This site has been defunct since 2005.
It remains here as a reminder of the “cutting edge” in 2003.
Consultancy
Netrogen offer Internet, systems integration, training, and general technology consultancy services to client organisations.
Over the years, we have collected a few caveats that we've come to regard as truisms:
- Being effective is more important than being efficient.
- Doing the right thing is more important than doing things right.
- Fire consultants unless you are taking their advice, including us.
The only consultants worth hiring are the independent ones — they have to be good to survive. Multinational consulting firms may give you a warm, fuzzy feeling of confidence, but this is sometimes misplaced, usually illusory, and always expensive.
Emmet considers himself to be a generalist, having worked at many different levels in the technology sector from embedded systems programming in the security industry through telecommunications and surface engineering to financial services software. Generalists shine at problem-solving, since they lack the specialist's presupposition that the solution lies within their domain. The “big trick” in consulting is to know when to defer to a competent specialist and say “I don't know, but I know someone who does”. Very often, the best tool in a consultant's armoury is a well-stocked address book.
Quick Case Study
One client found it extremely useful to have a vendor-independent person to advise them in their dealings with a web development company. Were the clients' expectations reasonable? Were the developer's reasons for missing deadlines genuine, or just excuses?
