As a client of a major IT vendor, how do you negotiate the final price of your enterprise contract? Even very professional supply chain personnel may not have the data or know the approaches can can save you money over the life of the contract. That's when large companies like Gartner or small ones like ForceLight come in. These companies, large or small, tend to charge a percentage of the savings, making it a no-risk proposition: they get nothing if they don't save you anything.

I like the "TuckGlobal Consultancy" program run by Prof. John Owens at the Center for International Business, part of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Teams of MBA students (who already had 5-6 years of business experience before starting their MBA studies) perform international consulting assignments for 13 weeks, including 3 weeks on-site, for a smallish fixed fee plus expenses. Could be as good as a major consulting firm, and a lot cheaper. I had a similar if more limited experience in 2007 with a team of MIT Sloan School students. Ask me if you want details or advice about this.

The SOA Consortium and CIO Magazine have extended to July 20, 2009, the deadline for submissions to the 2009 SOA Case Study Contest. See http://www.soa-consortium.org/cs-soa. I am one of the judges, so I have to remain objective, but contact me if you have questions about the contest or the Consortium.

"...in the majority of firms, process management is mediocre at best. While over half of the companies surveyed conduct process improvement projects, only one-third exercise comprehensive process management. Lack of a standard improvement approach and the absence of performance metrics are the most cited reasons for lackluster process management."