Personal information technology consulting refer to the field that aims at giving advice as regards estimation, management, implementation, deployment and administration of IT systems on the behalf of businesses (Kathy, 2005). It is also called outsourcing. This paper is a description of personal IT consulting activities and a framework for successful customer interaction and in doing this, the paper will discuss phased consulting activities and use communication and business models to illustrate how the process will be done.
The industry of IT Consulting is wide given the integral part that ICT has now become in the modern world. To flourish in this industry therefore, it is appropriate to understand its key areas of opportunities which have been postulated by Kathy (2005) to be four: that is professional service providers (which are large firms with highly professional workforces with high charging rates), staffing firms (which offer personnel for other businesses in IT areas on temporal basis in times of shortages in such companies), independent consultants (who are self-employed personnel who offer IT services on freelance basis) and information security consultants (who offer IT services specifically in the area of security and protection of systems) (Kathy, 2005). These areas make the industry a four-tier industry with innumerable opportunities especially since its practitioners may work in any area with a lot of ease.
Having identified the areas where IT consultancy is offered, it is now easier to distinguish an area that my expertise for which I would use my consultancy prowess to operate lies. In this case, I feel competent in offering advisory and consultancy services as an independent consultant and to properly offer these services, there are a number of competencies and skills that are imperative. First of all, there are five key principles that should inform my approach in offering these services (Western, 2010). These are:
- Clarity of focus on relationship – this is key as it brings clarity of mind as regards the client’s personality, expectations, their organizational structure and vision and other stakeholders that have to be incorporated in the services that are offered.
- Clarity of the role – this requires that I have clearly defined responsibilities and roles for the client, my consulting team, stakeholders and other relevant personnel to work with.
- Visualizing success – I should be able to visualize success of the process I engage in so as to help the client see the end product straight from the beginning which will serve as an encouragement to them and also present me as knowledgeable and trustable for the role I intend to undertake.
- Approach – this is critical and it is guided by slogan “you advise, they decide”. This is so because the client is the person best suited to make decisions about their companies.
- Success inclination – I should be inclined towards ensuring the solutions given address end users’ concerns with ease of usability, implementation and maintenance when done with easy to follow training.
It is the responsibility of the IT consultant to support, nurture, advise and direct the operations of a company from the time a decision of wanting to move it to the next level is arrived at and sub-contraction of an IT consulting firm done. What informs my approach and performance is the realization that not only is the scope, time and cost of the project required to be completed but also done so with absolute customer satisfaction. For this to be realized there are a number of challenges that need to be anticipated and appropriate strategies to handle them devised. Some of these challenges in IT consultancy include:
- Project planning and scanning – it is commonplace to find many clients not aware of the details of their projects which makes it hard for them to envision the amount of work involved. This requires that I have a detailed assessment and evaluation of the project so as to properly advise the client so that he does not feel constrained when incremental costs come up once the project is underway (Western, 2010).
- Business System and Process Design – this design is informed by the scope of what the project is intended to deliver. This is critical since any form of change to the system is bound to alter the operations of other related areas of the entire business processes and systems (Adelman, 2000).
- Project Management Support – it is imperative to have the support of the management of the company so as to offer astute direction as regards the vision, objectives and aims of the organization.
Finally, having given an outline of what constitutes IT consultancy and highlighted the challenges anticipated, it is now easier to give the specific skills that I would use in my consultancy services to both surpass the challenges highlighted and deliver my services to client satisfaction. First, advisory skills are key in their importance since they are the very reason that I would have been consulted in the first place. This would be informed by the previously proposed slogan that “You advise, they decide” so that I do not force concepts on my client that he is not comfortable with. I will then use astute technical skills in designing, implementing and running the project with a level of professionalism that is unrivaled in the industry. I have to show business skills in the discussion of the fees, presentation of the proposal of handling the project to the management and general preparedness for the project. Communication skills are like the flight that will arrive me safely to where I want to go; I should develop good interpersonal skills to ensure that I communicate effectively all the details I have to my clients and obtain all the information I require from the client. My management skills will be seen in the way I manage the project and of particular interest here will be the way I handle the personnel with whom I will be working on the project. These in a snap shot are the competencies that when well applied as suggested herein would be of great assistance in ensuring that the consultancy I give to my clients are both professional and satisfactory (Western, 2010).
References
Adelman, C. (2000). A Parallel Post-secondary Universe: The Certification System in Information Technology. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.
Kathy, S. (2005). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Web.
Western, S. (2010). What do we Mean by Organizational Development. Krakow: Advisio Press.