Patrick Hogan — July 13, 2017 — July 13, 2017
Free-Photos / Pixabay
It goes without saying that any business wanting to stay competitive must maximize its technological capabilities. They must do this cost-effectively and, quite often, with minimal direct information technology (IT) experience. Unlike their larger counterparts, maintaining a full-time IT department is unrealistic for most small and medium-size businesses. The costs are too high, the efficiency too impractical, and the time required unreasonable.
The answer to this challenge is professional consulting business IT support services. Consultants offer on-demand talent, plentiful resources, vast experience, and tremendous economies of scale that can provide smaller organizations with peace of mind. By hiring a consultant and other business IT support, companies have access to deeper levels of expertise that can be offered by in-house, long-term employees.
Unsure if a company should consider business IT consulting? Let’s take a look at why companies really can’t afford to be without this service.
What is Business IT Support?
A consultant’s primary purpose is to assist an organization with attaining and maintaining its goals. An IT consultant advises businesses on how best to use their information technology to reach their desired outcomes. They are also available to help companies overcome their IT-related issues, such as testing software for problems and troubleshooting technical hitches.
When hiring for business IT services, companies can expect assistance in the following ways:
- identifying software, hardware, and network requirements;
- conducting training for users and other consultants;
- independent and objective advice on the use of IT;
- designing, testing, installing and monitoring new systems;
- purchasing systems as needed;
- other associated tasks.
Signs That It’s Time to Hire a Consultant
Before delving into the specifics about why it makes sense to hire a consultant, here are some signs that a business is in need of one:
- The current IT tech also has a job within the company that isn’t related to tech at all;
- In-house resources simply aren’t available;
- A fresh perspective or unbiased view is needed;
- The company isn’t quite ready to hire a regular IT staff member;
- The budget needs to be reigned in or more tightly controlled;
- The business needs ongoing, on-call IT support.
Why Pay for Business IT Solutions?
Every company chooses to hire an IT consultant for its own reasons. For many businesses, it’s a matter of recognizing that not having technological advancements and support is holding the company back—but there’s more to it than that. Hiring an on-call, ongoing IT business solutions consultant can have measurable benefits, like:
Saving money
Many people mistakenly think that hiring a consultant is an expensive venture. Instead, consider that by employing an on-demand employee, a company is only paying for hours worked. With a regular staff member, a company must pay for continuous hours regardless of the level of productivity.
Hiring an IT consultant can save money in other areas, too. Since an IT consultant is not a regular employee, companies aren’t strapped into providing vacation days, health insurance, retirement funds, or training. Moreover, companies can agree on a fixed cost before service begins and then budget accordingly.
Improving productivity
Technology can substantially improve productivity. It can enable communication between departments, enforce collaborative working, and bring about shared knowledge that sparks innovation. However, to do so, it takes broadband connectivity, email communications, file servers, networks, shared databases, mobile platforms, and an assortment of other technological components. To make all those pieces run smoothly and reliably, companies need someone who can manage them with precision. After all, a system’s benefits can only be realized when the technology is properly planned, implemented, and maintained.
Regaining time
All too often, when companies rely on regular employees to engage in IT work, the results are frustrating and sub-par. Hours can be lost to ineffective training sessions, not to mention time spent trying to maintain the delicate balance of normal work functions and those dedicated to tech issues. When hiring an IT consultant, companies gain someone who is knowledgeable and skilled to come up with effective solutions. That way, employees can focus on the areas of their expertise.
Planning for future growth
Any business wants to succeed and thrive in the long-term. Yet how many of them know where that future growth will come from or how to manage it if and when it comes? Employing the services of an IT consulting professional can help guide a business toward the answers to such questions. Highly skilled IT consultants can serve in a variety of different capacities, including chief financial officer and project manager. By doing so, executives can focus on long-term strategic planning.
Good resource management
Back when technology consisted of a dial-up modem and cordless phone, it was reasonable to expect other employees to pick up extra tasks related to technology whether they were sufficiently tech-savvy or not. With the enormous technological dependence companies have now, however, expecting non-tech employees to pick up the slack more often than not results in unnecessary stress and wasted time. It also leads to disgruntled employees, and in many instances, jeopardized privacy and security.
Specialized skills
Due to the technological expertise needed to implement and maintain complicated business IT solutions, it can be challenging to find someone talented enough to handle the complex needs of an individual organization. Hiring an IT consultant allows businesses to pick and choose people with expertise in the desired areas without taking a gamble on a generalist.
When hiring an IT consultant, a business is hiring a subject matter expert in the field. Gleaning insight from their skill set, knowledge, and experience can prove to be invaluable. It can also provide the much-needed push to tackle projects that have been set aside due to more pressing issues. Professional technology service providers offer access to a team of IT specialists that give cross-sectional IT support. By doing so, companies have the ability to reach ongoing and as-needed services.
Rising Above the Competition
Maintaining the status quo serves a purpose. That is, it maintains a certain level of competence and familiarity. However, such complacency doesn’t breed innovation. By hiring an IT consultant, businesses have access to someone who keeps up with the latest technologies through continuous training and real world application. They can learn from a professional who knows how to implement the most recent software, hardware, and network applications available. Likewise, such businesses can learn what technologies are not worth their time or financial investment.
By hiring an on-demand subject matter expert, companies can make swift adjustments to accommodate the latest technology. This provides a distinct competitive advantage and also allows executives to respond promptly to potential competitive threats.
Extent of experience
Unlike a business owner who has experience with very few organizations, IT and technology consultants have experience working with a variety of organizations in a variety of capacities. This affords them tremendous knowledge and insight that can be very valuable in both the short- and long-term. A solid IT consulting firm has experience working with different levels of management, meeting the needs of differing stakeholders, and managing projects that vary in size and scope. With this outside expertise, a company can also overcome resistance to change from their own workforce.
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