[IxDA Discuss] Bringing on a Consulting Group

[Joe Davidchik]

Could use some advice here.

Our Sr. Management group has decided to bring on an outside consulting
group to "help" with our product/information architecture. I will
purposely not give out the name of the group since you who are reading
this might be working for them.

We currently have a team of 5 UI/Interaction Designers, 1 UX Manager
(research guy), and about 8 or so Business Analysts.

So where I am asking for advice/guidance/input are in the following

1.	How I can help steer the relationship on both sides so we don't
have folks pissing each other off?
2.	How can I get the consulting group work in a more collaborate
structure, rather then just meeting to get inputs and then running up
the mountain themselves  to work out the solutions?
3.	Long term we look to be very self supportive. Consulting like
everything else is a business. What should we do in this world to keep
from building up a relationship of dependency?

-Joe