While professional services in the enterprise have traditionally been performed by an in-person consultant, more and more firms are opting to take advantage of remotely-delivered services. These are services delivered by a consultant over web conference. There a multiple considerations to be made when choosing a method of delivery for technology projects. This article outlines the primary benefits of remotely-delivered consulting services.
More efficient use-of-time for smaller firms
- Many companies don’t have a dedicated workforce for particular subsets of their technology stack. For instance, if a company is embarking on a new Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) project, and the firm does not have any dedicated mobility staff, it may be a good bet to choose a remote delivery option. Onsite consultants are dedicated to a single project. Therefore, any time the company is unable to dedicate resources to work alongside VMware is not as efficient as it could be. Remote Delivery engineers are generally working with many firms simultaneously, meaning that a last-minute meeting alteration or emergency can be simply rescheduled and the time recouped given enough lead-time.
No travel time = More project time available
- When taking advantage of remote delivery, you reduce the amount of overhead time involved in the project, specifically that related to travel. When a consultant travels to you, time early Monday morning and late Thursday afternoon is generally used for flights. Remote Delivery eliminates the need to travel and opens up more possible time for working sessions, meetings, and workshops. It also allows for additional flexibility with scheduling meetings. Reducing travel time can also help consultants fresh and delivering their best possible outcomes at all times.
Quicker access to Support, R&D, QE, SAM, REM Teams
- One of the biggest benefit to remote delivery is the engineer’s quick and easy access to technical knowledge and resources. Do you use a custom or niche product that requires integration to your VMware product? The ability to speak directly in-person to the product manager who designed it, the QE engineer who tested it, support engineers who have solved issues around it, or even the developer who coded it, can be possible given the right circumstances. Having the power of the entire VMware organization physically co-located with your deployment engineer can have big dividends.
Potential reverse visits to VMware
- Interested in seeing VMware Headquarters? What about the famous AirWatch trade floor? With your engineer working remotely, it could be a good opportunity to plan a “reverse visit” and enjoy a quick tour. I personally made it a point to invite firms to visit VMware AirWatch Headquarters in Atlanta when possible. Getting the opportunity to see the software development process, and even potentially meet with members of internal VMware teams, provided a host of benefits and knowledge to the companies that chose to take advantage of the opportunity. Furthermore, the quality of our working relationship and project outcomes always improved as a result of these visits.
Lessons-learned from concurrent work with other firms
- When your VMware consultant is concurrently working with other firms, it can be a great opportunity to reap the benefits of lessons-learned from those other projects. While VMware consultants have generally worked with customers from numerous industries, tapping into present challenges, opportunities, and capabilities enabled for other customers in the same vertical is invaluable. Speaking to two customers within the same industry vertical in the same calendar day or week can magnify these lessons-learned and create a virtuous cycle of best practices.
Roy McCord is a Technical Solutions Architect with VMware’s Professional Services Engineering (PSE) team. He previously worked as a team leader within the AirWatch Consulting Services team and helped to build the practice from the ground up. He holds BS, MS, and MBA degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. He now focuses on architecting, designing, and developing best-in-class services for VMware’s Professional Services teams and trusted partners. He currently resides in Alpharetta, Georgia with his wife, Ann.
