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Ironically, the Avion software had substantial reporting features, so Motherwear could calculate the damage from canceled orders--about $300,000, according to financial manager Holly Smith -Bove. "But you don't know how many of the people you angered will never order again," she says. Payroll costs, moreover, shot up by $100,000. "It was taking us so much longer to process orders that we had to bring in more people," Laufer says. "And we also had heavy turnover. Employees got upset because customers were taking out their frustration on them."

Two months after the initial installation, and only after Motherwear brought in a lawyer, Avion finally sent in a second team, but most of the problems remained until Laufer hired a competent programmer to untangle the mess. That work cost him $50,000 last year and $40,000 this year. "We're finally getting the system we want, but it's been very expensive," he says. "What we learned was 'Buyer beware.' These guys were convincing salesmen, but obviously, they couldn't back it up."

Don't get the wrong impression--there are plenty of good, honest consultants and programmers out there. The key to successful office automation is identifying the right one for the job and then giving the project the same focus and attention you'd give any core business operation. Consultants emphasize that the key is defining the problem to be solved and planning out the system in painstaking detail.

"There's a rule that professionals go by," says Gordon MacDonald, "which is that for every hour you spend planning--meaning not touching a computer--you save five hours in implementation. Before anybody gets to write software, you should have mock-ups of all the screens the program is going to produce, with the menus and options. You should have a flow chart explaining how the program is going to proceed, in plain English, so the nontechnical people can see how it will react to specific situations. And there should be a clear statement as to what the program will and won't do. The kiss of death is when a programmer spends an hour with an end user and then sits down to write."

A formal contract is another essential. Stipulate if practicable that the work will proceed in stages, so quality can be assessed incrementally, before everything is cast in code. The contract also should set up payment terms and a procedure to settle disputes, which almost invariably arise--if the customer wants more features added late in the game, say, or argues that something is not performing as advertised and so withholds final payment.

An established mechanism to resolve complaints--arbitration perhaps--can prevent a nasty little surprise that programmers sometimes pop on unwary clients: so-called time bombs or time locks. If the customer hasn't paid in full by a certain point, usually soon after the project-completion date, the bomb "explodes" and erases or otherwise disables the program. "If it's a mission-critical piece of software, it quite possibly shuts the company down," says Kirby Glad, a consultant in Orem, Utah, who routinely embeds time locks in software and defends them as the only leverage he has over balky or unreasonable clients.

Finally, urges veteran consultant Arthur Fink, never buy a computer system without taking a test-drive. He offers as an example what an insurance company looking for a package to handle accounts, policies, and claims--the works--did. "They said to each competing vendor, 'We want to actually try you out, and you'll have to work with our staff so we can spend a few hours loading some real data, processing real claims in real accounts.' And they didn't want vendors at the keyboards showing the way," Fink says. "They wanted their own people at the controls. They looked at three packages, and two of them fell right off the board--lots of problems. The third one got mixed reviews. They realized that at a deep level it was a good package with some flaws that could be corrected. They decided to go forward with that, and it's been a success."

So don't abandon hope. The whole point of systems, remember, is to make your life a little easier.

The Fine Art of Finding a Consultant

The quality of the consultant you select might well determine the speed and success of your computerization project, so choose wisely. A few pointers:

• Remember that good consultants aren't always geographically bound; they'll travel, and frequently they can work on your system by modem.
• The best referral system is word of mouth. Ask local executives whom they have used. You've probably found a good consultant if he or she is so busy it's hard to schedule a first meeting. Trade associations also can be useful in recommending consultants experienced in your industry. That's a big advantage because you won't have to train them on business-specific issues.
• Don't assume consultants are good just because they've been in business awhile. A bad one can screw up one job after another and make a living at that.
• It goes without saying that you should check references carefully. And don't just call former customers. If possible, visit them to inspect the consultant's "work product," especially how it performs for nontechnical users. It's important to look at the solutions the consultant has installed. If they almost always use the same hardware or software, chances are, you're dealing with a value-added reseller (VAR), not an independent consultant. VARs aren't necessarily bad, but they profit by selling specific products, which might not be optimum or the most economical for your needs.
• When interviewing consultants, pretend you're hiring an employee. You probably cannot judge the person's level of expertise, but you know a jerk when you see one. People skills matter because consultants deal with you and your staff as they learn how the company works so they can customize the system. You don't want a condescending, lingo-spouting chiphead who will alienate everybody in sight. Get a normal communicator, to whom you might say, "How 'bout them Cubs?"
• Ask about professional affiliations. Membership in the Independent Computer Consultants Association, for example, means the individual subscribes to a code of ethics. It also indicates a dedication to professional development. Then call those groups to verify that the person is in good standing.

Writing the Contract

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