Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT director at Fairchild Equipment, and we sell and rent forklifts and provide warehouse and material handling services. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC?

We needed help with our ERP selection and implementation project. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Andrea Jones Consulting is assisting us and keeping everything on track for our ERP selection and implementation project. 

What is the team composition?

I regularly work with Barry (Head of Business Operations) and Joel (Project Manager), and I’ve initially spoken with Andrea (Principal).

How did you come to work with Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC?

Andrea put on a webinar about ERP selection. This included steps that we should take to ensure that everything would be optimal and that we were getting everything we needed. Some months later, I reached out to Andrea because we were doing an ERP replacement selection. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $27,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2021, and it’s ongoing.

How did Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

Andrea Jones Consulting is tremendous at project management. They are always available, and we’re guaranteed that our project manager will be doing a certain number of hours per month. 

Additionally, Joel ensures that we’re getting the best out of our hours. They don’t just sit there and send emails — they’re actually getting the results we need. They’ve been an effective point of contact for our ERP resources, facilitating healthy communication between our teams.

Joel and I have weekly calls to keep the project moving forward, on top of our other meetings. We also have weekly check-in calls to ensure our teams are on the same page and we’re both moving in the same direction. 

Every two weeks, I also have a call with our sales manager, and they ask if they can do anything extra or if we need additional resources. Andrea Jones Consulting keeps up with the needs of our project. We communicate through phone calls and Microsoft Teams meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They listen to me. The other agencies I’ve talked with only hear the parts they want to hear, whereas Andrea Jones Consulting is more like a partner. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you set up weekly calls and that you’re utilizing your time with your project manager. They want to help — they’re very willing and able to assist you. Make sure that you’re able to give them the attention they’re going to need from you when it comes to giving insights into your business processes. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of engagement, which encompasses the business development, marketing, diversity, and HR teams. We’re an electrical contractor.

What challenge were you trying to address with Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC?

Our first paint point was that our software program dated back to 1996, so it was outdated and inadequate. Also, we didn’t have a great service to communicate what we were working on or planning. We couldn’t communicate with every employee, so we had to find new ways to share the information.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve hired Andrea Jones Consulting twice. First, we hired them for process improvement and an ERP selection process. The second time, they helped us formulate a communication plan around our engagement survey.

For the first project, the discovery phase was a four-month process where we met with the team to figure out what the process looked like and ways to improve it to move forward. Then, we had to find the software program that worked best for our business.

On the second project, we’ve provided them with all the data that we had. They’ve developed the communication plan around that data.

What is the team composition?

On the first project, we worked with four people. Andrea (Principal) was the one that ran us through the process. She had two project managers and someone behind the scenes to develop all the documentation and present the information.

For the second project, we have a project manager working on the communication plan.

How did you come to work with Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC?

Andrea worked on a process improvement project with a company that I used to work on. I knew her capabilities from that first experience, so when we had the process improvement project, I knew it was something that really fit in her wheelhouse. It was exactly what we were looking for.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent above $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2019, and the first project was 18 months long. However, our relationship is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The efficiency that the company gained from the process improvement and implementation of the software was huge. It allowed our technicians and project managers to do more work because the process was so streamlined ultimately.

How did Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

We started with in-person meetings and then moved to Zoom or Teams due to COVID-19. The project manager was amazing at communicating with the 80 employees that he was working with. Overall, they did a fabulous job of ensuring everything was up to date and with correct documentation.

Our communication with the second project manager is strictly through Zoom and Teams meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re highly organized and well-versed in process improvement. Also, they make sure that you understand what you’re working with. Andrea Jones Consulting’s team is very professional and overly communicative, which is helpful in an extensive process like this.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve done a fantastic job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set your expectations upfront; you won’t be disappointed.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am an executive vice president at a high-end premium knife manufacturer. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Andrea Jones Consulting?

We needed help with internal communication and change management. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Andrea Jones Consulting is helping us create a communications strategy and content for that strategy. 

We were bringing people back into the office after working from home during COVID-19, and at the same time, we were growing exponentially and expanding into more facilities. We went from two facilities and developed into four. Over several months, they helped us get our internal team used to the idea of coming back into the office as we continued to grow. 

Now they’re helping us create a communication strategy for our annual strategic planning process. We’d gotten feedback from our leadership that they didn’t feel well-informed about the trajectory of our company and we needed help on that front. 

Phase One of our second project used their team for the bandwidth and expertise we didn’t have in-house to help us best communicate our strategic planning for our company’s future to our leadership.

Phase Two is now figuring out how to work within COVID-19 precautions to facilitate company meetings. Before COVID-19, we were having in-person company meetings, but even without the threat of the pandemic, we will never be able to go back to company meetings because we’re growing so much. 

Andrea Jones Consulting is now helping us design ways to communicate within our company that lets teammates feel engaged even when they can’t be in the room together. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with two teammates, a consultant and Barry (Head of Business Operations & Organizational Development Consultant). He checks with us to ensure we are satisfied with the deliverables. 

How did you come to work with Andrea Jones Consulting?

When I met her, I was looking for assistance with change management, so I approached a business leadership group I am a member of for recommendations. They referred me to Andrea Jones Consulting — the owner is a member of the group as well. I reached out to their team and trusted them immediately because I already knew the owner. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $10,000 with them for the first project and $15,000 for the second, for a total of $25,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Andrea Jones Consulting in April 2021 and the partnership is ongoing. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They’ve already delivered a communication plan and content for our company as part of the first project we did with them. They provided the tools we needed to effectively communicate our COVID-19 work transition to our company in a less disruptive way.

The deliverables from the second project are not available yet — the goal is for the communication plan to provide my company with a way to communicate the results of our strategic planning in a consistent and orderly manner. The plan is to have everything completed by the end of December 2021.  

I don’t have any quantitative metrics, but I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on emails I’ve sent out utilizing the strategy and content they’ve provided — our internal teammates are very happy with the information we’re providing. 

We were so happy with the feedback on the first project we decided to keep them on for a second project that we’re currently collaborating on. 

How did Andrea Jones Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

We have an internal project management office and I had a weekly meeting with one of those teammates and a consultant from Andrea Jones Consulting. Those meetings kept us on track.

They provided our final deliverables via email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have ways of communicating with people that I didn’t know before working with them — our teammates really appreciate their communication style. The consultant we use is very skilled, but it is more than just that — she is intuitive and has a deep knowledge of individuals and how to communicate change in a way that everyone can understand. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

At times I found that the volume of the work that they produce is so large that it can be overwhelming to filter down. It would be nice if they would narrow everything down to the most important aspect of each deliverable and determine what is crucial for me to know.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise clients to have regular check-ins and be very clear about expectations — clients should track project progress against set expectations. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the senior director of supply chain for a manufacturer, repair station, and operator of various aircraft in the defense industry. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC?

We contacted them specifically to provide project and change management support for our ERP implementation process. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Andrea Jones Consulting provided our company with two managers to support our ongoing ERP implementation. They've taken on the additional workload of implementing our ERP system while my internal team keeps our standard operations going.

They’re also helping us navigate the complex decisions that we need to make during a project of this scope. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with two teammates from Andrea Jones Consulting, the project manager and the change manager. 

How did you come to work with Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC?

They are based in the same city as my company, and one of our employees was familiar with them from a previous engagement. 

We interviewed and assessed their company and were impressed with their management and leadership, so we began a contract with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $250,000–$500,000 at this stage — it will be closer to $500,000 by the time the project goes live.   

What is the status of this engagement?

Andrea Jones Consulting came on board in April 2020 and the partnership is ongoing. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

I cannot produce any specific metrics at this stage, but we are scheduled to go live with the project in February 2022. 

We do expect some benefits from implementing the new ERP system, but any metrics will not be tangible until several months after we go-live. 

How did Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management methodology is based on a book called Traction, it is a very practical methodology that has kept us on track during the project. 

The project manager is very knowledgeable and experienced in ERP implementation. She’s been very professional, communicative and provides documentation and follow-through on every step executed during the project. 

COVID-19 was hitting the US as we began our partnership. Their team was very flexible in shifting into an online project and change management model — we used video- and teleconferencing and email to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve been a great partner — we’ve been very impressed with the resources they’ve provided us so far. 

Their team has a lot of knowledge and experience in the field — they’re very professional. We expect to continue our relationship with Andrea Jones Consulting for the next 3–6 months, if not longer, after the project goes live.  

They have solid communication skills and were able to navigate the difficult switch to online communication to discuss difficult concepts and challenges — it takes an extra set of skills to be able to continue a project without meeting face-to-face. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There have been challenges with this project, but Andrea Jones Consulting has not been the source of any of them. They’ve actually found the solutions to the challenges we’ve been facing, from the capacity to execute the project to the ERP provider.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise customers to be quick about assessing how the resources from Andrea Jones Consulting will fit into their company — it’s essential to confirm that they’re the best fit.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Precision Analytical, a specialty lab that does hormone testing for doctors and patients.

What challenge were you trying to address with Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC?

Andrea Jones provided business and operational process analysis for us. Our company needed to document all of our processes with customers from start to finish because we were going to update our whole business system.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Andrea Jones team helped us document our processes, and we used that documentation as inputs for selecting our next business system. They also guided our selection process by recommending a new system. 

 Using Andrea Jones' documentation assistance, we searched for opportunities to move forward with the next-generation system that could help us run our company better. To document everything, they used SharePoint and OneDrive. They also had their own system in place for interviewing our employees about how they performed different customer processes. 

To facilitate the process, Andrea Jones used a series of online "sticky notes" to document our workflows to achieve results with our customers.  This process provided a simple yet very visual look at our current workflows and accentuated opportunities for improvement. Moreover, they looked into our departments; they analyzed how we used data and interacted with our customers. They also studied our accounting, customer service, specimen processing, and laboratory processes — virtually every part of our business.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two project managers who led us through the discovery and documentation phases. Our team was also involved with Andrea (Principal), who led the initial discussions and helped us think about our customer interactions. There was also a project coordinator, who documented all the steps we took. The coordinator also interfaced with our key stakeholders to verify the accuracy of what they’d documented. 

Apart from them, we also worked with an account manager, who ensured that we were using the right resources. This manager also kept track of where we were in our contract with Andrea Jones while handling the issues or questions we had. 

Initially, our main point of contact was Andrea. Then, as we moved on to the detailed discovery phase, Janell (Project Manager & Process Improvement Consultant) took over as our main point person. 

How did you come to work with Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC?

I knew Andrea Jones through a person in my previous company, which used their services before. Meanwhile, we also received bids from two other consulting groups. However, I liked Andrea Jones’ detailed proposal, and their experience matched the service we wanted. They’d worked on similar types of business conversions and assisted other companies in doing such an activity, and that was the reason we chose them over other vendors. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent approximately $130,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from December 2020–September 2021.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Andrea Jones helped us see inefficiencies in our system. They also showed us how to resolve those problems by going through different paths. On top of that, they identified quick wins that we could implement to reduce waste in our company. This service had a huge impact on our business and improved our results. To elaborate, instead of waiting for a year to integrate the changes into our system, we resolved efficiencies along the way. That helped us leverage some of the investments we’d made with them, and we achieved results a lot sooner than expected. 

How did Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

I truly enjoyed their transparent communication style. I never felt that I didn’t know where we were in the process because they had a great system of posting things on SharePoint. Likewise, the team was quick to turn around documentation, allowing us to review them as quickly. Ultimately, this enabled us to stay on track even though we had an aggressive timeline.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The best part of working with Andrea Jones was their ability to listen to our needs and give solid recommendations and directions. For comparison, other consultants only told us what we wanted to hear; they put us in a box. By contrast, Andrea Jones truly understood our needs, and their resources were honest about the things we needed to do differently. I truly appreciated this while working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any. In fact, Andrea Jones was patient in working within our timelines while also teaching our team to be forthcoming with information. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give Andrea Jones as much information as possible about your needs and the business areas you want to improve. If possible, have an internal project champion that will ensure they get the information they need. This internal stakeholder should link up with Andrea Jones’ project manager — this should be their primary responsibility. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the president of Power Systems West a Kohler Power Distributor in the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain region. We have five locations across the region and sell and service Kohler Power Generators.

For what projects/services did your company hire Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC, and what were your goals?

We started with a continuous improvement project for our Service Department that resulted in us moving to an ERP implementation. Our goals were to streamline our process to gain operational efficiencies and the modernize our ERP system for all 80 users. We hoped to move all of our operations into one software platform running in the cloud.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

AJC was recommended to us from our VP of Business Development who had worked with Andrea in the past.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We worked on continuous improvement of our service process for a year. AJC helped with scoping our full ERP needs and evaluated I believe over 20 different ERP solutions and presented us with the top 3. We then selected a ERP solutions provider and AJC provided Project Management for the ERP Implementation over a 9 month period. We designed, implemented and went live with Phase 1 and Phase 2 of our ERP solution.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We have worked with 5-6 members of the AJC team over the last 2 years.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The ERP project proved to be very challenging and I personally learned a great deal. AJC helped us achieve our "Go Live" status and helped us keep a very challenging vendor on target. The AJC project management was instrumental in our team meeting our deadline. We went live 1 month late but we identified a late problem that AJC was instrumental in helping us resolve. They also came in after "Go Live" and helped us manage our continuous improvement efforts.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

AJC uses a Milestone tracker in Excel and a regular meeting cadence. They stay on top of dates and help the team stay organized. They also have implemented agile planning with our team.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The AJC team comes on board and really becomes a leading driver for the project team. They are able to balance the workload and helped our organization continue to focus on day-to-day work while they managed the project. We were able to have a record Sales year while implementing a new ERP and replacing a 28 year old system. It was quite a accomplishment, but was in no way easy on our team. Without Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC, none of the accomplishments were possible.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

With any implementation there are lessons learned, but I would say overall the AJC team was a huge asset to our organization. I think if I had it to do over again I would have done more customer ERP reviews during selection. We worked primarily with ERP companies to demo their solutions but we did not really see much for US based companies using different ERP's.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the President and CEO of a small private career college.

For what projects/services did your company hire Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC?

We needed a project manager for our learning management system (Canvas) implementation.

How did you select Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC and what were the deciding factors?

I had met Andrea Jones through networking and we remained in touch. I was impressed with the experience and know-how of her team and it helped we could have a "fractional PM".

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

It was your typical software implementation project.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

We only worked with AJC. No reason to go anywhere else.

Can you share any outcomes from the engagement that demonstrate progress or success?

The project went live on time and the software continues to be used.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication was great and succinct. No wasted conference calls. Very good project updates and clear identification of decisions needed and/or risk management issues.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

It was great we could have a fractional project manager since the project was small and we are a small company.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None that I can think of.