| Summary: | Consulting industry remains as a profession shrouded in great deal of mystery (Flemming & Larry, 2005), hidden behind private partnership, client confidentiality and proprietary methods. While many clients continue to spend millions of dollars a year on consulting services, it is ironic to think that the consulting services has never established a standards approach in profession unlike the accounting, engineering or legal professions. What is interesting is that although consulting is a high stake engagement that influences strategic directions of the client, the approach, methodology, intervention approach and analytical methods used by the consulting firms are often proprietary and rest with the core value of the consulting firms. This also is true for the IT consulting industry. Although traditionally IT consulting industry was originated from specialized domain of technical areas, it has since evolved into strategic IT consulting that prompted a shift in consulting engagement business models that fuses both technical and strategic thinking of the IT firm. Technological solution that has once public domain knowledge to certain extend is now an incomplete solution without strategic thinking. This has prompted IT firms to find ways to differentiate themselves in order to undertake IT strategy consulting engagements.
Microsoft Consulting Services Singapore (MCS) is one such firm. It seeks to differentiate itself from competitive IT firms. While it is not possible to have an external view and compare consulting practices against competitive IT firms, it is possible to examine internal processes to see what can be done to remain competitive. This research attempts to undertake a study in examining MCS consulting services components from a holistic approach to analyse what can be improved in its delivery approach to clients from an operational management point of view. This research takes a analytical view of its service management models as a whole, its services blueprint for delivering consulting engagements, its knowledge creation and management and customer satisfaction. Primary data supporting these finds were collected from focus group discussions and surveys. Secondary data were obtained from approved internal Microsoft database and industrial reports. A conclusion is then made at the end of this research to reflect the findings, gaps and recommendations.
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