Why to invest in IT consulting?
In the digital world we live in, every company needs to have outstanding technology capabilities. Find out what an IT consulting company can do for your business.
“Fundamentally, I believe that every company will become a software company.”
A phrase by Satya Nadella, former executive president of Microsoft, during an event at the American Chamber of Commerce (Ancham), in 2015, became one of the biggest technology hits of the decade.
In the old years of 2015, the phrase left everyone speechless. What she announced was the acceleration of the Digital Transformation process in almost all industries – a process that you must be more than used to today.
At the time, the phrase resonated almost like an ultimatum to some managers. With a better understanding of the processes that govern Digital Transformation, companies realized that it was unnecessary to go through this moment alone.
And one of the “hubs” that can help calm the impacts of this transformation is precisely having the help of an IT consultancy.
The most common pain in IT
With the boom of emerging technologies, the last decade has aked Information Technology departments to take action. As a result, the role of IT in companies became more relevant, and the leaders of the technology areas began to have a more significant impact on businesses.
However, this does not necessarily mean that every company should be a technology company. All departmental decisions must be data-driven. And to supply this demand, the many business fronts started to demand the IT area.
The acceleration of Digital Transformation submitted part of the organization’s performance to an intelligent IT infrastructure and related areas, such as Data Science and Business Analytics. And this causes changes in the functioning of the sectors.
From the moment that the integration of areas linked to data and technology happens, we are reconciling different professionals and sectors’ working methods. Therefore, friction arises.
If you have been working with technology integration on the various business fronts long enough, you have heard about 9 out of 10 IT departments’ fundamental problem, translated into the phrase: “bringing IT closer to the business.”
To solve this problem, when integrating developers and designers, for example, MJV suggests a general solution, neither there nor here: placing the user at the center of the organization’s strategy.
With the focus on promoting better experiences for the end customer and understanding what their real needs are, any differences should be left aside in favor of the objective. We talked a little about this in our Strategic IT ebook. Check it out!
Hiring an IT consultancy can reduce or end some of the most common pains in the Digital Transformation process. Stay with us to learn more!
Strategic IT- The critical turn
How does IT consulting work?
IT consulting is essentially about advice and focuses on selecting the best IT management practices and helping the company implement them. You can also expect from the consulting company an action plan for adapting employees to the analytical culture.
It is important to note that consulting is different from the IT outsourcing service. When we talk about IT consulting, we are essentially talking about outsourcing the strategic part.
While the consultancy offers a holistic diagnosis on how to use the existing infrastructure to obtain better results, indicating points for improvement and actions, this diagnosis can be projected by project or the organization as a whole.
IT outsourcing, on the other hand, has a tactical execution characteristic, in which the service provider takes over the operation or works hand by hand with the client. In both cases, the solutions’ smooth running depends on the client’s degree of digital maturity and the level of monitoring necessary for the project.
However, it is very common for the two types of services to mix, especially during social distance. Right here at MJV, we work with a framework that goes from consulting to IT outsourcing, offering solutions to help you get your hands dirty and promote the changes needed to boost your results now.
The nearshore and offshore models, for example, provide cost savings by outsourcing part of the operations (or all of them) and still allow you to have access to qualified and accessible labor from abroad.
MJV has more than 20 years of experience. In addition to our consultative profile, we help our clients implement the necessary changes in their company to advance their IT maturity with a complete portfolio of services onshore, nearshore, and offshore.
Want to know how we work? Click here.
Why invest in an IT consultancy?
The Digital Transformation era has taken charge of transforming the technology departments – and business – of companies. As a result, investments in Information Technology and pressure for results have intensified.
We can say that the IT area currently represents the competitive potential in companies, having greater responsibility in an organization’s strategy, being a real catalyst for innovation.
If you are looking for a growth strategy for your company through IT governance, a secure network infrastructure, transition to cloud computing, or intelligent operations that make use of sensors and connected devices, hiring an IT consultancy is for you!
The main reason to invest in an IT consultancy is to stop having sporadic results. A technology department separated from the rest of the company for a model in which there are structured processes, continuous results delivery, measurement, and the IT department’s integration. Technology.
Among the services included in our IT consulting service are:
IT infrastructure
A good IT infrastructure is the pillar that supports your company’s systems. We work with the best software, hardware, and networks to run and manage your IT environments.
- Windows, Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, LDAP
- Cloud computing – Providers, native development, hybrid infrastructure, migration, Open Banking
- Environment monitoring
Information security
Information security is directly related to the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of information. Our service guarantees the protection of your systems connected to the internet, data, hardware, and software from cyber-attacks through:
- Pentests
- Code evaluation: AppScan, SonarQube, Spotbugs
- Consultancy
IT architecture
Architecture is the IT area responsible for planning, structuring, developing, and monitoring the results of solutions related to systems implementation, maintenance, and data treatment. Check out some of our architecture solutions:
- APIs
- Services and microservices
- Load balancing
- Zero downtime deploy
- Volumetry
- Horizontal and vertical scalability
- Security, performance, and cost optimization solutions
DevOps
DevOps integrates development with operations and acts to automate IT governance. Among other benefits, the framework shortens the development cycle and optimizes the use of resources. Check out our DevOps solutions:
- CI / CD – Jenkins, Bamboo, Ansible
- Quality – SonarQube, SpotBugs, unit tests, and coverage
- DevSecOps
- Tools: Jira, Confluence, Git, Nexus
Development of web / mobile applications + Software factory
Our software development solutions follow the most advanced user experience (UX), agile management, and programming. We work on these attributes in an integrated manner, improving the project’s hand over and the solutions’ time to market.
The difference is in promoting a close look at the processes, promoting greater alignment between IT and business teams, greater precision in mapping requirements, reducing risks and costs, gaining efficiency, and creating an improvement cycle.
- Software factory
Software Quality and Testing
The market demand for IT solutions is increasing. We at MJV work with techniques, processes, methods, and tools to carry out the type of test that best fits your solution and ensure software quality. The services covered are:
- Automated tests (Selenium and JBehave)
- Mapping test scenarios
- Integrated, regressive and/or unit tests
- Tools: ALM, JUnit, Mockito, Postman, Swagger
Five reasons to hire an IT consultancy
Still not convinced? Check out five advantages of hiring an IT consulting company:
1. Leverage productivity and results
As we said, IT is a tool that can enhance innovation in other sectors of the company. So, we can say that having a low level of IT maturity means limiting the degree of innovation that your company has or offers to the customer.
IT consultants are experts in understanding how new technologies fit into your business context and using them as performance catalysts, increasing productivity, efficiency, and building competitive advantage.
2. Cost reduction
The question (which can be worth literally $ 1 million) is: how to increase efficiency, generate more results, and mitigate costs? IT consulting has the answer. And IT outsourcing too. We explain.
Companies typically turn to IT consulting to implement solutions over a predetermined period of time. In this scheme, consultants identify, among other things, processes that can be eliminated, saving time and resources.
However, the ultimate goal in consulting should not be to reduce contracting costs specifically. This focuses on operational efficiency – for example, migration solutions to the cloud, which reduce storage costs at physical terminals. Yes, labor savings are a reality, but only if the project is successful. It is a side effect.
Besides, sometimes there is a need for more ongoing monitoring of the project’s developments, especially when it still has a lower degree of maturity.
The IT outsourcing service, complementary to the consultancy, can convert fixed IT costs into variables (yes!) By reducing labor costs.
3. Assistance from experts
Building proficient IT governance is not a simple matter – and anyone who has tried to reconcile the management of IT aspects and the focus of the business on their own understands the complexity of operating a functional and effective IT structure.
Even so, several decision-makers invest in this “multitasking” and make the mistake of assigning a professional to a specific function or who does not have the necessary experience in a full IT structure. This can have a real operational cost.
An IT consulting company carries years of experience in projects with companies of the most diverse maturity levels (in IT and digital). Its professionals are trained to assess the scenario, map risks, identify opportunities for improvement, and suggest specific solutions.
Opt for the best option.
4. Cybersecurity
You have probably heard that data is the new oil. At MJV, we believe that it is more than that. Because data never runs out. And they can generate valuable and recurring business inputs, which assist in decision making.
This vision meets a data-driven mindset, which has been at the core of any innovative business strategy in recent times. And in an increasingly digital world, information security is essential.
And beware: if you’re a small business, cybersecurity can be the limit between surviving a cyber attack and having to close down.
According to data from the US National Cybersecurity Alliance, 60% of small businesses that have suffered attacks left the market in 6 months.
And what can an IT consultancy do for you?
Information Security protocols can identify vulnerabilities in your network and preserve information’s value and integrity in the digital environment.
5. IT management and governance
To exploit IT’s full potential, it is necessary to structure processes and have good management and governance practices aligned – and this impacts all other sectors of the company.
It is necessary to keep in mind the effort required to overflow technological capabilities to other sectors and survive change management. After all, it has no relevance to taking advantage of the benefits a mature IT department offers without letting IT gain strategic importance.
One of the main obstacles of strategic IT is having a non-specialized manager (usually from another sector) to manage IT demands. In addition to the difficulty of reconciling the different teams’ success metrics, we are talking about not having a technical specialist taking care of a strategic area.
It is necessary to have specialists in the subject, build a strategic plan, and analyze each department’s need to suggest certain IT actions for each one.
Dedicate yourself to your business. Invest in IT
A study published in the journal Science indicates that employees who divide attention into competing objectives – that is, dedicate themselves to auxiliary functions that go beyond their competencies – make more mistakes, become more stressed and unproductive.
But you don’t have to shift your focus away from your business to enjoy the benefits of integrated IT management. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to manage IT aspects at your own risk. Ask for the help of an expert.
Unlocking innovation opportunities to keep your business up to date and competitive requires the right expertise. Get in touch and invest in an IT consulting company!
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