Why should you use AO for your consulting needs?
You hear it from every consulting firm: “we’re great”. You want them to back it up, right? There’s a lot at risk when you choose a consulting firm: money, time, your reputation and perhaps even your career. You’re putting all of that on the line; you’re trusting that the consultants will do right by you, help you make the project a success, achieve your objectives and prove to everyone you made the right consulting decision.
Here’s our promise to you.
You get two weeks to evaluate any consultant. If you are not totally satisfied with that consultant, you owe us nothing for the two weeks. Not even expenses. The reason doesn’t matter. It can be as simple as the consultant isn’t a good personality fit for your team. No arguments, no excuses, no questions, no bill. You get a no hassle, no risk assurance that your consultant will work well in your environment and will have the skills you need.
You also get our commitment that should a change be needed, our consultant will provide documentation for their work so you can quickly transition in the replacement consultant. Does this mean that you’re the only one evaluating the consultant? No. We’re also evaluating how well your needs are being met and will quickly take corrective action as needed. As one of our clients said: “the thing I like about AO is that when there’s a problem, they tell me about it before I even know there’s an issue”.
We have never been a PeopleSoft/Oracle partner, or a partner with any vendor
That has been a very deliberate choice on our part. By maintaining our independence, we can be your trusted advisor. We can provide you with direct and objective advice without worrying about protecting a relationship with some vendor – and you don’t have to wonder why we’re really making a recommendation. Because we are independent, we don’t have anything to “protect” except our long-term relationship with you. This approach to conducting business has served us very well; 96% of our clients have returned to us and requested additional services.
AO consultants who will help you make your project a success.
The bulk of our work comes from helping small-to-mid-size organizations. These organizations frequently need a full-range of consulting assistance (project management, functional and technical), have very limited consulting budgets and can’t afford big teams of consultants. They need one or two highly skilled and versatile consultants that can provide a very broad range of services, advice and answers. Such environments can be pretty difficult for many consultants, but that is our specialty.
Our entire recruitment process is focused on identifying, qualifying, hiring and working with consultants who have proven they can succeed with clients that have tight budgets. We never hire or work with a consultant who has less than 10 years of solid business systems experience and 5 years of hands-on practical PeopleSoft experience. In fact, our consultants average 18+ years of business systems experience and 15 years of hands-on PeopleSoft experience. You won’t be training our consultants.
None of our consultants are one dimensional. Each of our consultants has a combination of functional, technical and project management skills. Our consultants know that it’s far better to answer with: “I’m not sure, let me check on that and get back to you” than it is to provide a wrong answer that will ultimately lead to project re-work and compromised deadlines and budgets.
Our consultants genuinely like each other and respect each other; they readily call one another to discuss options, strategies and problem solving tactics. You get the benefit of a whole team of expertise while only paying for one or two consultants. Our consultants will arrive ready to make a positive impact on day one.
AO's Approach
In this business news and rumors about a failed project spread everywhere and that can be very damaging to a small firm like us. We’re also putting a lot on the line. Word travels like wildfire when a project goes bad. Specialized consulting firms, like us, can’t absorb a reputation hit like the big name firms can. We both need to make sure that we’re a good fit for your project and your organization. To help determine that, we invest time upfront with you to make sure we understand your project, the management challenges you’re facing, your technical environment, the skills of your project team and other factors. We believe this upfront investment (at no cost to you) is just smart business; we both need to make sure that by working together we can make your project a success. That’s our sales process... we ask questions and develop a thorough understanding of your project and challenges. We don’t try to convince you (and us) that we’re the right consulting firm for you if we’re not. Since we don’t have a heavy-handed sales approach, it’s perfectly safe to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you’d like to begin exploring if and how we should work together on your project.
