Information technology is integrated into every area of business today. It is used to create efficiency, improve customer service, mitigate risk and drive growth opportunities. Companies in all industries can leverage IT to give themselves a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
The challenge is how. With IT evolving so rapidly, many mid-sized businesses don’t have the time or resources to keep up. In this labor market, hiring and retaining good IT talent may also be a challenge. For these reasons and more, companies are engaging a strategic IT consultant to provide leadership and advice at an affordable cost.
What Are The Benefits Of Hiring A Strategic IT Consultant?
1. Elevate IT From Tactical To Strategic
A strategic IT consultant can be a game-changer for your business. For most mid-market businesses, technology focuses primarily on networks and systems. A strategic IT consultant will help these businesses ensure they have a strong foundation and position IT strategically, allowing leadership to focus on business alignment, investment priorities, innovation, disruption, risk, etc.
2. Boldness To Make Difficult Decisions
When in-house employees are required to make changes, they are often met with stiff resistance to change. However, consultants are expected to be objective and independent. They can deploy their objectivity to produce creative solutions to IT challenges.
Strategic IT consultants can also make difficult decisions about staff redundancies and retire legacy applications that have become too expensive to maintain. They can keep an emotional distance while helping leadership making decisions that will have a positive long-term effect on the company.
3. Effective Leadership For Transformational IT Projects
Major IT initiatives will transform business operations, but they can also burden existing staff who don’t have extra capacity. Most IT staff are overwhelmed, and they need to continue carrying out daily operations to keep the business running.
Companies can allow IT staff to continue supporting regular operations by hiring a strategic IT consultant to lead and execute transformational IT projects. A team led by the strategic IT consultant and supported by in-house employees can implement the project efficiently.
4. Application Of IT Best Practices
Strategic IT consultants are knowledgeable about the latest trends and best practices in IT. Keeping up with the best performers in the industry allows them to provide up-to-date advice on the adoption of new technologies, software evaluation and selection, use of cloud platforms, and security policies.
5. Capacity To Scale Operations Rapidly
When an organization doesn’t have the internal talent or expertise to pursue an initiative, it can depend on a strategic IT consultant to help scale the team and bring in 3rd party resources, or new employees, as appropriate.
A good example is digital transformation. In most cases, the company will not have all the talent or experience needed to digitize the company’s operations. Hiring a strategic IT consultant who can lead the digital transformation will help ensure it is done effectively and efficiently.
6. Lower Costs
Strategic IT consultants work on contracts. That means they don’t incur the overhead costs of full-time employment, such as healthcare, hazard, or vacation benefits.
For the cost of a salaried IT Manager or Director, a company can engage a strategic IT consultant who brings specialized experience and seniority that may not be affordable in a full-time hire.
7. Improved IT Security
Businesses depend so much on IT that a data breach or cyber attack can be catastrophic. The financial damage and loss of goodwill among customers are challenging to overcome.
Fortunately, there are strategic CISO consultants that specialize in providing comprehensive cyber security solutions for companies. Working with a cybersecurity consultant is a strategic way to discover security vulnerabilities, assess security threats, and create a disaster recovery plan that will enable the company to bounce back quickly if there is a data breach.
Talk To Us About Your Need For A Strategic IT Consultant
Hartman Executive Advisors offers strategic IT consulting services for businesses that want to leverage IT to achieve their business goals. IT consulting enables organizations to understand the current state of their IT environment and develop and foster new initiatives that drive business outcomes.
Get in touch with us today to schedule a free consultation about your strategic IT needs and discover how our consultants can help transform your company.