[hello_moto]

This is how most mid-size traditional consulting companies work. You can switch the word Microsoft to IBM or Oracle or something else.

This is how you get referrals. Like it or not, it's business.

[bediger]

I realize that traditional consulting companies hitch themselves to particular vendors or sets of vendors. I was surprised that consultants would act as Party Commissars, reporting developers or groups that depart from their preferred vendor(s). I thought reporting people for deviation from a party line went out in 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell.

[hkarthik]

A lot of the folks that I referred to are actually independent consultants, or switching consulting companies regularly.

That phenomenon transcends the typical consulting firm loyalty and is more of a culture around Microsoft products.