Hiring an IT consultant, or a team of consultants, can be quite expensive. While IT consulting is well-worth the investment, you’ll want to make sure that you actually need consulting – before you pull the trigger.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the top 5 signs that you might need to hire an IT consultant. Take a look, and see if IT consulting is right for you!
1. You Lack An In-House IT Expert Or CIO
This is especially common in smaller businesses. Maybe you have a few reliable IT staff members, but none of them are real IT experts – just day-to-day administrators with a more limited skillset.
Hiring a CIO or another IT administrator can be very expensive – so you may not want to invest in a full-time employee.
However, you need a forward-thinking executive who can truly direct your IT programs – so hiring an IT consultant is a great investment. An IT consultant can help fill in the gaps of your existing IT team, and provide you with valuable input and insights.
2. You Need An Outside Perspective
Whether you’re the owner of a small business voip, or an IT administrator, it can be easy to “miss the forest for the trees.” When you’re working on the same project for an extended period of time, you can lose your perspective – and your work will suffer for it.
IT consultants offer you an outsider’s perspective, and may be able to come up with novel solutions to problems that you didn’t even know you had!
3. You Need A Specialized Skill Set
Consultants are great for temporary projects where you need a specialized skill-set. For example, if you’re launching a new Microsoft SharePoint-based intranet, you can hire a consultant or two to help you set it up, and transfer administration duties to your IT staff.
This allows you to avoid hiring a full-time employee, but lets you still benefit from a deep, specialized skill set.
4.You’re On A Tight Budget
Consultants can help you stretch a tight IT budget. Because you can hire a consultant based on hourly or daily rates, you can choose how much money you want to invest in IT consulting.
Not only that, a great consultant can help you cut costs – and extend your budget. For example, you may be running redundant servers or pieces of software, or have outdated IT infrastructure that you can mothball to save money.
This makes an IT consultant a great investment, even if you are running on a small budget. You can get all the help you need – without it costing an arm and a leg!
5. You’re Thinking About Outsourcing Your IT Needs
Many small-to-medium-size businesses (SMBs) choose to outsource their IT services to another company. This is a great way to save money on hiring IT personnel, and become a more agile, flexible business.
However, you may not be sure if outsourcing your IT services is a good idea. A consultant can help you understand what to expect when you outsource IT services. Together, you can create an outline of a transition plan, and discuss what kind of infrastructure, services, and personnel you’ll be outsourcing.
And if you hire a consultant from a company that also offers outsource IT, you’ll get a good idea of the quality of services you can expect – so you can be sure that you’ll choose the right Managed Service Provider (MSP) for all of your IT needs.
Use This List – And Find The Right IT Consultant!
IT consulting is not a “magic bullet” that can fix all of your organizational problems. But experienced, knowledgeable consultants can change your company for the better – so they’re well worth the consulting fees.
So take another look at this list now, and think about how you can benefit from finding the right IT consultant!
