I still keep up with business in Chicago because I have clients and peers there. When I was consulting, there were two firms that had excellent consulting reputations: Whittman-Hart and the CARA Group. Whittman-Hart (or WHITTMANHART as their new Web site has it spelled) has a crazy history that includes becoming part of the one those great consulting company failures following the 90s–specifically the marchFIRST fiasco.
Whittman-Hart had a collection of excessively skilled consultants who knew training, documentation, usability, and Web technology like no others. They were actually reputed to get work done, unlike other companies at that time that would spend years on an IT project just to have it shut down when the client ran out of money. In 2000, Whittman-Hart merged with USWeb and the Mitchell Madison Group to form marchFIRST. At this point, marchFIRST had promised to be the ultimate consulting company. As they say down here, they were too big for their britches. In January 2001, marchFIRST was laying off people and closing offices and by March, Divine, Inc. had announced its intentions to buy what was left of marchFIRST.
Last year, Whittman-Hart was reborn as WHITTMANHART (see this article). The end result is that they seem to be growing and doing well. I don't know anybody in the reborn firm, but I wonder if it's the same as it was. I hope so. Everyone I knew at the original Whittman-Hart loved it and they produced excellent work. But I have to laugh at the new WHITTMANHART Web site. The site is sparse and the company history doesn't even mention marchFIRST by name.
I worked for another company called CARA that was smaller, but had the same quality reputation as Whittman-Hart. During the time I was there, CARA was purchased by ACS and then that division of ACS was purchased by TMP Worldwide, who owned The Monster Board. In the middle of all of this were politics and customer quality issues. I saw a lot of back-biting and distrust between people who once worked together.
Since last year, I have been in contact with the original founders of CARA, who reformed the company as TMP spun off its consulting business as the Hudson Highland Group. CARA is doing well and I wish them the best.
All of this makes me think of the consulting business and how it can become so distant from the goals of the founders. Most people, myself included, enjoy consulting because we are producers who love helping other companies with things they cannot do themselves. But when smaller consulting firms become part of behemoth global companies, I think consulting takes a back seat to milking clients for all they have. I've worked with those kinds of companies, too.
A lot of the Chicago tech industry is recorded in The May Report. I wish Dallas had a similar online rag, because I still receive it and read it. Nothing exposes business culture like the employees themselves.
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