Boots warns of reliance on consultants

Armies of consultants are no substitute for skilled in-house employees, according to senior management at the ebusiness operation of Boots.

Dominic Riley, managing director of the high street retailer's internet portal, handbag.com, told the Gartner Internet and Electronic Business Conference in London last week that consultants should be used sparingly.

"We made a conscious choice not to employ large numbers of consultants. Our model was always flexibility and control, with a core team of staff skilled in analysis and the management of outside contractors," he said.

Discussing the setting up of a digital TV and web channel called Wellbeing, Richard Holmes, managing director of Boots' Internet Ventures, said: "Initially, we had armies of consultants everywhere. With hindsight, I wouldn't do that again."

As a successful bricks and mortar company, Boots had different ideas about making a profit. "The business has to bring in money. The business plan [for handbag.com] was that we would make a profit within four years, and get the site up and running in 12 weeks," said Riley.

"Our executive chairman was driving it. Unless the chief executive supports it, you might as well get another job," said Holmes. "There are too many leaps of faith you have to take, and if the people at the top don't back the vision, they'll run away at the first sign of trouble."

He expressed frustration in balancing the potential offered by IT and the reality of running a business. "Technology people are always interested in the next big thing, discussing what happens in two years' time, not what I can do in the next three weeks," he said.

Handbag.com has 367,000 monthly users, but launching the site in October 1999 was only the start. Riley plans to increase the number of users by 50 per cent and to double the number of pages on the site this year.

"Anybody can build a website. The difficulty comes the next day in keeping it different and up-to-date," he explained.

First published in Computing