Top 7 Factors to Consider When Choosing an IT Consultant

Are you worried that you aren’t investing enough into technology for your business? There’s a good reason you have that concern.

Reports show that 85% of small businesses believe that technology helps with their success. If you can’t make tech work for your business, you won’t keep up with your competitors.

If you’re struggling to make the best of your IT infrastructure, working with an IT consultant can help you get on track. Below are seven factors you should consider when choosing an IT consultant.

1. Cost

There’s a reason you haven’t hired an in-house IT person to do the work of a consultant. It takes a lot of time and money to onboard new employees. Even if you find someone for the job, there’s still the chance of you finding the wrong person and having to go through the process over again.

Working with an IT consultant can save you time and money. Their job is to make your life easier, not create more work for you and your team.

Of course, IT consultants come with different fees. If saving money is a primary goal of yours, comparing consultant fees is essential to the decision process. Make sure you don’t spend more money on a consultant than you would when hiring a full-time employee.

2. Security

Depending on the business you’re in, you can’t just give everyone access to your data. Since an IT consultant needs access to your computer systems, anyone you hire should have the necessary training to access sensitive information.

Take healthcare, for instance. HIPPA laws protect healthcare data. If you hire a consultant in this industry, they need to be familiar with these laws and follow them when working for your company.

Determine what security issues having outside people in your company brings so that you can vet people before you hire them. Ideally, you’ll work with someone who specializes in your industry. They’ll know your IT needs and what you need to do to follow all the rules.

3. Specialty

You might be able to find a jack-of-all-trades IT consultant during your search. However, this doesn’t mean they have the breadth of knowledge in specific IT fields that a specialist would. Before you commit to hiring an IT expert, figure out what specific needs you have.

Take internet security, for instance. Cybersecurity is an IT field that has its own degree programs. A general IT person might be able to troubleshoot common IT issues, but they may not know what security measures to take to protect highly sensitive information.

A specialist might cost a little more, but they’ll spend less time getting your IT infrastructure where it needs to be. A lower-cost general IT consultant might end up costing more money if they need to spend extra time figuring things out.

4. Training Ability

Even if someone has enough experience with IT to get your systems up and running, that doesn’t mean that’s their only job. Most of the time, your team will have new tools to learn after the work is done.

All that work doesn’t mean much if people don’t know how to use your new tech. A great IT consultant will provide training for employees to get them up to speed on everything they need to know.

They can do this in a few ways. Some consultants like to hold in-person classes and get questions from your employees all at once. Others might provide video courses for your team to work through on their own and then gather questions by email once people finish their training material.

5. Communication

There are many intelligent people in the world, but not all of them are great communicators. The IT field is no different. While communication issues with employees are a little easier to deal with, communication problems with an IT consultant should never happen.

Use your interview with an IT consultant to gauge how well they communicate. Come prepared with a list of questions that help you understand their knowledge and how they can help you.

You can also use that time to learn more about how they communicate. Some IT consultants might prefer to work through text messages, while others will want to jump on a quick phone call. Find the person that fits your communication needs.

6. Location

In today’s world, remote work is becoming more commonplace. However, that doesn’t mean you can handle everything from anywhere in the world.

What happens if your equipment goes offline? If you have an IT consultant that lives across the country, you’re going to rely on them walking a regular computer user through complex procedures.

That isn’t an issue when you hire someone local to your area. They don’t need to come into the office to work. However, someone local can come on-site if a serious problem comes up.

7. Reliability

Anyone can go on the internet, look up a few IT terms, and act like they know how to build a computer network. While working with a few computers might not be a big deal, working with a larger organization is more complicated.

That’s why you need to work with a reliable IT consultant like https://www.semtechit.com/our-services/managed-it-services/ when you hire someone. If you want to know that someone can do the job, you need to look at the references and reviews of a consultant.

You can start your search online with Google. A quick search will show you the registered IT consultants in your area and their reviews.

Once you start talking to people, ask to speak directly to their past customers. Even if someone has the tech skills for the job, you need to know if their personality is a good fit. You don’t want to get stuck with someone you hate for an extended period.

Choosing an IT Consultant Takes Time

You can’t afford to take it easy when your competitors are taking advantage of the newest tech tools. Finding an expert to help will help you make sure your company has what it needs to succeed. Keep the above points in mind when choosing an IT consultant to take on the job.

Do you want to learn more about the tech tools that make companies run today? Read our latest posts to learn more.