IT Consulting: What It Means and How It Can Help Your Business - Svetlana Cherednichenko

Aug 19

Tech expertise is something almost every business needs, and with IT consultancy, it’s easier than ever to acquire it. Learn about IT consulting and how it can help your business achieve any tech-related and business goals

What is IT consulting?

IT consulting for business is a service an IT company provides to businesses of different sizes and in different domains to help them translate their business needs and goals into technical solutions. Often, IT consulting is provided at the initial stage of a project, before the project is even planned.

Every year, the world of technology changes: new programming languages, frameworks, libraries, tools, and software development practices are introduced, and navigating them can be confusing for people who don’t deal with these technologies on a daily basis.

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When a business realizes they need a certain digital product or a full digital transformation, they often start researching by themselves, trying to figure out what exactly they need to achieve their goals. There are so many products, services, and technologies that it’s easy to get lost.

To avoid spending thousands of dollars on a solution that will become obsolete in a few years or will require lots of effort and resources on maintenance, businesses consult with third-party IT specialists.

Who needs IT consulting?

IT consulting is a great tool for any business that doesn’t possess strong technical expertise or that needs to adopt a new type of technology that they’re not familiar with.

For example, an application development consultant might benefit an online retailer who has decided to expand their digital presence and get a mobile application. There are so many ways to do this and so many questions a business owner can have. For example:

Should I choose an off-the-shelf solution, or do I need custom development?
What platform should I develop for?
Should I use cross-platform or native technologies?
What databases do I need?
What will I pay for third-party services?
How do I develop my UX strategy?
What features should my product have?
Where can I find reliable software developers who will provide me with a high-quality product?
How can I organize the mobile app development process?
How can I release my app once it’s ready?
How can I choose the features for an MVP?
What architecture is scalable and maintainable in the long term?

These are only a fraction of the questions a business owner can have, and they’re only about a mobile application! Imagine the questions that might arise for a large enterprise that needs to redesign its whole system that’s involved in almost all internal processes and operations.

For enterprise solutions, every mistake can cost a company hundreds of thousands of dollars

For enterprise solutions, every mistake can cost a company hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it’s vital to work with an expert who knows the latest software development standards.

So, who is an IT consultant, what do they do, and how can you find one? I’ll answer all of these questions in this article.

Who is an IT consultant?

We are all used to consultants. They’re happy to help us at stores or during our university years when we’re trying to pick a career. However, an IT consultant is a bit different.

An IT consultant doesn’t just consult businesses on different IT solutions, strategies, and technologies. This is someone who actively participates in product development and lives inside the complex world of technologies.

An IT consultant is often a technical lead at a software development company or a CTO who has extensive experience in software development for different businesses. This immersion in a tech environment helps them give timely advice to their clients and partners.

What does an IT consultant do?

An IT consultant can save you thousands of dollars. I’ll talk later about how to find consultants, shortlist them, and choose the right IT consultant for your company. For now, let’s review the main IT consultant roles and responsibilities.

Gathering a product’s technical requirements. A consultant analyzes your business in terms of its industry, size, workflow, and business goals and provides you with general technical requirements for your software. You can use these requirements during the discovery stage with your future vendor or your own tech team.

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Choosing the perfect tech stack. An IT consultant must be able to suggest a tech stack for your project in which each technology, tool, and framework works together and fits your needs, scale of operations, and future plans.

Suggesting changes and improvements to your current system. If you already have software that helps you with your business processes, an IT consultant can review it in terms of code, technologies, architecture, or functionality and suggest improvements that will improve the efficiency of your business operations.

Helping you build and manage a development team. If you decide you need to create software from scratch, an IT consultant can help you with getting a development team. For example, a consultant can assess your candidates’ skills by conducting technical interviews, or they can help you find and manage a third-party development team.

Check software quality. After your software is ready, you can involve an IT consultant to make sure you’ve received high-quality software from your vendor. In this case, an IT consultant will cooperate with QA specialists to make sure your software works correctly and corresponds to the technical requirements.

As you can see, a consultant can offer a whole range of IT consulting services according to your needs and the current tech expertise in your company.

Benefits of IT consulting for businesses

1. Saves time and money
Generally, there are two ways in which a company can gain expertise: by hiring specialists in-house and by consulting with third-party professionals. Software development consulting saves time and money because you don’t need to hire specialists full-time: you pay only for software consulting services, then integrate the expertise you’ve acquired into your current business processes.

Also, a consultant helps you save time on research because they’ve already done it and continue to explore new technologies and practices on a daily basis. This is why it’s important to choose a consultant that currently works in a field that interests you.

2. Ensures quality
An IT consultant helps you make sure you’re on the right track, can check the quality of your code, and can look at your digital processes in a new way.

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3. Brings unique expertise to your company
You can find a consultant in any field, from mobile to blockchain development, and they’ll help you set up software you’ve never worked with before and explain how to integrate it into your business.

4. Prevents future complications
Experience allows IT consultants to analyze software and see potential future drawbacks, such as scalability issues. An experienced consultant is able to assess how well your current system can be scaled and predict the issues you may encounter.

The same goes for maintenance: an IT consultant will make sure your software doesn’t become a costly burden in a few years.

How to find an IT consultant

So, you’ve decided you need an IT consultant for your business. Where do you actually find one? There are a few options.

Request a recommendation from partners. Ask your partners whether they know a specialist with the expertise you need and whether they could recommend someone as an IT consultant. This is a good way to find a reliable consultant if you don’t know anyone in the IT industry.
To learn about other ways to find a reliable consultant, please read our full article here.