IT consulting services are advisory services that help clients assess different technology strategies and, in doing so, align these technology strategies with their business or process strategies. Consulting services support customer IT initiatives by providing strategic, architectural, operational and implementation planning.
Strategic planning includes advisory services that help clients assess their IT needs and formulate system implementation plans. Architecture planning includes advisory services that combine strategic plans and knowledge of emerging technologies to create the logical design of the system and the supporting infrastructure to meet customer requirements. Operational assessment/benchmarking include services that assess the operating efficiency and capacity of a client’s IT environment. Implementation planning includes services aimed at advising customers on the rollout and testing of new solution deployments.
Whether you have a small office/home office (SOHO) or small to medium enterprise (SME), IT infrastructure and related IT projects will always be a part of business as usual. Every business relies on its IT frastructure to provide either an internal service (e.g. to employees), external services (e.g. to clients or partners) or both. Keeping the IT infrastructure and services current and in line with new technological standards, allows a company to perform at its maximum capability and with the most efficiency. However, it is key to have a robust process in which IT infrastructure requirements are addressed. This usually takes the form of an IT project.
However, many IT projects can and do fail, specifically because they are not well-defined and and are carried out in a haphazard way. Firstly, there is a lack of a thorough understanding of the problem at hand and the 'actual' business requirements. Often IT solutions solve problems that don't actually exist or only partially resolves existing problems. Secondly, we need to ensure that the correct stakeholders are engaged to get an accurate and complete understanding of what is required from all individuals that are critical to the project's success. Thirdly, once there is a complete understanding of the problem and the requirements have been gathered completely, it is often required to sift through multiple possible solutions in order to find the most appropriate one. This can include, deciding whether to go with an off-the-shelf solution vs an in-house developed solution. Also, the 'latest and greatest' solution is not always the best, especially considering project budget and return on investment but whatever solution is selected, it should completely address the requirements. Lastly, is the implementation and integration of the particular solution into the current IT environment and ensuring that it functions as expected and does not introduce new problems with regard to business as usual. This may be an over-simplification of the stages of an IT project, however, what is key is the understanding that an IT project should be well defined and should contain very specific stages in order to better ensure a succesful outcome.
We would like to team with you on your company's small to medium IT projects. If we are to invision an IT project as a journey, we would be that partner that joins you every step of the way, whether it be a short or long journey. We can assist with both an advisory service as well as an implementation service. Through our advisory service, you can take us through your problem/requirements, we will make sense of it all and then propose an apropriate solution. Through, our implementation service, we can implement the proposed solution into your environment and ensure that it works as required.