Types of IT Consulting

Typical Stages in Consulting
  1. Problem Identification
  2. Solution Recommendations
  3. Finalize Implementation approach (including tools & technology)
  4. Manage the Implementation (Plan, Execute, Monitor & Control)

One or more Consultants or the Consulting firms involve in some stages or all of them

Illustrative IT Consulting Scenarios

ERP deployment in a firm. 

  • Strategy consultants identify the gaps in the firm with respect to competition and identify ERP deployment as a solution. 
  • IT system integration consultants do the implementation (approach, planning and execution). 
  • Application Providers will deliver the software modules and enable the system integration consultants

Use of Power BI Dashboards

  • Audit agencies identify gaps in the organization’s ability to derive insights from the data and take actions
  • Internal IT team take the help of individual consultants for detailing the solution (Data warehouses, data marts & selection of BI systems) and prototype implementations
  • Data warehouse and mart construction using a system from a vendor and associated consulting teams (Niche)

Types of IT Consulting

  1. IT strategy (ITS)
  2. E-business strategy (EBizS)
  3. COTS-enabled business process design (CEBPD)
  4. Integration of Business Processes through IS (e.g. ERP, Integrated Supply Chain (ISC); Integrated CRM (ICRM))
  5. Knowledge management & Reuse
  6. Change Management Consulting (CMC): IT-initiated organisation change
  7. IT Management Consulting: Plan, Build, Operate and Manage (ITM)
    • IS Strategy, Business Requirement Management and Application Portfolio Finalization & Planning
    • Enterprise Process, IT Architecture and Application Integration, Development and Deployment 
    • IT Management (ITM)

Illustrative IT Consulting Engagements: Few IT Consulting Engagements are shown below grouped into three reasons: “To determine why something is being done”, “To understand what is to be done” and “To decide how it is to be done”.

Why?

  • Environment scan (Technology, Competition, Industry) to identify triggers for reviewing/revising Business Strategy and associated IT Strategy
  • Leverage IT for gaining competitive advantage
  • Decide the IS Strategy in line with Business & IT Strategy (Linked with How part as well)

What?

  • Business Requirements Gathering, Analysis and Documentation 
  • Prioritization of potential IS applications as per business value (Change Control Board)

How?

Tools/Technology

  • Enterprise architecture to accommodate changes, variety of tools (including legacy systems) (E.g. ESB, SOA, Microservices)
  • Decision on Technologies, Platforms, and Tools (E.g. Java vs .NET)
  • CI/CD/DevOps (Best Practices.. Efficiency & Quality impacting)
  • Agile methods
  • End User Training  & Adoption

Method

  • IT governance (including Program management of IT programs): Align IT with Business; Optimum management of IT Resources; Value Deliverance through IT; Manage Risk; Measure and Monitor IT performance; 
  • IT Service Delivery: Availability management, Service continuity, Capacity management, Service level management and Financial management (RCA on down instances)
  • IT security, data security, and prevention of fraud and intrusion
  • IT Service Support: Configuration, Change, Release, Incident and Problem management as well as Managing a Service Desk (function)
  • Business continuity and disaster recovery
  • Assessment/Audits of current IT practices & process improvement recommendations (Standards/Frameworks ISO, ITIL, CMMI, ISO20000)
  • Implementation of new processes, training, communication and change management E.g. Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices
Illustration of Impact of technologies (Eg. E-Commerce)

E-Commerce: Marketing 🡪 Selling/Purchasing 🡪 Payments 🡪 Delivery & Tracking 🡪 Returns/Replacements 🡪 Refunds

  • Internet; Mobile (Smartphones; Browsing; Responsive Web; Connectivity; Location; QR Code; Secure mobile banking); Social Network; Cookies; Portals
  • Marketing: Website Visitor Tracking; Website Personalization; Enabling long tail marketing; Social Network Effect (Eg. Timelines; Log into a site using Google id 🡪 Info about user;); Wisdom of crowds; Crowdsourcing;
  • Selling, Purchasing: Podcasting; Streaming; Download; Encryption of media (DRM); Encryption technologies
  • Payments/Refunds: Secure money transfers (Acc to Acc transfer; Online payment systems (Eg. GPay); Security best practices like Transfer limits, Two factor authentication)
Pointers to industry case studies (Illustrative list)
  1. Dineout Case:
  2. Accenture Cases:
  3. https://www.ey.com/en_in/insights/advanced-manufacturing/how-a-manufacturer-eliminates-cost-and-value-leakages-with-ai-ml
  4. https://www.ey.com/en_in/transformation-realized-case-studies/how-lt-foods-achieved-2x-revenue-growth-with-digital-supply-chain-transformation
  5. https://www.ey.com/en_in/insights/forensic-integrity-services/how-a-global-mnc-halved-bgv-time-with-managed-services
  6. https://www.ey.com/en_in/insights/technology/how-better-sam-helped-a-telecom-company-save-20-percent-of-cloud-spend
  7. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/library/case-studies/wyndham-agentic-ai.html
  8. https://www.ibm.com/case-studies/state-bank-of-india
  9. https://www.ibm.com/case-studies/us-open
  10. https://kpmg.com/us/en/how-we-work/client-stories/microsoft-client-stories.html
  11. https://www.tcs.com/insights/customer-stories

References

Chapters 6: Sanjiva Shankar Dubey (2012). Management and IT Consultancy