for which the big IT service providers are either too expensive, too slow or just don't have the right skills at hand
If you know what your BigCo competition charges, can you simply reduce the delta between their price and yours, at a level where your customer will still save significantly?
It is possible that there are commodity consulting firms that focus on low-price for some lines of service like HR manuals. Systems consulting for telcoms is another sort of animal.
The customer will save significantly if their operational costs are reduced or their operational benefits are increased. On any worthwhile business project, these will dwarf the pricing delta among consultants. To put it another way, let the client make their money from running their business. Handing the client your profit is a bad idea.
In the engineering equivalent of the CAP theorem [1] better and faster are what matters for any project worth doing.
Comments
for which the big IT service providers are either too expensive, too slow or just don't have the right skills at hand
If you know what your BigCo competition charges, can you simply reduce the delta between their price and yours, at a level where your customer will still save significantly?
It is possible that there are commodity consulting firms that focus on low-price for some lines of service like HR manuals. Systems consulting for telcoms is another sort of animal.
The customer will save significantly if their operational costs are reduced or their operational benefits are increased. On any worthwhile business project, these will dwarf the pricing delta among consultants. To put it another way, let the client make their money from running their business. Handing the client your profit is a bad idea.
In the engineering equivalent of the CAP theorem [1] better and faster are what matters for any project worth doing.
[1] Fast, cheap, good: pick two.