample case questions in company portals • Read about TOGAF, ITIL Frameworks – they will enrich your knowledge and help build framework • https://www.accenture.com/sg-en/blogs/blogs-careers/secrets-to-a-successful-case-study-interview-2 There will be 3 rounds usually: Attitude & Fitment | Case Evaluation | HR
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  - 16 - ExampleFrameworks
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  - 17 - SampleCase Study Questions: 1. Three-year cost reduction of 30% for a global i-bank 2. Growth strategy to achieve 3x growth in 3 years 3. Assessment for IT Strategy alignment with Business Strategy 4. Cloud spend / cost reduction strategy by 20% with a structured process in place 5. Cloud transformation plan for a client over 3 years from on-prem 6. ERP consolidation post M&A, there are 4 ERP systems in place post acquisition of company A over company Best 7. Application Rationalization for large media customer 8. Developing an intelligent supply chain for a manufacturing giant 9. What do you think is the impact on Supply chain for a Digital Enterprise 10. A major credit card company is seeing reductions in card usage by its customers in a sluggish economy, How will you as a consultant help decide if this reduction is because of economy or if they are losing customers to a competitor
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  - 18 - Questions
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  - 19 - ThankYou!