How to Choose an Automation Consultant

Most selection processes ask about technology and learn nothing, because every credible firm answers the technology questions identically. The differences are commercial. Ask whether the firm takes reseller margin on the software it recommends; if it does, the recommendation is an advertisement. Ask for the measurement from a previous engagement — not a percentage in a case study, but what was counted, how, and by whom. Ask who actually builds: many proposals are written by senior consultants and delivered by subcontractors nobody introduced. Ask what the first phase costs and what specifically gets decided at the end of it, because a firm unwilling to scope a bounded first phase is asking for an open budget. Ask what happens after handover: whether you receive documented processes, runbooks and access, or a dependency. Finally, ask what they have recommended against building. A consultant who has never told a client to stop a project has never been independent enough to be worth the fee.