These days, most businesses need a wide variety of IT consulting services. Software platforms like internal customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, manufacturing resource planning (MRP) systems, and content management systems help your business manage operations and reach customers. Maintaining this diverse network of systems can require highly specialized IT resources. Rather than expanding your internal IT department, outsourcing your specialized IT needs to software consultants can be more economical and more efficient.
Supplement Your Team’s Capabilities
If your IT department runs lean, like those in many organizations, maintaining normal business operations and tech support functions likely takes all of your available labor. What do you do if you want to install and integrate new software, upgrade your existing solutions, or troubleshoot problems? If you’re running a busy, productive company, overtaxing your IT team with additional responsibilities is likely not the best use of your business resources. Piling on additional responsibilities costs you extra in overtime labor as well as running the risk of burning out and driving away your team members.
Hiring software consultants to augment your existing IT department can be the perfect solution. In addition to helping shoulder the burden of upgrades, installations, maintenance, or troubleshooting, software consultants can bring an outside perspective to your team.
Add Specialized Knowledge to Your Team
If you need additional, specialized capabilities, software consultants can be a great solution to that problem, too. Many of today’s leading software platforms require extremely specialized knowledge related to installing their programs, integrating their software with your existing enterprise systems, handling upgrades, and troubleshooting issues that arise. Especially for short-term issues, hiring an IT software consultant makes much more sense than hiring a full-time addition to your IT department.
Why? Experts usually come at an expert price. One of the biggest advantages of hiring a contract-based software consultant is that you can hire someone who specializes deeply in exactly what you need for only the term of the project you need.
For example, while it may not make sense for you to hire an expert in the Qumu video management platform for a permanent IT position with your company, a short-term consultant to help integrate Qumu into your existing CRM can be efficient and economical. Plus, that consultant can teach your existing team members how to most effectively troubleshoot the platform after implementation is completed.
Consultants who specialize in installing, modifying, and troubleshooting specific software can protect your tech investments. Making sure you install and integrate your new products successfully with your existing systems can preserve your company’s data and ensure a smooth transition. Trained, certified installers can also preserve any warranties that accompany your purchase, which may be voided if you install software in house or perform maintenance using underqualified technicians.
Lower Your Overhead & Payroll Costs
Contract software consultants allow you to add the expertise you need at a price you can afford. Hiring employees involves a lot of overhead. Depending on applicable regulations and personnel considerations for your company, the hiring process itself can be time consuming, difficult, and expensive. Offering a competitive salary and benefits package can be surprisingly difficult in the current market. Competing with both other organizations and the lure of freelance consulting can make recruiting and retaining in-house IT talent difficult and expensive. Software consultants have none of the administrative costs associated with hiring another employee to your IT staff.
Once a project is finished, it can be difficult or expensive to terminate or lay off employees hired solely to fulfill a specific need. Potential unemployment claims can add up to even more expense. Using contracted software consultants ensures that you don’t pay for what you don’t need. Consultants with specific needed skills can be brought in for the duration of a project with lower overall overhead costs and fewer personnel issues.
Find Software Consultants for Your Specialized IT Needs
You want to know the software consultants you bring in to augment your team are reliable, knowledgeable, and skilled, but you may not even know what kind of specialists you need! Ideally, you would find someone to consult with you about your systems, problems, and goals, tell you what kind of specialized resources you need, and manage the professional contractors necessary to get the job done.
A skilled IT augmentation company can evaluate your IT needs, estimate the costs of providing you with an expert, and take care of finding, contracting, and managing the specialized personnel necessary to accomplish your objectives on time and on budget. Outsourcing your specialized IT needs means that you get exactly the level of care you need at the times you need it without any HR headaches. Using a company that provides ongoing IT support for your organization can ensure consistency and reduce the time it takes for service technicians to get up to speed on future projects.
PulaTech can help you find the quality software consulting resources you need to implement, integrate, and support all of your enterprise software solutions. Contact us for a free consultation and find out how to save money with staff augmentation and other ways our IT outsourcing and staffing resources can benefit your business.
