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HRIS consultant alternative: OutSail delivers faster, data-driven HR tech broker vs consultant guidance—zero fees, unbiased vendor matching, smarter HRIS selection in weeks, not months.
Your company needs a new HRIS, and you've wisely decided not to go it alone. But now you face another choice: hire a traditional HR consultant or work with a modern tech broker like OutSail?
Both promise unbiased guidance through vendor selection. Both have deep industry knowledge. Both can save you time and help you avoid costly mistakes. So what's the difference?
Everything—starting with how they get paid and what that means for your experience.
Here's the fundamental difference that drives every other distinction between traditional HR consultants and OutSail's modern broker approach.
To run a truly unbiased HRIS selection, traditional consultants must charge you directly. Otherwise, if vendors paid them, they'd face the same conflict of interest as salespeople.
Standard HR Consulting Fees for HRIS Selection:
This protects objectivity—they work for you, not the vendors. But it creates its own problems, which we'll explore shortly.
OutSail pioneered a different model that maintains objectivity while eliminating client fees:
The Vendor-Agnostic Broker Model:
The Result: OutSail runs the same rigorous selection process as a $30K consultant but charges you $0. You get unbiased guidance without the prohibitive cost.
One client put it perfectly: "We got the expertise of a top-tier consultant without writing a check. It felt too good to be true, but the equal commission model made sense once we understood it."
The fee structure doesn't just affect your budget—it shapes your entire experience.
When consultants charge $20-35K for vendor selection, they face an uncomfortable pressure: you need to feel you got your money's worth.
If you pay $30,000 for HRIS selection, you expect:
Consultants know this. So they deliver it—even when it doesn't help you make a better decision.
What This Creates:
The consultant needs to justify that $30K fee. They can't just say "I identified your top 3 vendors in a week, here you go"—even if that's what you actually need.
OutSail doesn't charge you a project fee, so there's no fee to justify. This creates a fundamentally different dynamic:
What This Enables:
VetnCare received their vendor shortlist within 48 hours and completed their entire selection in 30 days. That's only possible when your advisor isn't incentivized to prolong the process.
A finance executive at one OutSail client said: "Our previous consultant dragged things out for months. OutSail got us to decision in six weeks. Same quality outcome, 75% less time."
The business model difference drives distinct approaches to every aspect of vendor selection.
Traditional HR Consultants:
The goal: Produce deliverables that justify the consulting fee.
OutSail's Modern Approach:
The goal: Quickly clarify what matters most so you can evaluate real options.
Why It Matters: You don't need a requirements document that could be published as a book. You need clarity on must-haves vs nice-to-haves so you can differentiate vendors.
Traditional HR Consultants:
The approach: Leverage accumulated experience and industry relationships.
OutSail's Modern Approach:
The approach: Combine human expertise with data-driven vendor matching.
Why It Matters: The HRIS market evolves rapidly. Last year's best solution might not be this year's best fit. OutSail's platform reflects current market reality, not outdated consultant knowledge.
Traditional HR Consultants:
The logic: Formal RFPs ensure thorough evaluation and create an audit trail.
OutSail's Modern Approach:
The logic: RFPs create busywork. Direct vendor engagement reveals more about fit than written responses.
Why It Matters: Here's a secret from inside the industry—vendors hate RFPs. They assign junior staff to fill them out, copy-paste from previous responses, and often provide misleading answers to check boxes. Live demos and strategic questioning reveal far more about actual fit.
Traditional HR Consultants:
The approach: Systematic, thorough, defensible.
OutSail's Modern Approach:
The approach: Efficient, focused, outcome-driven.
Why It Matters: Most evaluation criteria don't differentiate modern HRIS platforms—they all handle core HR functions. The art is identifying the 5-10 factors that actually matter for your decision, then evaluating vendors against those. OutSail's data shows what really differentiates vendors for companies like yours.
Traditional HR Consultants:
The limitation: Consultants see 10-20 HRIS deals per year. Their pricing knowledge is limited.
OutSail's Modern Approach:
The advantage: OutSail sees 200+ HRIS deals per year. They know exactly what everyone else is paying.
Why It Matters: Gentherm saved $1M over three years through OutSail's negotiation expertise. That's 33-50x more than the typical consultant fee—and OutSail delivered those savings for free.
Let's put this in perspective:
Traditional HR Consultant Process:
OutSail's Modern Process:
First Manhattan completed their entire payroll selection in 30 days using OutSail's streamlined approach. Try getting that timeline from a traditional consultant who needs to justify their fee.
Let's be fair: there are scenarios where traditional HR consulting delivers unique value.
Consider a Traditional Consultant If:
But for most mid-market and enterprise companies, these conditions don't apply. You need vendor selection expertise, not a transformation consultant. You want efficiency, not formality. And you'd rather invest savings in the software itself than consulting fees.
OutSail excels in the scenarios most companies actually face:
Choose OutSail If:
Olo used OutSail's data-driven approach to identify a high-ROI vendor they had initially dismissed. Their finance team particularly valued the transparent pricing benchmarks—something their previous consultant couldn't provide.
Here's what separates modern brokers from traditional consultants: purpose-built technology.
This isn't just about looking modern—it's about working faster and making better decisions with better data.
Sacramento Children's Home used OutSail's optimization tools to enhance their existing HRIS, avoiding a disruptive migration that a traditional consultant had recommended. The tech platform revealed improvement opportunities their consultant had missed.
Traditional consultants follow their process regardless of what you discover. OutSail's agile approach adapts based on what you learn.
Example Scenario:
During demos, you realize that a vendor you thought was perfect actually lacks a feature that matters to you.
Traditional Consultant Response: "We'll note this in our analysis. We're currently in the demo phase, so we'll address this in our recommendation report in three weeks."
OutSail Response: "Let's add a fourth vendor to your shortlist this week who has that capability. We can run that demo next Monday, and you can compare them side-by-side with your current finalists."
The rigid consulting process treats vendor selection like a waterfall project. OutSail's modern approach treats it like what it is: a learning process that should adapt as you gather information.
OutSail's modern, data-driven approach produces measurable outcomes:
Client Success Metrics:
Individual Success Stories:
Compare those results to traditional consulting:
Let's do the math on a typical HRIS selection:
Traditional HR Consultant Path:
OutSail Modern Broker Path:
The question isn't "Can we afford OutSail?" It's "Can we afford NOT to use OutSail?"
Traditional consulting isn't going away—some companies will always prefer that approach. But the market is shifting toward modern, tech-enabled advisory for a simple reason: better outcomes at lower cost.
The Modern Buyer Wants:
OutSail built their entire model around these preferences. And with 1,000+ successful clients, the model clearly works.
Want to experience the difference between traditional consulting and modern tech matching?
In your first conversation with OutSail, you'll:
No $30K proposal. No multi-month commitment. Just expert guidance powered by modern technology.
Traditional HR consultants charge $20-35K because that's the only way to stay unbiased without vendor payments. But OutSail proved there's another way: equal commission rates across all vendors.
This business model innovation enables process innovation. Without fees to justify, OutSail can focus purely on efficiency and outcomes. Without proposal theater, they can build tech platforms that actually improve decisions.
The result? The same quality guidance, delivered faster, supported by better data, and costing you nothing.
Companies like DoorDash, Hudl, and SalesLoft chose OutSail over traditional consultants because they recognized that vendor selection shouldn't require a consultant's budget or timeline. Modern tools and modern business models deliver better results.
Start Your Modern HRIS Selection with OutSail
OutSail's modern broker model has helped 1,000+ companies select the right HR software, saving 100,000+ business hours and facilitating $100M+ in HR tech purchases—all at zero cost to buyers.
