As with any software product there is a lot of internet traffic out there declaring there are QlikView jobs to be had. My phone is also increasingly being rung by recruitment consultants with their latest contracts. This is an excellent sign that the QlikView space is growing – but it is a subtly different space to that of some other tools? Should it be treated differently?
This consultant thinks so.
One of the key selling points of QlikView is the incredibly short time to live (and therefore ROI). Even comparatively complex solutions can be delivered in weeks – not months. So why then are the contracts on offer all for six or twelve months five days a week? My personal opinion is because this is works best for QlikView recruiters – not QlikView customers.
In my experience a much more ad-hoc approach works best for everyone.
Let me give an example. On one job I was booked for a five day initial engagement, but by lunchtime of the first day we had uncovered a large number of data quality issues. The afternoon was spent using QlikView to highlight these issues. By close of play the call had been made to postpone the next four days. This was bad news for me, leaving a gap in my schedule, but good for the client that they didn’t have to pay for days they couldn’t use. We reconvened a few weeks later once the data was ready. If this had happened in the case of getting someone on for six months there would be a highly skilled resource not being used – or being busy doing a data clean that could have been done by an internal resource.
The skills that are worth buying in for longer durations are those of data analyst or project manager – if required. Both are essential for a successful project once it gets over a certain size. Yes, any decent QlikView consultant should have those skills – but would you not rather be making use of their QlikView skills?
For ongoing QlikView maintenance engage with someone who can be called back in to deal with these maintenance tasks as they arise. Also, look at growing the basic skills in your existing team. Bringing internal resources up to speed with basic day to day running of a QlikView environment should not take long – with a suitably skilled consultant delivering the training / knowledge transfer.
So, does this mean that there is not a space for recruitment firms providing QlikView resources? Not at all. I think that they just need to adapt to the market they are operating in. There are some recruiters that will provide consultants on an short term or ad-hoc basis and I feel these are the ones who understand the lifecycle of a QlikView project much better. If you are looking for resource; look for a recruitment company that will offer a service that matches your requirements.
Alternatively speak to a QlikTech partner or seek out an independent consultant yourself. The web and sites like LinkedIn are there to enable you to do just that.
Your post makes interesting reading and I agree completely how quick projects can be completed. As you know we specialise in the QlikView recruitment space and so I wanted to quickly pick up on one of the points you made about long term contracts suiting the recruiters.
Generally it’s not the recruiters that make the decisions on how long they suspect someone is going to be needed for. We do not scope the projects, and it’s sometimes the blind leading the blind. We are not a consultancy, we don’t supply Business Analysts to scope the project first, if we did, it would be a different story.
Although its nice when contractors are able to work long projects, but given the current state of the market it would actually be more beneficial if Consultants were able to help with short term work, as their would be more people readily available for when companies need them.
The lengthy contracts tie people up, so when a client comes to us and asks us for someone to start next week, it’s a tough job finding the right person with the right experience to start at short notice; this then results in the client approaching a Consultancy who can move people around.
The market is changing quickly, there is still more demand for people than there are good people – but the gap is starting to close.
I appreciate your thoughts, but as a recruiter, my job is to research, market and source companies looking for someone to solve a problem. We have an element of control with who goes where, but ultimately everyone in the market is their own person; and from different circumstances in which helps them make the choice on what is right for them; We just simply give them the option to choice from judgement.
Kind Regarsd
Glenn – many thanks for your comments – it is good to get a both sides of the story on these things.
The thing the longer contracts do provide is security for both the client and the consultant, and it is understandable that both parties want someone in the middle they can trust to broker the deal when taking this approach.