What can an IT Consultant do for my small business?

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How to choose an Information Technology (IT) consultant.

There are many consultants offering help to you as an individual, business or organization. With the Internet, Dice, etc. there are many individuals and companies offering their services. How do you decide who to hire?

Let's first ask a couple of questions and define out what the need may be. Do you need someone who can help with your strategy? Are you looking for someone more organizational?

Making sure you have a clear picture will help out the organization or individual. Understanding and defining this out, just as you would for hiring a permanent employee, can really help define what you are in need of.

In smaller and some medium sized organizations that use IT as an operational tool, there will be times that new IT capabilities need to be implemented to stay in the game. For example, just about every business has at least a basic Web site with information about the company, how to contact it, and the products or services it offers. An organization with an operational IT approach might talk to people they know who are IT savvy to discover what they needed to do and how to get it done as quickly and cheaply as possible. By contrast, another organization might look beyond operational IT capacities to consider the strategic potential of a Web site and recognize that it needs more than a mere brochure. When companies are going green or paperless, like a Government organization, many times they will implement Apple iPads or Tablets. Certain operations may use technology such as Office365 and be in need to short-term expertise for email migration or document migration.

Who has your best interest?

For organizations without IT management skills, independent IT consultants can be valuable allies who help identify needs, find potential service providers, advise on provider selection, and help plan and manage the project. Smaller businesses without skilled IT management can bring this expertise in-house temporarily for specific projects by hiring independent consultants, and that's the role I played for my friend's company.

Hire a Consultant

Hiring a consultant is an investment. Moreover, it's tempting to cut costs by talking directly to service providers without input from a consultant. After all, quality service providers will gather requirements, plan the project, and manage it, so why spend more money to have a consultant do the same thing? Though a service provider and a consultant may indeed duplicate roles, they do so with distinctly different perspectives. An IT consultant advocates for the client. A service provider will act in their best interest, regardless of the costs or time. The result can be solutions meeting their project objectives or costs. This is fantastic, if 85% will meet your company or internal needs. An independent consultant plays a vital watchdog role to ensure that the service provider delivers what the client needs, not what the provider wants to deliver. Contact us today & schedule a consultation.

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