The IT consulting industry can be viewed as a Four-tier system:

Professional services firms which maintain large professional workforces

and command high bill rates.

Staffing firms, which place technologists with businesses on a temporary

basis, typically in response to employee absences, temporary skill

shortages and technical projects.

Independent consultants, who are self-employed or who function as

employees of staffing firms (for US tax purposes, employed on Form W-2),

or as independent contractors in their own right (for US tax purposes, on

"1099").

Information Technology security consultants

There are different reasons why consultants are called in:

To gain external, objective advice and recommendations

To gain access to the consultants' specialized expertise

Temporary help during a one-time project where the hiring of a

permanent employee(s) is not required or necessary

To outsource all or part of the IT services from a specific company.

Prerequisites and major obstacles[edit]

Once a business owner defined the needs to take a business to the next level,

a decision maker will define a scope, cost and a time-frame of the project.[1] The

role of the IT consultancy company is to support and nurture the company

from the very beginning of the project till the end, and deliver the project not

only in the scope, time and cost but also with complete customer satisfaction.

[1]

Project scoping and planning[edit]

The usual problem is that a business owner doesn't know the detail of what

the project is going to deliver until it starts the process. In many cases, the

incremental effort in some projects can lead to significant financial loss.

Business process and system design[edit]

The scope of a project is linked intimately to the proposed business processes

and systems that the project is going to deliver. Regardless of whether the

project is to launch a new product range or discontinue unprofitable parts of

the business, the change will have some impact on business processes and

systems. The documentation of your business processes and system

requirements are as fundamental to project scoping as an architects plans

would be to the costing and scoping of the construction of a building.

Project management support[edit]

The most successful business projects are always those that are driven by an

employee who has the authority, vision and influence to drive the required

changes in a business. It is highly unlikely that a business owner (decision

maker or similar) will realize the changes unless one has one of these people

in the employment. However, the project leadership role typically requires

significant experience and skills which are not usually found within a company

focused on day-to-day operations. Due to this requirement within more

significant business change projects/programs, outside expertise is often

sought from firms which can bring this specific skill set to the company.

IT consulting skills[edit]

An IT consultant needs to possess the following skills:

Advisory skills

Technical skills

Business skills

Communication skills

Management skills

Advisory language skills

Business and management language skills

Technical language skills

Consulting fees[edit]

Under normal circumstances a fee for IT consulting is measured on a per day,

per consultant basis. There is however an alternative option; fixed fee IT

consulting. A fixed fee IT consulting contract applies only to projects which are

well defined, for example:

Infrastructure refreshment projects

Network design

Implementation of specific well described features, such as monitoring

platforms

Infrastructure capacity planning

Generally, fixed fee IT consulting is for a specific amount of work, within a

defined timeframe.

Many companies are now moving towards a fixed priced IT consulting model.

This trend is expected to continue as more companies now require delivery of

IT Consulting services within a defined time and price structure.

Open ended consultancy models generally favour the consulting firm, as the

consultancy firm is rewarded on a per day basis, there is no incentive to

complete assignments within a fixed time. The result often being risk of project

and cost overrun.

Management consulting and IT consulting[edit]