The Boutique ServiceNow Consulting Trade-Off: What You Give Up, What You Gain
A CIO at a mid-sized European insurer asked me a fair question on a call last month. He was leaning toward hiring me to lead his ITSM rebuild, but his board had pushed back on the single-partner risk. "What happens if you get hit by a bus?" he said. "What happens if you decide to take a sabbatical in month three? I lose the whole program." It is the honest objection to boutique ServiceNow consulting, and the one that most boutique practitioners paper over with reassurances about continuity plans and backup associates. The reassurances usually ring hollow because the buyer can hear that the firm has four people total, and if one of them walks, you are in a different firm. I want to make a different argument. The single-partner concern is real. It is not the main risk on your project. The main risk on your project is that the people doing the work in month four are not the people who promised you the work in month zero. A Big 4 engagement eliminates the bus problem by replacing it with a larger problem that is harder to see. Boutique ServiceNow consulting makes a specific, bounded trade. Understanding exactly what that trade is, in both directions, is what buyers at your stage...
