Tag Archives: IT Consultancy

Use An External IT Consultancy For Your Projects

The decision whether to employ internal consultants on an ongoing basis or to engage outside consulting firms on a project-by-project basis is driven by a number of factors, including the costs, required experience, resource availability, urgency, and the reliability of in-house as opposed to outside options. The purpose of in-house consultants and external consulting firms is both to assess problems and to suggest workable solutions, but there are some variations on how each of these groups functions, what types of projects they excel at, and what overall value-add they add to a company. By hiring outside IT project consulting services, those outside consultants offer a more objective, detached perspective on the situation.

External consultants are still needed on projects where the in-house consultants do not have the experience, or where there is need for a neutral, external viewpoint. At the same time, internal consultants miss out on benefits from outside expertise and an opportunity to observe outcomes and challenges from solutions implemented in other situations. They are better acquainted with the business than any outside team, and thus spend less time understanding the details and challenges surrounding any given issue.Internal consultants concentrate on the employers particular challenges, getting in-depth insights that may result in faster implementation of changes in projects. The knowledge gathered by the internal consultants throughout the course of the project provides great insights about a firms processes, resources, capabilities, and limitations. External consultants, with the necessary knowledge, experience, and skills, can establish a strong foundation for supporting the clients objectives and seeing its projects to fruitful completion.

External consultants may be used when deep specialist knowledge is needed on a large-scale project, or if neutral, independent opinions are needed on an issue, and these are better in certain circumstances. External consultants are usually available at short notice for either one-off or longer-term projects. Of course, external consultants are invaluable when the firm needs outside perspectives or specific expertise for a specific project, but generally speaking, firms can greatly benefit from an inexpensive, quick, and ongoing solution for dealing with their own strategic challenges. From the long-term standpoint, the absence of a need for their internal advisory team to turn a profit on a single project, as well as faster turnaround times because of the companys familiarity, would lead to lower costs overall compared with the case where a firm hired an outside consultancy for the same work. Companies who do not have the internal resources to lead and execute projects, will either resort to outside consultants out of necessity.

In such cases, one of the best solutions may be to engage external project management consultants, who would be perceived automatically as neutral and untainted by internal politics. The final reason to use consultants is more often than not when a person critical to a business or a project is kept out for a prolonged period due to emergency. If you are in a tough place in your business, and you are having problems with the projects, then a third-party project management consultant may be exactly what you need. Whatever reasons you might have for requiring a project management consultation, project management consultations can give your organization more flexibility and an increased range of skills compared to looking only in-house. One hurdle you will have to jump through in hiring a consultant to work on your IT project is getting them quickly up to speed on the project management software used for managing IT. While basic project management skills can usually apply to many fields, it may make sense for firms to hire a project management consultant for more specialized areas. Hiring an IT project consultancy service can help in a few key ways that a general project manager and an internal IT department cannot. A consultant can alleviate pressures on existing project team members, which allows them to work more efficiently. Hiring an external consultant takes pressure off of your team, taking away the administrative, organizational, communications, and project management.

Another thing to think about is the fact that the outside consultant may add value to your organization through the support that they provide. If the benefits mentioned above are appealing, the idea of an outside consultant should also be. Organizations facing a decision about whether to create in-house consulting teams or to bring on outside consultants should consider the pros and cons of each option beforehand. Bringing on external expertise from a branded, global consulting firm may be costly, but it can be a better choice in certain circumstances, such as when the project requires a team with specific technical expertise, or if unusual project challenges arise. Hiring a skilled consultant to work alongside the organizations in-house team will ensure the benefits of outside expertise and objectivity are balanced by the lower costs and familiarity of an in-house team. An experienced consultant brings specialized knowledge and skills, and the right one can reinvigorate the team and reinvigorate passions about a flagging project. In recent years, many companies have established both formal and informal in-house advisory teams to bring in specialist knowledge, guidance, and personnel to projects across the enterprise and departments. Many advisory and implementation roles are distributed across different departments and functions, supporting the internal clients with particular challenges in concert, for example, corporate development, corporate finance, HR, finance, project management offices, and computer science and technology operations units. In addition, many individuals fulfill consulting roles, whether on a full-time basis or as part of their day-to-day duties, without carrying a consulting title.
A consultant is there to focus on the project, nothing else, and they are free to devote their entire time to the project, with no other distractions.

When it comes to hiring and working with consultants or outside experts, it is a middle-market leaders job to map out a clear process for managing the change (as we described above), create an internal project team, plug gaps with external talent when needed, and then communicate about who needs to do what, and when. Middle market companies should thoroughly analyze and document their project needs, existing in-house resources/knowledge, and gaps in knowledge that external expertise can help fill, well before moving ahead with the project or spending even one dollar on consultants. If there are clear outcomes and measurements, outcomes and timelines are clarified early on in a project, so both the outside consultants and the organization are happy with the goals that are being attempted, and they understand the variables and are accommodating to them.