Learn to pick the right consultant for your IT projects - one who is able to take a subject you understand and make it easier, more business-focused and aligned to the IT environment.
Many business owners may be tempted to play the part of an information technology (IT) consultant themselves when they need to embark on a project. After all, they know their business best, right? These business owners might feel differently after a few days of speaking with vendors, friends and business associates who would have presented many views and many options.
They might then decide to engage an external consultant. It is critical to pick the right IT consultant. A well-known joke about consultants goes: 'A consultant is someone who takes a subject you understand and makes it sound confusing.' A good IT consultant makes things easier to understand for the client, puts results into business context and terms, and aligns them with the IT environment through a tangible transformation plan. There are three key attributes to look for to help the business choose the right consultant and get the required results:
This consultant must be able to relate to the client and the client's business; be able to help clients differentiate between key issues and non-key issues, as well as be able to help the client focus on those key issues.
Through this business insight, combined with the ability to make difficult issues easy to understand, the consultant plays the role of a trusted adviser to the client.
The solution should be customised to fit the business and not the other way around. The true value of a consulting engagement is derived from the fact that the solution is customised to the client's needs that are viewed against the business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Without this customisation, the one-size-fits-all solution will not give clients the competitive advantage they are looking for.
The third attribute reinforces the fact that the consultant's recommendations are 'real', meaning the recommendations can be implemented practically with the available technology and the client's current infocomm infrastructure. This attribute implies that an IT consultant understands current infocomm technologies, is abreast of technology trends, and able to create a transformation plan. The plan provides a roadmap from the client's current environment to the desired future state, taking into account specific assets, resources, time frames and other related dependencies. The right consultant with the above three attributes should be able to display the following criteria:
- Provide competitive insight into the marketplace. The consultant should have an understanding of how the other businesses in the same sector have been applying IT towards profit.
- Recommend if the business should implement the system in-house or through third parties, including offerings like Application Service Providers (ASPs) or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
- Provide access to best-in-class practices, as understood by the consultant.
- Provide a proven track record of successful consultant engagements. Such expertise will result in a more industry-focused consulting engagement, which will decrease the time needed for the consultancy and avoid lengthy and costly customisation of IT and business processes.
The consultant's fee structure can be aligned with the criteria and attributes outlined above. Businesses can further insist on a delivery-based payment schedule to reduce the risk of the consultant engagement and ensure they receive the expected benefits. The result will be that 'a consultant is someone who takes a subject you understand and makes it easier, more businessfocused and IT aligned, thereby creating a long-term business relationship'.
- This article is contributed by EDS International (S) Pte Ltd, an IT outsourcing and consulting services provider, and member of the Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF).
- This article first appeared in The Business Times on 8 April 2008 and information is correct at the time of publication.
Back to SMEs' Spotlight
