Currently many organizations have problems to define how to start their projects, they do not have a clear vision of what they want and how they want it, that is why it is important to carry out the consultancy in order to establish or determine the bases of the project.
The first thing that should be done in the consultancy is a preliminary evaluation, this evaluation is not more than the planning of the consultancy, where the consultant knows the company, what are its processes, needs and requirements, at this point it is important to know who is the figure of the consultant.
What is a software consultant?
They are professionals who provide advisory services to different organizations, both public and private, on the best way to carry out a project, one of the main characteristics of an adviser is to provide a comprehensive service that covers all areas of the organization. However, there are specific advisors for areas such as: marketing, sales, finance, logistics and technology.
The main objective of the Consultant is to define all the tasks that will be carried out in the project, to deliver the project timelines and to watch over the faithful fulfillment of it, since this depends on the success or failure of the project.
Now entering the subject we define that it is a consultancy
It is a study prior to the realization of a project in which different people from both the organization and an external company called a consultant intervene in order to define, evaluate and organize what will be the basis of the project they wish to carry out. These consultancies are intended to capture in black and white the advantages and disadvantages of implementing a new way of carrying out processes in the organization or making total changes in processes such as implementing a new system or new process flows.
Steps in the realization of the Consultancy
- Definition of needs and requirements: this phase begins with a series of interviews in which the consultant performs different meetings with all the personnel that will be part of the project to have a clear vision of how the current processes are within the organization and thus be able to define the best way to make them. After this meeting process, the consultant will have a clearer vision of the entire organization.
- Diagnosis: after conducting the meetings, the consultant can have a clear vision of all the processes of the organization and can define what are the situations and trends within the organization to define what will be the measures to take to correct the bad practices.
- Define the objectives: In this phase, the consultant defines the changes that must be made so that all the personnel are aligned towards the fulfillment of the goals of the organization, the times, activities, resources are also defined, the different work flow charts that are expected to be completed.
- Proposal: The complete documentation is presented to the board of directors of the organization so that they validate and approve each one of the proposed objectives, responsibilities are established, the scope of the project is presented and the prospection is seen in the future. This ends with the signature of the proposal that is the approval of the same to start the implementation of the system or the changes.
It is important to be clear that there is a very high possibility that at the time of implementing the solution new problems and obstacles may arise that could not be perceived in the preliminary study.
Importance of consultancies
- They allow to define the causes of the problems within the organization, in order to find the corrections indicated depending on the problem.
- They carry out a study of the current environment in order to define changes to be made in order to speed up the tasks.
- They visualize weaknesses and strengths of the organization.
- They help lower costs and increase the profitability of the organization.
- They allow to plan new strategies of growth and development.
- They help to adjust the organizational structure.
- Validate if you have a staff capable of aligning with the growth and success of the organization.
We can define that the importance of consultancies is to have an external view of how the organization is currently and how far it can go, if changes are implemented that contribute to the growth of the same, these consultancies are recommended to be carried out in organizations not only at the moment of wanting to implement a new project, they must also be done when management wants to visualize where the strengths and weaknesses of the project are.
Advantage and disadvantages
Advantage
- Improve the use of both human and physical resources of the organization.
- Take advantage of technological resources.
- Optimize time in the realization of any activity.
- They help make timely and better decisions based on real and proven data.
- They align people according to their Profile and Capabilities in the appropriate positions in order to have a more efficient and intelligent performance.
- They facilitate the handling of information.
- Determine what will be priorities within the organization.
- They discover and evaluate new business opportunities, in which the organization can enter.
- Improve the systems and methods of carrying out the processes.
- They make diagnoses of the current and future situation of the organization.
Disadvantages
- If the consultant team does not have the extensive knowledge in the area, it can generate delays in the delivery of results and poorly formulated processes.
- If the staff of the organization is not willing to adapt to the changes, the results of the consultancy will be reflected in the long term.
- The processes are not defined by the organization defined by the consultants, who only see the plan from the outside.
Conclusions
We can say that the consultancies are the fundamental pillar when implementing a new project or making changes in the current processes of the organization, since they carry out a current study with all the personnel involved in each of the processes in order to to define the best way to make the changes that are necessary and to align each task to increase the production of the company, taking advantage of all its tools.
It should be noted that the success of the consultancy will depend on all the staff involved from the consultants to the staff of the organization as they are responsible for ensuring the processes and propose what will be improvements as well as defining the objectives to be met.
