Benson: I think in the next couple years I wouldn't mind staying on the independent consulting side of things. From a personal standpoint, with my wife and myself, we don't have any children, and being in our late 20's, it honestly feels like now is the time to move around the country and do independent work. But after a little while, I'd like to settle down into some type of leadership-type situation, or work with new CRM products or other so-called "New Dimension" products. I'd always like to stay close to the technology if possible, but maybe move into a coordination or management type role.

Reed: Do you feel that now you've gotten into an area of CRM where you'd like to stay focused if you can?

Benson: Yes, I would like to stay focused in Internet Sales. If someone gave me the choice between two projects, one with standard R/3 work and the other with SAP-CRM work, I'd definitely take the CRM role, just because I find it more challenging. There are a lot more opportunities to do a lot of things that people haven't done before. In R/3 you can get creative in ABAP and that's fine, and you can get creative in SD, but a lot of it has been done before. But within CRM you're blazing new trails all over the place, and you get a chance to do things that other people haven't done, and to test the limits of your skills and also to test the limits of the technology itself.

Reed: Any advice for people who are finding the SAP market slow and good opportunities hard to come by?

Benson: I would try to beef up on some of the skills that we chatted about earlier, object-oriented skills on the technical side; on the functional side, maybe take a look at some of the basic organizational management skills out there for SD. I'm sure everybody knows sales orgs and distribution channels, but you want to try to get closer to the web-enabled technology, paying attention to information you find on the web or through your SAP users groups.

I know there are some white papers out there that are publicly available on the SAP web site and in other places that describe some of the benefits of CRM. When you read about the IPC, anybody who really likes pricing can take a shot at that and get an idea of what it's all about and try to fill in the gaps. For this type of market, you want to try to give yourself a head start, maybe a deal-maker type thing that we discussed. It might be a situation where your extra training and skills give you a little bit of an edge over the other applicant. Try to stick through it this market and everything will turn around soon.

Reed: Let's hope so. And hopefully you'll find a project that keeps you going in the CRM direction.

Benson: I know there are plenty of things out there, it's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time with the right people and not running into too many political interruptions I guess.

Reed: Yeah, politics is a big part of it these days. You think you're all set up on this new project and you just never know.

Benson: All of a sudden everything can change overnight.

An In-Depth Interview with Chris Benson, SAP Internet Sales CRM Consultant
Part Seven
December 18, 2001

In the seventh and final part of our interview, we ask Chris how he made the jump to independent SAP consulting. He tells us why he decided to leave Price Waterhouse, and shares his take on the advantages and disadvantages of "permanent" SAP positions. We wrap up the interview with a brief discussion about incorporation versus W-2 contracting.

Jon Reed: There are people out there - and this may seem strange to you because you seem to be very comfortable with the independent consulting role - who have wanted to get into independent consulting but have held back even though they have the skills. Did you struggle with that when you first left Price Waterhouse? A lot of people would have never left an established firm like that to go out on their own.

Chris Benson: Call me stupid, I guess, I don't know (laughs). It definitely is a jump. But if you're confident in your skill levels, talk to some of the people that you know - maybe find an independent consultant who's a friend or who's on a project - and ask them if they honestly think you've got what it takes to hack it. If you can get used to the lifestyle it can work. Granted, you're going to try to find something in your hometown if possible, but being independent makes it tougher to dig through all the different projects and find something in your home town.

But then again, you have a lot more control about what projects you end up on, and that's one of the biggest benefits. If someone offers you a chance to go to Boise, Idaho for a six month maintenance project, you can turn that down and say, "No, I'd rather do something else." So being independent definitely has its benefits. But there's uncertainty out there in the market, and when you're a permanent employee, you definitely have a little more security in your situation. But then again, we've seen a lot of layoffs these days. So how much is that security really worth?

Reed: I've been encouraging consultants who I talk with to question whether security is a good reason for staying with a perm position. I think there are arguments for being in a perm role, but security is not a good one anymore, because that "security" usually comes at such a financial cost compared to your "independent market value," that you're not necessarily more secure. And as we alluded to earlier, when you're an employee with a consulting firm, you're beholden to whatever projects they can find for you; whereas if you're independent you can contact our firm, you can contact a lot of different people, and really expand your options. And you get to pick the project you're most interested in.

Benson: Absolutely. The reason I'd go back to a perm role would be to pursue career growth type goals - if I wanted to be a manager or direct a project for a good, reputable company. As an independent, it can be hard to get new skills, hot skills, and when you're an independent, it's going to be a lot harder to move into project management type roles, especially if you've never had those roles in the past. If that type of position is what you're looking for, I'd say that's more of a legitimate reason to go perm than security is. 

Reed: Definitely. Obviously the trick there, when you're looking for a perm position with good skills exposure, is to have a good BS detector, so that you can make sure you get a job with a company that really offers training and career development instead of just paying lip service to those notions. Some people at big consulting firms have not gotten good results in terms of access to training and certification, but then you talk about your own experience at PwC, and how you had these opportunities for future training in the hot skills areas that really helped you, and that type of opportunity would have been a lot harder to find on your own.

Benson: Exactly. PwC is a great company, but one of the reasons I decided to leave was because at the time they were cutting back on all the training, and so I had to ask myself, "Why am I here if I don't have access to the hot skills training?" When you look at the Big Five and other large consultancies, when they started trimming their budgets, one of the first things they looked at was training. But if you cut back on training you're just shooting yourself in the foot - sooner or later employees are going to backlash around that issue, especially when the company touts training as one of the first two or three virtues about joining their firm.

Reed: It can be really hard to sort out now, because you don't know who to believe. You have to ask yourself, "Are they really going to train me?" But I think you're right: there are people who really want to move into upper management roles and they need some credibility or company name recognition on their resume. But it's funny, even when you consider the name recognition factor, that isn't necessarily the best reason to go perm. You know how it goes with independents: once you get client engagements like Osram Sylvania and ExxonMobil on your resume, you don't need a blue chip consulting firm on your resume in order to have credibility.

Benson: Honestly, when people look at my resume and see Price Waterhouse, they say, "That's nice." But I don't think they think that much about it. I think the list of clients that I've been with is just as important, if not more. Your experience out there in the field, even if you've been with some smaller firms or companies, is what matters. Every now and then I'll get a comment about PwC, but I kind of discount that, and say, "Big deal. That doesn't mean I'm better than anybody else. As a matter of fact, a lot of the people I've worked with know a lot more than me, and they're working for XYZ Joe Blow Consulting Company." The big name consulting firm on the resume doesn't really prove anything to me.  

Reed: That is so true. Chris, are you incorporated?

Benson: No, I just do W-2, although I was hoping to talk to Brian Trout about incorporating because I've got a bunch of friends that did, so I've been thinking about it. During the last year and a half, I've been going ninety miles an hour, and I've also been doing my MBA online, so there haven't been too many spare moments.

Reed: Incorporating is appealing to seasoned contractors, because if you're independent for a long period of time, being incorporated can allow you to deduct a lot of expenses. You're running your own business at that point, and you're able to save substantially on some costs that you wouldn't otherwise be able to deduct from your tax return. But at the same time, the problem is that handling your corporation cuts into your time.

Benson: Yes, that's what I've heard. There are conflicting accounts from some of my friends. Some say, "Do it, do it, do it," and some say, "It's not worth it."

Reed: It's also a matter of what you're good at and how you like to spend your free time. Some people really like to do the business management. They come home on the weekends and do administrative work and crunch numbers and take pride in the money they're saving on their tax returns. Other contractors look at it differently. Their take on it is: "I'd rather focus on getting an extra 10 billable hours a week - just ramp up my hours and not worry so much about my taxes." After all, when you're making a good hourly rate, there's an argument for simply racking up the hours and not worrying so much about cutting costs through incorporation. So I think you have a lot of choices there.

Benson: I'm planning on taking a harder look at it during this time "down time" while I'm recuperating. I'm going to go on the Internet and research some of the benefits, but I know you've done a lot of research in that area so I figured I'd talk to you about it.

Reed: There are some firms that won't put contractors on a W-2 payroll, but most firms will. So it doesn't really exclude you from too much. I know of one firm that won't put people on a W-2 contracting arrangement because it interferes with their ability to provide certain benefits for their own full time employees, because there are certain laws that they're subjected to. And also making the rate work can be a little tougher for companies when you're going in as a W-2; but I think that's more of a concern if you're feeling like a rate mercenary. And some people are.

I think it's a misconception that there's one right way to do it. The "you have to incorporate" attitude is borne more out of the paranoia that some people have about paying taxes. I don't really subscribe to that myself, but as a business owner I have experienced the benefits of incorporation, and there are definitely benefits. Anyway, it's an interesting issue that you can explore from time to time between projects.

Benson: Absolutely.

Reed: Chris, thanks a lot for your time. You've given our readers an invaluable look at the emerging CRM market. You've also given us some great insight into what it takes to break into new areas and become an independent contractor.

Benson: No problem. I look forward to hearing what readers have to say.