An Insider's take on IT Consulting

Being that this is the first post on this new blog, I figured I'd talk a bit about some of the nuances of the business of IT consulting...

IT consulting is a complex business to be sure. I find the real challenge to be finding new ways to engage customers with information that is relevant, timely and ultimately useful to them from a business perspective. If I'm not doing all of those things, I'm not doing my job. As a leader in this space my role is expanded to include leading by example. Knowing the path, walking the path and teaching the path are three interrelated but different things, and each has its share of challenges. In an industry flooded with "marketectures", self-serving technologies and more "solutions" than problems, it's hard to figure out how to best deliver value without being seen as just another "me too".

I think the greatest service any consultant, and by extension consultancy, can do is to develop and communicate ideas. Sure, we deal in time, people, experience and knowledge, but ultimately the measure of our value is in the ideas we bring to the table. These aren't just any ideas, these are ideas which are innovative but applicable, relevant yet fresh, but most importantly they are ideas that help customers get tangible business results from their execution. These types of ideas are tempered by experience and enhanced by perspective.

It is precisely these ideas that differentiate us from the two ends of the spectrum prevalent in IT services (both of which I've worked extensively with in the past): See my next post "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.... what's wrong with yesterday's model for delivering solutions?"