| How to contract for success Contractors can be a useful tool in your kit, if you take the proper precautions and encourage communication.
By Douglas Welch You bring in a contractor to handle part of a critical network project that's gotten off track. The strategy works like a charm - you quickly get back on schedule. But just as suddenly, the contractor sees the grass look-ing greener in some other company's pasture. He rushes to finish what you hired him to do and is off in a flash. The finished product still looks good, but there's virtually no trace of how the work was done or how it can be integrated with the rest of the project. There are several ways to protect yourself from falling victim to this scenario. For one thing, draft a detailed contract that not only spells out usual details, such as work hours, payment schedule and adherence to a professional code of behavior, but also specifies how the contractor will give you information about what was done. This might include written documentation, detailed procedures and even formal training for staffers. The goal here is to ensure that your staff can fix whatever goes wrong once the contractor leaves and can build on the foundation left behind. Furthermore, make sure at least one of your full-time staffers understands the contractor's duties and responsibilities. This doesn't mean peering over the contractor's shoulder. Rather, the staffer should meet regularly with the contractor and become the person who receives electronic or written documentation when the job is done. Your employee should also be able to immediately step in and keep the work going if the contractor leaves ahead of schedule. ''We include our need for final documentation in the original contract,'' says Ellis Hillinger, network manager for Simpson Timber Co., a forestry products firm in Shelton, Wash. ''We also work quite closely with the contractor during the course of a project and help that person shape the documentation so it is satisfactory to everyone involved.'' Hillinger is not alone. ''I require status reports and documentation of all information on a project,'' says Paul Harker, president of Harker Enterprises, Inc., a network management and installation consultancy in Idaho Falls, Idaho. ''I also require all information to be passed in paper or electronic form. If something is implemented, require the contractor to write the operating/ configuration procedure also. This documents all necessary information,'' Harker says. Harker has had experience on both sides of the issue, first as a senior network engineer at Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies Co. and now as a network design consultant. The right stuffIt is also important to carefully choose what you let contractors take on. While closed-end projects such as hardware and software installations lend themselves well to contract labor, handing over day-to-day operations to an outsider might not be a good fit.''We primarily use contractors to do low-level work in the networking group,'' says Mark Eggers, network manager at Candle Corp., a developer of mainframe and distributed systems management software. ''IP readdressing, massive configuration changes and large moves are tasks that we typically contract out.'' Defining the precise deliverables due at the end of a project makes it much easier to manage a contractor and evaluate performance. Otherwise, you're forced to subjectively evaluate contractors much in the same way you do some permanent staff. This is troubling and time-consuming. Likewise, assign contractors work that can be done independently but is also easy to monitor and manage. For example, if your company is installing a new network operating system, let the contractor do the work. Once it is complete, the contractor can turn teacher and instruct your staff on how to install additional servers, new versions of the operating system and how best to use the technology. Don't place contractors in highly specialized, mission-critical positions. Those types of positions should be reserved for in-house staffers who hopefully will have a bigger stake in the company and, therefore, stay longer. Open your eyesNot all problems reside on the contractor side of the relationship. Often, you can be so buried in your own crises that you abandon contractors to their own devices.You may even resist receiving input or feedback from a contractor you've hired to carry out a specific task. ''The lead contractor I worked with is very sharp, professional and courteous,'' Hillinger says. ''This made it difficult for him to call my attention to decisions he thought were bad.'' A different viewRemember that contractors often bring a fresh perspective to a project. Be open to their opinions, and learn from them as much as you can. What began as a short-term relationship might turn into a long-term, mu- tually beneficial, cooperative agreement.As a contractor, Harker has found that educating his customers has been beneficial because it spawns repeat business. ''Customers know they can call me when [they need to tap my brain],'' he says. ''Just today, I received a call thanking me for explaining network traffic issues and segmentation. The customer had just segmented his network and now wants me to design a network system for headquarters,'' Harker says. Used correctly, contractors can be a useful tool. In fact, they rapidly are becoming a necessity because of the dearth of talent in hot technologies such as Windows NT. The trick is making sure your relationships with contractors are productive. Taking a few precautions and developing guidelines that you and your contractors can live with is a step in the right direction.
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Welch is a computer consultant and freelance writer in Van Nuys, Calif. He can be reached at dewelch@ earthlink.net. |