Information technology evolves very dynamically, making it difficult to keep up. The IT manager is usually a highly requested professional who, given the speed of their routine — generally composed of emergencies —, cannot drive improvements and manage the sector’s activities simultaneously. Therefore, relying on IT consulting is an excellent recipe for implementing new strategies and optimizing the area as a whole.
However, it is common to have doubts and uncertainties that interfere with making this important decision. To break down these barriers and make the right choice when selecting an IT consulting firm, pay attention to the tips we will share below.
Be clear about your objective
Before hiring IT consulting, map out the current situation of the area in your business in order to understand its weaknesses and vulnerabilities and to define one or more objectives necessary for improving the sector.
Do not worry about having absolute precision when defining this objective, as this information simply serves, more precisely, as a starting point to guide the analyses to be carried out by the consultants.
Seek recommendations for IT consulting
There are countless IT consulting firms on the market, and if you have no prior experience in hiring these services, it becomes difficult to choose one at random.
Therefore, seek recommendations from industry colleagues and look for information that supports your choice, such as class associations and well-known IT professionals who can provide an opinion based on experience. From this data, you can make a preliminary selection of the consulting firms you will contact.
Interview the consultants
Interview each of the pre-selected consultants to learn about their methodology and working tools and to understand the interaction dynamics that will be necessary between your organization and theirs.
State your expectations regarding the hiring and make sure that the services offered are aligned with your needs. Request quotes only from consultants who demonstrate a real capacity to achieve the objective set by your company.
Prioritize what really matters
When budgeting for IT consulting, do not make the price of the services your primary priority when making your choice.
Remember that consulting is not a simple expense, but an investment. And, as such, it requires a cost-benefit analysis that takes into account various factors capable of increasing the probability of success of the service, as we will see in the next topics of this post.
Consider experience and certification
The company providing IT consulting must have a high level of experience, a long time in the market, and a good reputation.
Inquire about the resume of the consulting professionals and check their portfolio of clients and projects already completed. Take the team’s certifications into account; they demonstrate their up-to-date knowledge and competence credibility.
As an IT manager, you know that certifications are currently an almost fundamental requirement for professionals in the field. The consulting team of professionals should hold certifications in:
- Information security, including cloud computing, risk management, and mobile security;
- Routing and Switching, to design, implement, and analyze networks;
- Database;
- Project management, considered one of the most important in IT.
In addition to these, others may be verified depending on the focus of the services to be performed in your company:
- Specific to cloud computing, if your company bases its IT activities primarily on cloud environments;
- For the deployment of web-based platforms;
- Related to mobile device management.
Seek feedback and client references
Try to learn about the results achieved in at least three projects developed by the IT consulting firm in different companies. Give preference to organizations similar to yours and obtain information about the degree of satisfaction of these clients by contacting each one personally.
Another way to get this feedback is by watching videos or reading posts about success stories, which are usually published on the consulting firms’ blogs or websites, and by searching the internet on IT discussion forums and social networks.
Rely on a multidisciplinary team
Information technology is a very broad and diverse area of knowledge, making its conceptual, technical, and practical mastery impossible for a single professional.
Among the IT specialties, we can mention:
- Infrastructure;
- Software development;
- Database administration;
- Network administration;
- Information architecture;
- E-commerce;
- Data processing;
- Information security;
- Systems implementation;
- Technical support.
It is important that the consulting firm to be hired has a multidisciplinary IT team whose expertises are complementary to ensure project success, or that it has strategic partnerships with other consultancies and technology providers that support the specialties complementary to its own.
Bonus: Complete guide to implementing a Service Desk in your company
Make a confidentiality agreement
Throughout the IT consulting process, it is normal for the hired team to gain access to confidential information from your organization, which needs and must be protected from competition.
For this reason, ensure that the service agreement includes a confidentiality clause that guarantees the privacy of the information accessed during the consulting.
Ensure knowledge transfer
The consultancy should leave two important legacies for your organization:
- The objective achieved within the agreed deadline, generating greater competitiveness;
- The enhancement of your team’s knowledge. In this case, the consultant needs to train your team to empower them to continue the work performed or to have operational mastery of the tools provided.
Therefore, negotiate knowledge transfer with the consultant and make sure the contract specifies how this important task will be carried out.
As we have seen, choosing an IT consulting firm has its secrets, and the step-by-step process must be followed strictly and without haste to avoid mistakes and failures. It is worth noting that, in addition to making the right choice and signing a well-detailed contract, your company needs to provide adequate support to the consultants so they can achieve the best possible results.
For the IT consulting to flow as naturally as possible, you, as an IT manager or another employee — trusted and with a multiplier profile, who knows the organizational culture well and has free access to all departments —, must be the facilitator for the consultants within the organization.
This professional will intermediate internal communication to obtain the necessary information, as well as monitor the progress of the consulting schedule.
We hope this information has been useful to clarify your doubts and help overcome any uncertainty regarding hiring IT consulting.
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