Choosing the best IT Consultancy
There are various ways to select the best candidates. You could use an agent or a referral service such as the Approved Index, or you could ask your competitors or clients to recommend an IT consultancy they have used in the past.
The recommendation of a competitor in your field is particularly valuable because this indicates the IT consultancy has some experience of dealing with technical requirements that come up in your field. In drawing up your shortlist, keep in mind that because the work is often done remotely, the geographical proximity of the IT consultancy need not be an issue.
What is critical, however, is that your in-house IT expert or the person in charge of your IT systems make the selection, and maybe even talks to the potential candidates over the phone to determine whether they do the kind of work you require. Technical English is different from everyday English, so you want somebody from your company asking the questions who understand what the terms mean and is able to communicate the companys needs effectively.
Now that you have chosen two or three consultancies that could potentially design, install, support, maintain, protect and improve your business systems, the next factor to consider is how well you see yourself working with them and the level of contact and support you will receive. In this respect, it is worthwhile asking the following questions:
- Will there be somebody in overall charge of my project who I can contact at any time? Will this person give me daily updates of the progress of the work and inform me of any additional charges that I might be incurring?
- How will the consultancy ensure that the work they carry out will leave a lasting impression on my company and that the employees will have firm guidelines about how to get the most out of the new technology that has been implemented? Can the consultancy offer any guarantees for the technology they have installed and upgraded, should any problems arise in the future?
And remember, IT consultancy outsourcing is a buyers market because the sector continues to expand and become more competitive. This means IT consultants are having to offer a greater number of services, including newer service capabilities, and involving different ecosystems and partnerships so they can offer clients more, so make sure you ask enough questions to get the breadth and depth of service you want.
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