Smaller businesses that lack in-house IT resources often look to external solution providers and consultants for help. How do you hire quality IT expertise that won't squander your budget and will deliver what you need?
Strategic IT is the use of information technology to play a vital role in an organization's business plan by improving efficiency, creating opportunities, and interacting with customers and vendors. Whereas operational IT is the use of information technology to support the functions of the business with such things as accounting software, e-mail systems, and electronic file storage.
How do smaller businesses choose between strategic and operational IT? I addressed this issue in an earlier column critiquing Nicholas Carr's "IT Doesn't Matter." But before smaller organizations can pursue potential projects with an operational or strategic IT perspective, they often need to look outside for IT resources if they don't have them in-house. But where do you get IT expertise?
In smaller organizations that use IT as an operational tool, there will be times that new IT capabilities need to be implemented to stay in the game. For example, just about every business has at least a basic Web site with information about the company, how to contact it, and the products or services it offers. An organization with an operational IT approach might talk to people they know who are IT savvy to discover what they needed to do and how to get it done as quickly and cheaply as possible. By contrast, another organization might look beyond operational IT capacities to consider the strategic potential of a Web site and recognize that it needs more than a mere electronic brochure.
Recently, a friend of mine who works at a small print publisher faced exactly this issue. The publisher needed to overhaul its Web site, but the internal staff didn't have Web skills beyond basic HTML and image editing, so they knew they needed to hire a person or company to do the work. But they were unsure how to do that, so I offered act as an independent IT consultant on the project.
For organizations without IT management skills, independent IT consultants can be valuable allies who help identify needs, find potential service providers, advise on provider selection, and help plan and manage the project. Smaller businesses without skilled IT management can bring this expertise in-house temporarily for specific projects by hiring independent consultants, and that's the role I played for my friend's company.
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