Recently we were bidding on a major project for the rebuilding and enhancement of an extranet system for one of our prospects. Their current system was based on old technology and its architecture was an impediment for the planned growth of their business. Based on an extensive selection process, finally AMIS was selected as their party of choice for a renewed system, based on a new and future-proof architecture.
We won the selection process because of our ADF/Oracle know-how and experience, our project approach and overall “feelâ€. All of this, of course, combined with a competitive price. The snag was that, while we all agreed on goals and approach, there just was not enough budget to actually do this. So the client had been looking to alternative approaches to achieve the same business value at less cost.
As part of this solution they proposed to hire only our best people and that they would do most of the handiwork themselves. That is when we explained that “We are a Project Companyâ€. Some background.
At AMIS we, obviously, only employ the best people. But also among the best people, “some are more equal than others†and I do mean that a lot more positive than George Orwell’s pigs in Animal Farm. Our lead architects, business consultants, senior developers and senior project managers add a lot of value. They add value to an architecture, to the team working around them and to the client of course. If our clients just hire these people at an hourly rate you might double their price related to an “average†excellent developer. If you add them on key-roles in your projects they do not just add their own value, no, they infuse the team with value – thus allowing everyone to double, triple, or…. their added value. That is why we are a Project Company.
It’s also a lot more fun!
I imagine you can guess our answer to the client.
Ah, that makes more sense now. Of course the difficult thing, what with offshoring and so on, is convincing the client of this. Many times I’ve been asked to tech lead a project that’s got all the developers sourced from TCS, Infosys and so on. Then you’ve got the double-whammy of it not being your own team and the team being managed by what is in effect a competitor. I always give it my best shot, but as you say, if you can build and nurture your own team, mix them in with your own technical leads and architects, that’s usually going to produce higher quality results. Good for you if you can convince the customer as well. Regards, Mark.
Hi Mark, Thanks for your comment – I need to be clearer. My point is that the architects, etc. add a lot more value when working in a team with AMIS colleagues: they help and motivate the whole team to perform better. The team performs better than the sum of its parts. Regards – Gerard
Hi Gerard,
I’m not sure what point you were coming to with your post, towards the end … why would you not just hire out your architects, tech leads and so on – is it because the rate you’d have to charge would be prohibitive (as you can’t “blend” the rate with the other staff on the project), or is it because the other team members, left behind, wouldn’t be as much value to the other projects they worked on (without the architects), or is it because you always do things as a team, you won’t do the architecture unless you can resource the developers as well?
It sounds a good posting, I’m just not sure what your end point was.
cheers
Mark