Having spent many years in professional services orgs, your post really rings true with me. Many of the organizations I’ve worked in started out small, with one guy who knows everything about supporting the organizations systems. As the company grew, that guy simply didn’t have enough arms to continue to provide the same level of support so they hired a few more people, things got segmented and then the fun began. Nobody trusted the new guys, they were afraid that if they didn’t talk to superman, they would be wasting their time, or worse yet, things would get really squirrely and they would be doomed because they didn’t get the highest quality support. Meanwhile, superman is got more and more stressed out and the company was throwing good money after bad paying salaries for all this additional staff whom nobody trusted or used!

I like your answer to this problem: it’s about being proactive. Many businesses give very little if any thought to the systems they use. They just assume that there will be phone service for example. It’s a given. While growth is still being discussed (before it ever happens), listen to the customer (in this case: the organization’s department heads and users of the systems) and ask the deep questions around what exactly they require, how important is it to the business and what level of risk are they willing to tolerate when it comes to their data, communications, whatever it is you provide. In other words, establish the value to them up front. Professional services leaders must make sure that professional services is thought of as a revenue generation component rather than just another liability. Once you have a seat at that table, it’s easier to have discussions about scale and relying on sidekicks because suddenly we’re talking about sustained profitability instead of panic and delusions. Unless you use the language of the business, this won’t happen.

If organizations wait until something goes wrong to build solid professional services orgs, it’s going to cost a lot more than if they planned well for it before deployment and growth. Smart leaders are all about the “what if” and thinking like a chess player; 7 moves ahead.

Don F Perkins
http://donfperkins.com

You can’t have someone else step in if they really aren’t a “valid” replacement for you – have dealt with this first hand with consultants who work for me. Great points!