How can you tell if your prospective Integration consultant knows what he’s doing?
Or: “but the sales rep TOLD me that he would be great!”
Look for, and evaluate, the Technical & Business Experience & Price.
Technical and Business Experience
Has the consultant in question done this type of project before?
In the world of integration someone can be extremely familiar with an integration tool like BizTalk, based on doing a lot of external EDI Trading partner integrations, this does not necessarily mean that they are adequately experienced in the challenges of a high-security internal Application-to-Application integration.
A consultant with great background in HIPAA EDI transactions in the healthcare space may be heavily out of his element when trying to do a series of SWIFT transactions for a financial services company.
Your consultant needs to have some experience in doing similar projects. Similar technologies, and similar company types. There is no substitute for experience, and you really don’t want to be paying someone to gain that experience on your project!
If it seems too cheap to be true . . . there is a reason it’s that cheap
When you go out to look for a consulting resource, and you seemingly find one for an absurdly great rate, you have to ask yourself . . . why is the rate that low? What problems are there that you’re not being told about?
A good rate is wonderful, within the boundaries of normal rate ranges. Below that normal range should make you concerned, and things that seem like a bargain rarely are.
Integration Consulting isn’t simply IT. Integration Consulting is about the intertwined services, and products delivered to clients throughout their entire system. Our well-rounded expertise in the standards is what sets us apart from the rest. Art2link is a member of Microsoft’s BizTalk V-TSP Program and has been for many years. This makes us one of the few organizations in the world with direct exposure and access to Microsoft’s BizTalk Server Product Team. We actively work with Microsoft’s Product Team to determine functionality for new BizTalk releases, and to make BizTalk work at peak efficiency. This level of access into the team that design and builds a particular product is extremely unusual in the industry, and will insure you the highest possible level of BizTalk Auditing Consulting expertise.