IT/IS Consultancy: Purpose, Value, Challenges, and Practice Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Information Systems (IS) Consultancy, addressing its purpose, value, challenges, and practical applications. The paper delves into the role of IT/IS consultants in advising clients on leveraging technology to meet business requirements, encompassing both technical and business-oriented aspects. It explores the value of IT/IS consultancy in providing specialized expertise, accessing a wide range of IT offerings, and assisting organizations in achieving their objectives. The report also highlights the challenges faced by IT/IS consultancies, such as managing project scope, documentation, and the importance of leadership. Furthermore, it examines the practice of IT/IS consultancy in aligning IT strategies with business goals, automating processes, and transforming business models. The report concludes with a discussion on the relationship between Information Technology and Information Systems, emphasizing the importance of IS in modern business organizations and the skills provided by IS and IT programs.

The purpose, value, challenges and /or practice of
Information Systems Consultancy or specialist IT/IS
advice
Information Systems Consultancy

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Question......................................................................................................................................................3
Background..................................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review........................................................................................................................................4
Purpose of IT/IS Consultancy...................................................................................................................4
Value of IT/IS Consultancy.......................................................................................................................4
Challenges of IT/IS Consultancy...............................................................................................................5
Practice of IT/IS Consultancy...................................................................................................................5
Business Organizations................................................................................................................................6
Information Systems (IS).............................................................................................................................6
Recommendation........................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................7
Reference....................................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
No development has impacted the management consulting more than the Information technology
(IT) and anything on horizon would impact the management consulting in this way. Each
management consulting have few knowledge degree and IT’s use in several functions of the
business of the client. IT is an essential tool in several aspects also in the assembly line load-
balancing, strategic planning consulting within operation consulting and customer data-mining
within marketing consulting. After experiencing many years of huge growth, the traumatic
shakeout between the consulting firms started in 2000, which resulted in the restructuring of
consulting industry of IT and repositioning between every major firm (Mukkamala & Razmerita,
2014). The industry is fragmented by numerous firms that are competing to have share of the
client revenue. Top two players (IBM and Accenture Consulting) account together for only more
than 10% of the revenues of the industry. Hyper-growth changed into negative growth of
maximum consulting firms of IT. Several of these firms having revenues in millions, just
disappeared. The change process is still there today and would focus for foreseeable future.
This paper analyses the purpose, challenges of Information Systems Consultancy or specialist
IT/IS advice. Purpose of IT/IS consultancy as well as the challenges faced in IT/IS consultancy
are discussed in this paper.
Question
What is the purpose, value, challenges and /or practice of Information Systems Consultancy or
specialist IT/IS advice?
Background
This paper’s major aim is analyzing various factors of the IT/IS consultancy which involves
several perspectives of information technology along with information system, which are
considered in the information system for enhancing the performance of the organizations. IT/IS
Consultancy could be seen as system of Four-tier where firms of professional services command
high rates of bill and maintain huge professional workforces, independent consultants who work
as the employees of the staffing firms, staffing firms where the technologists are placed with
businesses for temporary in response for absences of employees and IT security consultants.
Every mode for development factor is used by information system by using every technical
aspect for implementing system which could influence and have an impact over the organization
working for enhancing overall performance of the organization from utility of information
technology (Boonstra, et. al., 2015). Different reasons are there why IT/IS Consultancy is used:
for gaining recommendatons and external advice, for gaining access to specialized expertise of
the consultants, for outsourcing every part of services of IT from specific organization and for
temporary help in case of a project where there is no need of hiring of permanent employee.

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Literature Review
Purpose of IT/IS Consultancy
IT/IS Consultancy is service provider of third party who had qualification for advising the clients
about IT’s best use for meeting the business requirements. The IT/IS Consultancy might work
with professional consultancy firm of IT or as an independent contractors. The IT/IS
Consultancy might conduct the assessment of business needs and develop solution of
information systems which meets the objectives of the organization. Few consultancy of
information technology emphasizes the technical problems, while all others help the organization
in using IT for managing the processes of business (Kumar, 2017). Others still specialize in
specific area of IT like information security. Deep knowledge about information technology and
business is required by the IT consultants.
IT/IS consultancy as field of the activity focuses over the organizations on using IT in best way
to achieve their business goals. Consulting industry of IT could be seen as Four-tier system:
Firms of professional service that maintain huge businesses on temporary basis that maintain
command high bill rates and professional workforces, Staffing firms that place the technologists
along with businesses over temporary basis, for shortages of temporary skill, technical projects
and employee absences, Independent consultants, functioning as the employees of the staffing
firms or being self-employed or as the independent contractors and security consultants of
Information Technology (Oltean, Gabor & Conţiu, 2014).
Value of IT/IS Consultancy
Several options such as programming languages, technologies, platforms and tools are offered by
IT industry. Every diversity within IT offerings could be overwhelming, and having no proper
knowledge. While hiring IT/IS consultancy firm, knowledge, experience and portfolio for
services are hired for leveraging IT within the business environment. IT/IS Consultancy are
essential as a crucial role is played by them to cover management, deployment, maintenance and
implementation of IT infrastructure (Marchewka, 2016). IT/IS Consultancy takes on role for
assisting and advising the organizations in organizing the infrastructure of IT and reach the
business objectives and goals with determination.
Within key advantages to leverage IT/IS consultancy, the ability could be mentioned for gaining
competitive advantage for maximizing the technologies, boost productivity by significant
practice of collaboration, knowledge transfer and communication in IT infrastructure and create
environment which is cost-efficient where tools of IT help in saving resources and time. (Avgerou
& Walsham, 2017) Many of the people believe that IT/IS consultancy is about receiving and
giving advice. IT/IS Consultancy is an essential part for the business culture. IT/IS Consultancy

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achieved increasing importance for IT transformed the operation of the businesses. IT/IS
Consultancy provides necessary expertise, which could guide the organization in becoming more
effective and efficient.
Challenges of IT/IS Consultancy
Once the owner of business defined needs for taking business to the next level, the decision
maker would define the scope, time frame and cost of project. Role of IT/IS Consulting is for
supporting and nurturing the organization from very starting point of project till the end and
would deliver project in not only in time, cost or scope, also with total customer satisfaction. The
main problem is the owner of the business does not know about detail of the project till it begins.
In several cases, incremental effort within few projects could lead in effective financial loss.
Project’s scope is intimately linked to the proposed systems and processes of businesses which
the project would deliver (Chou & Shao, 2014). In spite of whether new product would be
launched by the project, changes would have few impact over systems and processes of the
business. Documentation of the systems requirements and processes are fundamental for project
scoping as architects plans might be scoping and costing of construction of building.
Most successful projects of business always are those which are driven by employee having
authority, influence and vision for driving require changes within the business. Chances are less
that business owner would realize changes until one possesses one of the people within the
employment (Shaikh & Karjaluoto, 2015). However, role of leadership within a project needs
significant skills and experience that are usually not found in an organization focusing on per day
operations. For this requirement in more effective business change projects, outside expertise
could be sought often from the firms that could bring such certain set of skills to the
organization.
Practice of IT/IS Consultancy
It is daunting task in devising and implementing IT strategy that are aligned with the goals of the
business. IT/IS Consultancy helps in developing agenda of new technology or adjust existing
technology into changing strategy of business. If there is little time for strategic planning of IT,
IT/IS Consultancy helps in accompanying in strategic execution and development of IT for
helping the business to reach new level for market competitiveness (Lo, 2015). With right choice
for technologies which support business, IT/IS Consultancy help the organizations to automate
traditional processes and methods and explore the new ways for boosting business and also
transform the business models.

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Business Organizations
Information Technology is now an integral part for every business organization. IT has as
essential role in multinational organizations who uses mainframe systems and databases to small
business organizations who have less systems. Information system could be organized
combination of software, hardware, communications networks, people, procedures and policies,
data resources , retrieves transforms as well as disseminates information within an organization.
IS is interrelated components’ group which work for carrying out input, output, control actions,
processing and storage for converting data to information which could be used for supporting
forecasting, control, decision making, coordination, operational activities and planning within an
organization. All business organizations require IS for keeping track of their business activities.
People depend on modern IS for communicating with each other by using communication
channels, separate physical devices, information processing procedures and instructions and
stored data. For every organization, communication among employees, customers and suppliers
is one of the most essential factor (Bainbridge, 2013). When it is about managing inventory, the
organizations should have enough stock for meeting demand without even investing more than
needed. Management systems for inventory track each item’s quantity which is maintained by an
organization. Storing data could be beneficial if the data is used effectively. Management
Information System (MIS) helps the organizations in tracking productivity levels, sales data and
expenses. IT is used by the organizations for improving way in which they manage the customer
relationships. Every interaction of the organization with customer is captured by Customer
Relationship Management (CRM), for gaining more experience.
There are few challenges that are faced in IT/IS Consultancy as well. Issue of marketing is one of
most serious challenges of IT/IS Consultancy. The clients should be assisted to reach their
objectives and also provide them best roadmap for implementing those targets. When customers
consider price, status and popularity of a product, it is job of IT/IS Consultancy to make the
reasonable forecast as well as measure success of project (Smith, et. al., 2017). It is a major issue
if IT/IS Consultancy is baffled in case of hearing simple questions of customers. Improvement is
another challenge which is faced by IT/IS Consultancy. Another issue which should be handled
by IT/IS Consultancy is managing time as well as the projects.
Professional services are provided by IT/IS Consultancy to the businesses. Huge competition is
there between the firms for maintaining and securing firms. A tool to analyze market position of
a firm is SWOT analysis (Rainer, et. al., 2013). Data is utilized by the tools for providing
competiveness and market’s realistic overview. Firm’s SWOT analysis could provide snapshot
of all current conditions of business. It is tool of business analysis which is used in strategic
planning. The analysis is used for examining both external and internal factors.
Information Systems (IS)

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Information Technology (IT) and Information System (IS) are considered often synonymous.
Information Technology, in reality, is subset for Information System. These terms could be
interchangeably used, though both the fields have unique characteristics. IS is umbrella term of
systems, people and processes that are designed for storing, creating, manipulating,
disseminating and distributing information. Information system’s field bridges computer science
and business. Many people think ISs are systems based on computers. However, IS is heavily
dependent over computer and tools based on other technologies (Stair & Reynolds, 2013). For
instances, management information system uses information like databases for improving
performance, making decisions and creating reports. Decision support system is other example
for information system. Databases are used by these systems for preparing business packages
like decision trees, linear programming and forecasting.
Information technology is under the umbrella of Information system, however deals with
technology that is involved within the systems. IT could be defined as study, implementation,
design, management or support of information systems based on computers. Difference among
Information technology and Information systems is Information technology includes people,
processes and technology that are involved along with information. IT is implementation and
design of data or information in information system. Information technology and Information
system are the fields that are growing which offer professional growth and helps the
organizations to be in a competitive position within the market (Schwalbe, 2015). Programs of IS
and IT provide different skills within areas of technology and business.
Recommendation
The recommendation with regards to Information system could be made by using information
technology, which could combine information technology’s utilization with the human resource
management. This factor to combine technology with skill would be beneficial for the
organizations to form support system which is required for enhancing the performance of overall
organization. This also enhances the factor of Information System as landscape for application
which increases interaction of technology for improving performance of the organizations. The
information process uses every aspect of technology such as user interface for forming
information based on technology aspect with formation of process based on the algorithm
application. IS could also be used for creating business language which enhances factor of
business resource utilization from creation of support system for making effective business
decision. This overall improvement would enhance the function of IS as process which would
use information at the same time for collecting and transferring data that would be necessary for
storing every business process to increase efficiency in overall structure of the organizations.
Conclusion

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From this report, it could be concluded that IT/IS Consultancy results in improvement of
performance. IT/IS Consulting expenditures might well be consequence of performance of the
firm. Other actions are there which a firm could potentially take for improving the performance,
which includes creating new team for management and firing of senior management. Results of
the study are essential for managers of the underperforming firms as well as the firms which
offer the consulting services, mainly IT/IS Consultancy. An organization should create unique
capabilities which involve match among implementation of present IT solutions.

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