FAQs

What Is IT Consulting?

We’ll begin by defining IT consulting. To understand the duties of an IT consultant, you only have to think about the project role of a consultant in general. A consultant is someone trained in giving advice in career sectors of all sorts. Thus, you can expect your IT consultant to be a pro in all things computer technology.

Besides being referred to as IT consulting, a firm that offers this service may also call it technology consulting, computing consulting, business and technology services, or computer consultancy.

As we touched on in the intro, the job of your IT consulting expert or team is to help your company succeed in your tech goals through the consultant’s expert advice and coaching. The consultant will listen to your current tech concerns and then craft a solution that’s workable for your unique issue.

The consultant will give you a timeframe for when they expect the work to be done as well as a quote upfront. Should you proceed, you’ll work with your IT consultant pro or team to formulate, execute, and evaluate your plan of attack. Only once your issue is solved should the project be considered over.

Depending on the firm offering the service, IT consulting can be a multi-pronged methodology involving several teams or professionals. You may work only with IT security consultants if your company’s issue pertains to data security or other areas of protecting proprietary data. 

When you sit down with an IT consultant, it’s for the purposes of creating or upgrading your company’s tech strategy. You’ll have a short-term or long-term plan with many elements that must be achieved, and your IT consultant will work with you until you check off every last one of your boxes. 

Compare that to IT services. These services can be about creating a strategy, especially when you use IT consulting in the realm of IT services, but not all the time. For the most part, when you train your staff on a new software, that’s not really part of an overarching strategy. It’s mostly so your employees can continue to work productively.

That’s not to say IT services aren’t involved in IT consulting as part of your strategy, as that can most certainly happen. Data security measures and cloud computing are two areas where that’s especially true. Just as easily though, if you need helpdesk assistance because your computer’s Wi-Fi is down, that’s an IT service and not really considered part of a strategy. As you can see then, it can go both ways. 

When You Need IT Consulting

If the following issues are ones that befall your company, then IT consulting may be best for you.

• You have a hard time envisioning tech project steps as well as accurately predicting their timelines 
• You want to outsource IT services, but you have no idea how and where to start
• You need more expertise than what you’ve gotten through IT services
• You want the guidance of a professional who can create tech-related solutions 
• You need recommendations for which hardware and software to use 

You want to ensure the IT consulting individual or team you choose to work with possesses the requisite skills to excel at the job. These skills include knowledge of technical languages, business management skills, advisory language abilities, communication skills, and technical abilities. 

When You Need IT Services

If these issues are affecting your company’s day-to-day operations, you’ll want to look into IT services.

• When a new operating system is coming out and you want to train all your staff at the same time on how it works
• When your company will soon introduce new software or hardware and you need training and troubleshooting
• When you want to make a big companywide tech change, such as switching to the cloud 
• When you need to make your network more secure
• When your printers and related equipment malfunction or act up sporadically 

IT Outsourcing is the strategic use of external IT resources to handle the tasks that are traditionally handled by internal resources or the staff. In different words “IT outsourcing” is the use of external service providers (external IT company or a freelancer) to effectively deliver IT-related business process, application service and infrastructure solutions for business outcomes. Simple example of IT Outsourcing: “Company A” orders development of the corporate website or mobile application from external “Company B” (an IT Outsourcing provider).