In a spirit of transparency toward both its customers and its consultants, IT Cortex makes no secret of how its fees are shared and its resources secured. This page provides an overview of the internal arrangements taken within the IT Cortex network.

Fee Allocation

Contract fees are (normally) split according to the following rule:

• 15% for the IT Cortex network itself (covering the brand name, the definition of the services, the selection of the methodology and tools, the invoicing and administrative costs and, last but not least, the fiscal support and assistance). This latter aspect is a significant added value of IT Cortex for its consultants and also possibly for its customers.
• 10% for providing the lead (typically mentioning that customer X, with Mr. or Mrs. Y as contact person, has a business need Z). The weight of this contribution tend to increase in a tight market. The lead fee still applies for follow-up contracts.
• 10% for the actual sale (i.e. meeting with the prospect, putting together the proposal and securing the resources). This fee can be split among several consultants. (In the case of an answer to a call for tender, lead and sales fees are combined).
• 65% for execution (i.e. performing the actual consulting work).

In case a specific consulting tool (e.g. a methodology, a simulation tool, etc...) needs to be part of the proposal its utilization fee is paid to its owner (be he, or she, part of the IT Cortex network or not) off the total proposal fee. The income balance is split according to the predefined rule. Similarly, if IT Cortex has to subcontract some work, this cost is taken off before splitting the remaining fee. Those external costs are of course taken into account at proposal stage but no uplift is applied.

When IT Cortex performs an assignment as part of a consortium it takes into account each contribution to the global business proposal in determining how its allocated fee will be split (e.g. the business can be brought in by other members of the consortium and not by members of the IT Cortex network; similarly the assignment can be performed under the brand name of another member of the consortium).

When a private or public organization spontaneously contacts IT Cortex, the lead fee is added to the network fee.

Should a project overflow and take longer than planned the daily fee of the consultants in charge of its execution will shrink in the same proportion. This will bear no effect on other fees. This is justified by the fact that the consultants completing the assignment have signed-off the proposal.

Payments

IT Cortex pays its consultants as soon as it receives the money from its customers. Its bank statements are open to all its consultants.

Partial payments by the customer respect the predefined fee splitting (i.e. no party gets paid first).

Typical Arrangements and Internal Organization

Some IT Cortex consultants are just providing leads (typically senior executives who want to slow down their professional activities but who are still nurturing business relationships).

Consultants providing the lead usually determine who will participate to the sales effort and put together the proposal. Consultants, who will perform the actual consulting work are selected at proposal stage. In which case they need to accept the proposal (i.e. feel comfortable with it) and commit themselves (contractually) in case the proposal is won.

There are no level and no hierarchy whatsoever within the IT Cortex network. The customer replaces the boss or the manager or the partner. IT Cortex will shun consultants with poor performance and favor those who satisfy - or delight - their customers (especially in a tight market). The network auto-organizes itself and auto-improves its business fitness as explained in Our Organization.

When there is a difference in seniority and skills among several consultants assigned on the same project the global execution fee can be split according to agreed-upon keys (defined at proposal stage).

Every IT Cortex consultant is senior, experienced and motivated and therefore does not need to be managed - even though some coordination is necessary in large projects. Project coordination is part of what is termed as project execution from the IT Cortex perspective. It does not justify claims for higher fees.

Every consultant is free to join and leave the network (on the condition that he/she has fulfilled his/her commitments, i.e. typically complete the assignments that he/she has accepted). IT Cortex is also free to allocate resources on incoming projects. Therefore the network acts as a open business market, with suppliers and consumers. This market does not demand any entry fee nor departing fee.

The network fee and the lead fee remain due, during a period of two years, by consultants who secure, for themselves, follow-up contracts with a customer, while having worked for that same customer - or any related company - under the IT Cortex umbrella.

Every consultant is free to work partially for himself and partially for the IT Cortex network - for different customers, within the constraints of his/her commitments.

Tools and methodologies are never forced upon consultants performing an assignment. They are therefore not used as an additional rent benefiting the IT Cortex network.

IT Cortex does not employ permanent members of staff.

Key Success Factors of a Consulting Network

As experience has shown, the key success factors of a successful consulting network reside in:

• avoiding greed (similar networks have failed by the combined effect of a market downturn and the  excessive greed of their founders)
• having a large and diversified skill mix among the consultants (strengths and weaknesses of each consultant are quickly known within the network and new assignments are staffed accordingly)
• respecting the freedom of each consultant (freelance consultants are independent by nature and this bend of character needs to be respected)
• ensuring that independent consultants have more interest to join the network than to work on their own or through agencies (like interim management agencies).
• setting-up a virtuous give and take circle whereby consultants who contribute the most to the network are also the ones who receive the most from it.
• allowing flexibility within the self-organized arrangements taken by the network members.

Additional Remarks

• The overhead costs of a consulting network (i.e. the network, lead and sales costs in IT Cortex case, totaling 35% of its fees) are significantly lower than the corresponding costs of a traditional consulting business (i.e. all their costs, except execution). Consulting companies working with permanent members of staff spend a much higher proportion of their income managing and training their junior consultants, hiring and firing their staff according to the market evolutions, maintaining administrative personnel, leasing expansive office space and lavishly remunerating their partners (at least during favorable market times).
• Market downturn has almost vaporized all margins in the traditional consulting business by the combined effect of a lower occupation rate of permanent consultants and the price war raging in a shrinking market, thereby highlighting the need for a very flexible cost structure (as the one achieved in consulting networks).
• Networks of freelance professionals are not limited to high fly consultants. Professional networks of gardeners, accountants, cleaning personnel, etc... are also successful when properly set-up and organized.
• Customers are the first beneficiaries of a lean cost structure which is directly reflected in the daily rates associated with a given skill level (to compare apples and apples).
• Good independent consultants can secure a net income significantly higher than their permanent counterparts - even taking into account their idle time - because of their more favorable fiscal situation. This guarantees the availability of top-notch consultants and their superior commitment and motivation.

Additional information about partnering with IT Cortex can be obtained by contacting us.

IT Cortex is organized as a network of highly experienced free-lance consultants. Project teams self-assemble based on affinity and specialty. There is no hierarchy and no upper authority that assigns resources to projects. The brain cortex also displays the self-assembling propriety of neurons during a learning process. IT Cortex operating structure is designed so as to :

• meet sophisticated customers demands
• be highly flexible
• minimize its operating costs
• attract the best possible consultants
• adjust itself easily to fluctuations in the market conjuncture

Some consultants secure their income by providing leads, others by selling contracts, others by delivering projects. Each one gets remunerated based on his or her contribution to the overall revenue flow. Large consultancies are sometimes timidly attempting to mimic that kind of organization within their bulky structure. They want their consultants to be held responsible to find their projects by networking inside or outside their organization. 

Good consultants within our organization are rewarded by easily finding new engagements or - if they manage to bring in new engagements themselves - their projects are easily staffed because they are well scoped, well defined and have clear and achievable objectives. Less talented consultants tend to fall through the meshes of the net by having a poor occupation rate. IT Cortex pushes this natural selection process to its full consequences in order to guarantee top quality professionals. Its network is open to highly experienced free-lance professionals. Contrary to permanent members of staff they are free to come and go (only when their commitment toward a project has been met). They collaborate with IT Cortex only if both parties share the interest in doing so. That symbiotic relationship ensures much stronger ties with good consultants than what any contractual relationship can possibly achieve.

Contrary to large consultancies, IT Cortex

• does not use its senior consultants to sell jobs and send afterwards juniors to execute it, sometimes placing the customer in a position where he has to provide himself the guidance to those inexperienced consultants,
• works only with experienced professionals who combine both a pragmatic, result-oriented approach and a insightful vision based on state of the art consulting concepts,
• applies reasonable rates because it works with truly minimal overhead costs thereby guaranteeing both reasonable fees for its customers and a motivating income for its consultants

IT Cortex network organization optimizes its efficiency at securing and using the right human resources during the ebb and flow of the market. It does not weaken itself by hiring and firing bursts through which large consulting organizations inevitably pass as the economic conjuncture fluctuates.

This specific network organization has no impact whatsoever on customers who always have a single point of contact with an IT Cortex representative. They also benefit from a commitment of the whole network to deliver the results promised.

Additional information about a possible partnership with IT Cortex - be it as a customer or as a consultant - can be obtained by contacting us.

The name IT Cortex holds IT - that stands for Information Technology - and Cortex - that designates the outer layer of the brain.

The role of the cortex is to interpret the information processed by the underlying nervous layers. Similarly, the objective of IT Cortex - at its inception - consisted in enabling business organizations interpreting and taking full advantage - from a business perspective - of their information systems. The essence of this approach consisted in turning data into information and information into knowledge in order to enable the management to make the right business decisions.  We found out later, by coincidence, that IT cortex is a full fledged neurology term: it stands for inferotemporal cortex which is the region of the brain associated with object recognition. Identifying conceptual objects or recurrent patterns in business operations may, broadly speaking, be considered as a useful capability for a business consultant.

Making information technology become intelligent - as the brain's cortex adds intelligence to basic brain functions - rests on the following two paradigm shifts:

First Paradigm Shift: Synergizing IT and Organization

During the course of its past engagements IT Cortex had to shift its focus from fine-tuning reporting capabilities of Information Systems to performing the necessary organizational adjustments so that the business could use IT systems more efficiently. IT Cortex had more and more to work on two fronts instead of one : Information Technology and organization. Not only did it have to work on two fronts but it had also to correlate, to improve the synergy between those two complementary aspects in order to increase the relevance of the decisional information provided. Information systems have to be designed so as to automate business processes and business processes are molded by the underlying IT applications. This YIN - YANG duality has to evolve into their TAO, i.e. the [transcendental] synergy between those two poles.

Second Paradigm Shift: Achieving Efficiency within one's Commercial or Public Environment

Addressing the cooperative structure of IT and organization as an integrated whole still appeared to insufficient Businesses or public institutions have to achieve their finality within their environment. The way they operate can only be considered in relationship with their environment not as an absolute objective irrespectively of the contraints that they have to deal with. Businesses and public institutions strive to achieve optimality within a fixed set of constraints such as budget, time, human resources, legal requirements. The limited means at their disposal do not allow them to strive toward academic perfection. Any operational improvement should be geared toward efficiency: i.e. maximizing the results with the means at one's disposal. They have to do things right not to do the right things. 

The efficiency that we assist our customers to achieve rests on the concept of Pareto efficiency, initially introduced by economists. IT Cortex has refined and broadened that concept to encompass all aspects of business operation relevant for any public or commercial organization. 

Strategic Simplification is the name of the process by which IT Cortex consultants make an organization Pareto efficient within its environment. 

The typical scope of IT Cortex engagements covers and integrates IT - organization - and business strategy. The approach is neither top-down nor bottom-up but holistic. It aims at achieving the full coherence between technical - local - detailed aspects and strategic - global - general considerations in a way best adapted to the commercial or public environment in which the organization operates.

Additional information can, of course, always be obtained by contacting us.

IT Cortex's core competence situates itself at the synergetic boundary between information technologies and organization.

IT Cortex views organization and IT as the YIN and the YANG of a successful business. Public or commercial organizations rely heavily on IT to have their processes automated and their information correctly distributed. IT, for its part, needs to operate according to a model reflecting faithfully how the business operates. Whereas for-profit or public institutions achieve efficiency through IT automation, IT also ought to grow according to how the business operates. IT and organization nurture each other and benefit from each other but, as in any cooperative relationship, they have to continously adjust to each other.

Uniting, integrating, correlating, "synergizing" IT and organization requires in-depth mutual adaptation and transcending individual specificity (achieving their TAO to further the YIN - YANG analogy). This integration is always painstaking. It has to work accross silos, fight baron's mentality, demand openess and transparency,...An organization does not bend itself easily to algorithmically defined rules and IT often looses sight of the business finality while concentrating on technical issues.

IT Cortex's expertise consists in "synergizing" these two complementary aspects into one efficient whole that achieves Darwinian-like fitness into its commercial or public environment.