One of the most often asked questions at Business Forum Luncheons and conferences is one that basically asks "how do you go about picking a consultant and how do you best manage the relationship that results". Implementing new technology affects the organization in many ways from work process to the cultural considerations such change always brings. Expectations that are not clearly articulated may result in issues developing over such hot buttons as costs, resources and short term needs over long term goals.

How is your relationship with your IT consultants? From what we hear every week, most often "tense" would be a very apt description. This can pose dire consequences for everyone involved as the shared vision breaks down and it also poses serious problems for the successful completion of any project. Add the small difficulty of trying to operate projects on a multi-site basis and you enter a world of science fiction doomsayers. Kanbay does it every day for some of the biggest and the best. So we asked them if they would share with us some of their secrets on how they have managed to achieve this reputation. It will also give us the chance to hear some of the systems used by our members and a few horror stories that might go a long way to preventing the rest of us from repeating them.