Introducing the Directory Divas

If you had a large, eDirectory-based project that needed some outside help in order to get off the ground – who are ya gonna call? For many years, the answer would be Novell Consulting Services.  But as we’ve documented here over the past couple of years, the business consultants from Cambridge Technology Partners have taken the reins for all Novell consulting engagements while the directory experts have either been shown the door, or transferred to other areas of the company.

I still hear from those directory experts from time to time – and I wish I could tell you some of the hysterically funny stories I’ve heard about Cambridge consultants and eDirectory, but doing so could jeopardize the people who tell me those stories. So catch me in the hallway at a trade show (I’m in Phoenix, Ariz., this week for the Directory Experts conference) and I’ll tell you some good ones.

What brings the subject up again, though, is that Novell is now finding itself with a shortage of directory experts in its consulting organization and – more and more – is turning to outside, third party firms to do the directory work. Frequently it turns to one of three organizations led by former Novell consultants, a group I call the “Directory Divas.”

Judy Olivier (Directory Experts – https://www.dxi.ca/), Sally Barker (Tenacious Integration Services – https://www.tenacious.ws/) and Sandra Harrell (DSI Consulting – https://www.dsi-consulting.com/ ) are all former NCS employees.

They all left the company (either voluntarily or otherwise) since the “merger” with Cambridge Technology Partners. And they all know more about directories and identity management than anyone who came to Novell from Cambridge. They’ll all blush becomingly when I say that, but the reality is that they aren’t the “Lovely Ladies of LDAP.” “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” is a much better description.

Even some of the old-timers inside Novell – some who are still with the consulting organization (and hating every minute of it), and others who’ve transferred to other departments – will advise you to seek out the services of the Directory Divas rather than “Ngage” Novell Consulting for an identity management project.

Not only will the Directory Divas handle your project more quickly and efficiently, but it will also cost you less. As I mentioned above, the dirty little secret here is that Novell consulting often finds itself in over its head these days when confronting an identity management problem and solves that by calling in a third-party consulting firm (such as the three I’ve been talking about) to do the work. I’d suggest you just cut out the middleman and go right to the real experts.