IT consulting services penetrated into diverse layers and types of almost all the electronic IT businesses you can just imagine. Starting you business, you should pay real attention to deciding which IT consulting services you are going to offer.

There are three major factors which affect the choice of IT consulting services you wish to offer:

• What your prospect clients need
• Current situation in the marketplace
• Your rivals’ proposals

IT Consulting Services Your Prospect Clients Need

No one can know better what they want and need than the target group who will use your services to render. Start communicating with people You consider your target group. Find out their current situation with computers, networks, etc:

• For which purpose do they utilize their computers?
• What runs smoothly?
• Any faulty operation?
• Where would a hand be acute?

This is the best and most efficient way to find out the real demand for types of IT consulting services you should select from.

IT Consulting Services in the Marketplace

One more way to find out what kind of products and IT consulting services should be offered is to read two general trade publications for small business computer consultants: Computer Reseller News (CRN) and VAR Business.

These two resources will help you stay informed with almost everything you should know about the latest trends and current situation with regard to products and services. These resources will be the kind of filter for you. They are focused exclusively on IT business thus they will enumerate and describe hot products possessing powerful potential for you to build value-added IT consulting services into your virtual IT business.

IT Consulting Services Competitors are Offering

And the last one but not least way to learn which products and IT consulting services to propose – is to opt for a spy trick competitive intelligence. Generally, you need to scrutinize your local market. Surf through the web sites. Examine your Chamber of Commerce Web sites. Review the site of companies rendering the similar kind of services.

Google, Yahoo, MSN or via any other convenient search engine any kind of IT consulting services within your city, county, province, state, zip code, postal code, area code, etc…

As soon as you posses information re IT consulting services offered by your competitors, scrutinize them and make analysis to ground the choice of types of IT consulting services you would offer, you wouldn’t offer and the way to differentiate from your rivals and their proposals i.e. be unique.

Bottom Line for IT Consulting Services

It’s not a simple matter at all to figure out which IT consulting services are at demand. Competitive analysis will give you information not to mislead. Still the best way to analyze market of IT consulting services to offer is to communicate directly with your prospect customers. So you will know for sure whether you decide to market it will have success or at least your, maybe small but…, target group.

Nowadays IT consulting services assume different shapes and sizes. If you first start a business it is important and crucial to decide which IT consulting services to propose. You should determine upon a type of activity: sell what you are proficient in, sell what is popular or sell what you think people need.

The most appropriate way to determine which IT consulting services to propose, and kinds of support and maintenance they need is to offer the IT consulting services your prospects NEED.

Everything sounds pretty clear, however, what usually happens is the start-ups offering IT consulting services their prospect customers want. But there is a large gap between notions of need and want. IT consulting services a business owner wants is not always what he needs.

Consider this case: if your prospect customers want a heater, will you propose it in July? No, in summer you will sell air conditioners, fans and cold soda. Just the same goes for IT consulting services, you successfully sell them when they are needed to add up to further affective operation. Your prompt response to arising demand is selling IT consulting services needed currently and in due time.

So, most often when you deal with a non-technical person, their needs may be rather fleet. But that’s nothing. It’s good that they have already realized what they need, while you can offer your IT consulting services to fix their lockups, enhance their poor performance, dig why users can’t log in etc.

As soon as you prove your proficiency and expertise, you can start offering them the IT consulting services you consider needed for them to reach the top-performance. Put it simple, software and IT errors is their pains and aches while you sell the cure for that troubles. You can’t start selling them the full range of your IT consulting services – productivity tools, security tools, intrusion detection, wireless connectivity and networks until you realize what your prospect customer considers his IT pains.

Bottom Line on IT Consulting Services

If you only start your business you must learn to think as your prospect customers do to realize their actual needs. Try to distinguish between their needs and wants. But do remember, don’t tire non-technical customers with specific words and terms, treat their fleet needs as unique. IT consulting services you will offer must cover both the ongoing fixes and the long term solutions. The core of your activity is to become an invaluable asset to the businesses to which you render IT consulting services.

Any IT consulting business start-up much depends on patience and persistence. One of the most complex parts is attracting new customers. Below are described some steps you can undertake to plunge into IT consulting business.

Make A Follow-Up Plan For New Networking Contacts

Receiving a new business card, specify the date and the place you met the contact and any associative notes that may assist to remember or in due time remind as more details about the contact as possible. If you were given a specific follow-up request, you’d better find out the fullest answer to their question and get back to them in the shortest time possible i.e. tomorrow or even sooner. If you are not able to call personally, you should send a hand-written note which would express your interest in the second meet with prospect and possible date of such meeting. You should attach your card to the note and add the contact card to your contacts list and DB.

Reconsider Your Networking Organization Plan

You should look closer to different networking groups you attended and select the ones you liked along with ones you disliked and which provide the most opportunities for business conducting. Choose at least 4 groups or communities and join them officially to add to your profile as an IT consulting figure. You should personally deliver your check to the director or manager and give soma explanations re your IT consulting business and the kind of services you render. You should inquire how to come to know small business owners who will most probably be the target group for your IT consulting expertise.

Don’t be idle at each networking event and engage in conversations with eight – ten people. Some of them may be blank while others may be your prospect customers, and the rest may become referrals. Always go forward and keep dropping your name.

Arrange Direct Mail Sendings

Keep your references at hand – testimonials from earlier and ongoing customers is a precious asset of your business and indicate your expertise and proficiency. Send letters, business proposals and your business card to each member you consider to fit into your IT consulting target group. Offer these prospects discount coupons that expire, make appointments at upcoming events. A personal call will be a wonderful follow up after you have done this.

With organizations focused on their core competencies, many choose to outsource at least a portion of their IT functions to offshore companies. Offshore IT outsourcing involves the use of IT specialists located in another country, and is currently being used for a large range of tasks such as product development, applications development, call center services, project management, and more.

Offshore IT outsourcing is becoming an increasingly common method to transform technology departments into cost efficient IT operations. The strategy helps companies achieve their desired return on investment. More companies turn to offshore outsourcing to lower labor costs and enhance the profitability of IT projects. Also, the presence of IT staff in multiple time zones means that service, development and support can take place around the clock.

The latest news and research can mean the difference between an IT offshore outsourcing agreement that is profitable and contributes to the bottom line, and one that puts the organization in the red. With offshore outsourcing experts and a strong research team that stays on top of new developments in contracts, negotiating techniques and service level agreements, there are a lot of information resource to help companies successfully implement IT offshore outsourcing agreements.

Developed industrialized countries have engaged in international outsourcing for years, but this year the debates about “offshoring“ penetrated from technology circles into the sphere of politics, macroeconomics and labor unions.

The polemic about offshore outsourcing, however, will run high, for corporate strategies on increasing of offshore outsourcing coincide with constantly increasing number of offshore outsourcing companies entering the global market.

Probably the most threatening to the Western IT employees in a long perspective seems the declining opportunity to move up the labor chain, from basic programming jobs to high-end design, project management and analytical work.

Only in U.S. alone, the scope of IT services rendered by offshore personnel will double to $16 billion next year and triple to $46 billion by 2007, as stated by market research company IDC.

Though India has the leading position in offshore work, demand and competition will heat up as more countries will try to get their share. A speaking proof of that is that at exhibition TechXNY almost half of more than 180 vendors participants of New York conference, a major business-oriented IT event in the U.S., were outsourcers. A good proportion of those were from Bulgaria, the Philippines, China, Mexico and South Africa.

Companies hoping to re-delegate some work that usually goes to India claim that the cost of conducting business there has risen, and that in some regions telecommunications and manufacturing infrastructure leaves much to be desired.

For instance, China has better developed infrastructure compared to India, and Chinese companies create good competition in the terms of prices, especially for small and medium-size companies. Many experts think that China’s IT outsourcing industry will get ready for big gains in the coming years.

“It possesses a great potential, it could skyrocket within just a couple of years,” experts say. “The whole turnover of China market would double in the next year or even three times or four times in the next several years.”

Outsourcing to Chinese companies can reduce customers customer cost on software development to 50 percent or more providing “the same level of services with the same quality or even better”.

In conditions of such fair competition it’s natural that experienced outsourcers long for high-end jobs.

But the opportunities look quite unlimited, for customers explore newer spheres for outsourcing to India. The major part of India’s software development exports so far consisted of custom application development and support. But the situation is changing – more and more Indian companies engage into IT consulting, systems integration, infrastructure management, and even product development for customers ranging from technology vendors to non-IT organizations.

Costly work typically done in-house like design, research and development, systems analysis tends to be outsourced to Indian vendors experienced sufficiently to prove their capabilities in taking up such work and its successful delivering, meeting global quality standards.

Such shifts are observed and seem to be happening faster in the wholly owned development affiliations of multinational technology companies in India.

For example, Intel development center in Bangalore began with pieces of coding work but now is responsible for a new 32-bit chip aimed at the enterprise market. The team engaged in development of the chip has a product architect and analyst whose job is to communicate with customers worldwide and then collaborate with the development team to determine the processor architecture.

This cost efficient effort will add money to the coffers of a U.S. company, but for American specialists this trend can mean only one thing: high-end IT development and conceptual job used to be the perquisite of the West is now shifted elsewhere.

Entrepreneurs from Asia to Eastern Europe are also looking to regain a piece from high-end.

Recognized offshore development leaders feel the pressure from Belarus, Ukraine, and other Eastern Europe countries. They make substantial investments in infrastructure and project management capabilities to increase their competitiveness.

However, technology staff engaged in product design and other high-end IT jobs in the U.S. and Europe have no reasons for panic. Attempts of new outsourcers to get into the global outsourcing market will inevitably run into obstacles. It requires time and much effort to gain communication skills, project management experience and learn new programming methodologies.

For instance, Chinese IT staff have very strong technical skills but they often lack the business instinct and knowledge required to make the most effective use of IT. In China a lot of highly educated IT people still have problems. They are ignorant in questions of management and production. They still need clear instructions.

Indian software development companies typically had minor involvement in mission critical IT systems such as stock trading systems. However, Indian software development companies try to conquer the areas of software architecture and IT consulting, but it is time consuming, and the crucial issue will be whether they will be able scale to hire and manage sufficient amount of employees to do that work.

In product development outsourcing it may be some time before Indian companies get into product definition and architecture. Most part of this activity today is done in the U.S. since in the context of a software product, the vision and the innovation for the product will be next to company founders and their teams. In addition to that large contracts require an outsourcer to take over the IT assets of a customer.

Infrastructure management is in nascent state in India, and clients with large outsourcing projects would automatically opt for a seasoned company than just some start-up. These projects also very asset intensive, and it is troublesome to take on assets on balance sheet. Indian companies still relatively small in an international context. Such contracts are sometimes billion dollars deals.

Against the background of increasing global competition for IT jobs, it turns out that Western professionals will have time to think over how to deal with constantly evolving worldwide labor market best.

IT consulting firms as a rule start out as small companies with modest staff. But gradually while rendering services and getting into the business, some years of operation may become too hackney for them and the company inevitably expands.

Making Business Grow

It’s a great job and responsibility to run a small business, namely for just several enthusiasts required to perform all aspects of this job. Being a wise leader of a small IT consulting firm You should envisage the opportunity of delegating part of this work to others to offload your work schedule and allow more business. But before opting for outsourcing opportunity You must make sure that your business is ready for such changes.

Financial Stability

Some small IT consulting firms may have additional source of funding which provide hiring new personnel. Other companies need to wait for building income and only then hire new people. Analysis of your financial state will help defining your current situation and your opportunities to hire new employees.

A Benefits Package

Successfully managing employees will wait for reward as a benefits package. You’ll have to choose a basic health insurance plan that perfectly matches your small business. It’s quite an expensive benefit and you may expect that the employee will pay the premiums, and that health insurance coverage possibly will start only after three months in the position. To make your proposition more clean-cut you can suggest additional benefits such as laptops, travel allowances, cell phone plans and uniforms.

Dependable Employees

Delegation of your responsibilities to other may be not so easy as it seems first, if you believe that no one can do better than you. Being an IT consulting firm owner, you may have set high standards of conducting business and you are dead sure that not everyone can endure this run and do everything right. If you trust your employees and believe in their abilities it will be easier to transit into a freer schedule. Employees will have their three months trial period to win your trust and show themselves off. Within the trial period you will have your own observations as well as customers’ feedback and then decide whether you hired the right person.

IT consulting firms are essential to many companies nowadays. If you take account of all the factors for business development, you will have more solid plan for your future.

The boom of “inter-computer” communication in new millennium is triggering a golden age for IT consultants. Let us together trace the evolution of IT management consulting.

The research deals with PCs in the 80’s and the Internet in the 90’s as triggers of skyrocket growth of the IT consulting industry.

The ground for such steep growth of autonomous computing is “computer-to-computer” communication. By the end of this the e-communications will be computer-to-computer. Inter-computer communication greatly speeds up the business development. For instance, full automation of supply chains: point-of-sale computers directly communicate with warehouse computers, which in their turn communicate with vendor computers, while vendors’ computers, again, directly communicate with their supplier computers. Moreover, by means of inter-computer communication one can track demand and automatically direct products to points of demand.

There are several drivers of IT consulting industry growth. Innovation in frameworks and methodologies along with seasoned and highly trained professionals enabled the appearance of unique services from the consulting companies. For example, many companies introduce innovative and unique frameworks which assist company management to refine action plans for diverse business activities.

Still innovative approach and sophistication were another driver. Some consulting companies began to provide expertise in designing and developing elaborated computer applications. While others offer unique packaged software and specialized consulting services.

Another one driver is reaching the critical mass of specific expertise is too costly to maintain in a particular company. For instance, e-security requires a significant level of expertise, which not all companies can afford in-house. By rendering such types of services to multiple companies, both expertise can be maintained in practice group and the group will stay on the cutting edge of technology and trends.

The greatest benefit conditioned by the last driver is that a distinct consulting company can maintain and manage the group of talented and employees. A product company differs much from an IT consulting firm in management and incentive systems. At all, a product company may not attract various knowledge workers who would rather engage in consulting services.

Finally, the IT consulting industry experienced 1) introduction of ERP and CRM systems; 2) solved Y2K problem; and 3) discovery of new areas for activity – e-business.

In our research document, we claim that more than 50 percent of today’s budgeting expenses encompass computing in various forms. As a result of all-round penetration of IT, almost all consulting companies had to integrate IT expertise. Consulting services are still in restructuring mode due to it’s steep growth in 1990’s.

In the context of above facts lots of companies continued to broaden their scope of consulting service. Many of them invested in establishing of education and training facilities, dedicated to maintaining of professionalism of their employees, as well as equipping them with new skills to lead the edge.

Some went further and there are IT product firms which practice certification and training for their own consultants, independent consultants, etc. Microsoft, Sun, and Novell are bright examples of this type of companies.

Our predictions as for the future of IT consulting services base on our belief that the late restructuring in IT consulting industry is a point of industry transition. The transition is still underway but we can see as some of new drivers take shape.

Until recently, IBM de facto set the industry standard for , and a de facto standard in the use of COBOL for development of applications. By the end of 1990’s, development of new applications was almost supplanted by packaged solutions. Moreover, development of networks and Internet moved the IT infrastructure towards open standards environment.

Proportionally, the infrastructure of IT itself became simpler and more advanced. The purpose of IT management consulting is to provide both strategic perspective along with opportunity to manage the risks of inability to realize the strategic competitive advantages of the company due to failures to effectively manage the challenges of implementation.

Further, in the context of the management challenges to level strategic opportunities with capabilities of implementation, there exist dampening forces on growth of industry. For instance, the steep growth of ERP installations and BPRE projects is now at dawn. While outsourcing is still in general use, organizations gained their own experience and armed with this knowledge cam do much more now. Company management became more proficient in IT, knows more about the business and organizational potential of IT and how to design their own robust architecture.

The demand will keep growing. Electronic security is rapidly becoming a general issue. The Internet will grow fundamentally in Asia and Europe. Absolutely new applications in new business domains create new consulting spheres.

IT consulting, as any other product or service, can create its own demand. In the future the IT consulting industry will require a high level of industry adaptation. Introducing the innovations and pointing out the competitive benefits of those innovations to the market, IT consulting creates and its opportunities for growth. The key to IT consulting steady growth and development is its ability to lead and to adapt within new conditions.

Managers can learn a number of important lessons from our research:

Many operational and business managers became more informed about IT and at the same time many IT professionals became apprised about the strategic and business advantages of IT. Companies practicing this integrated and more sophisticated capability within their structure will have an advantage over those who depend on outsiders to get the integrated view.

Changes in IT domain can be compared to the rate of changes in other technologies, markets, and rivals’ initiatives. It is noted and soon to be a common truth that a successful IT consulting company must be able to forecast, sense, and promptly respond to changes. This is equally applicable for operations. Operations managers often face the challenge of implementing new IT capabilities and at the same time guarantee that they are ready for the next version or generation.

The complexity of emerging IT environment often requires specialized expertise, available only in IT consulting firms, to build IT infrastructure and integrated applications. Successful managers will ensure that their companies can operate effectively themselves while integrating the benefits from networks of service providers with a bundle of special capabilities.

Ultimately, from our point of view it is too risky to fully delegate the IT initiatives to IT consulting companies. Many of your own IT professionals and users should take active part in IT initiatives.

IT consulting firms as a rule start out as small companies with modest staff. But gradually while rendering services and getting into the business, some years of operation may become too hackney for them and the company inevitably expands.

Making Business Grow

It’s a great job and responsibility to run a small business, namely for just several enthusiasts required to perform all aspects of this job. Being a wise leader of a small IT consulting firm You should envisage the opportunity of delegating part of this work to others to offload your work schedule and allow more business. But before opting for outsourcing opportunity You must make sure that your business is ready for such changes.

Financial Stability

Some small IT consulting firms may have additional source of funding which provide hiring new personnel. Other companies need to wait for building income and only then hire new people. Analysis of your financial state will help defining your current situation and your opportunities to hire new employees.

A Benefits Package

Successfully managing employees will wait for reward as a benefits package. You’ll have to choose a basic health insurance plan that perfectly matches your small business. It’s quite an expensive benefit and you may expect that the employee will pay the premiums, and that health insurance coverage possibly will start only after three months in the position. To make your proposition more clean-cut you can suggest additional benefits such as laptops, travel allowances, cell phone plans and uniforms.

Dependable Employees

Delegation of your responsibilities to other may be not so easy as it seems first, if you believe that no one can do better than you. Being an IT consulting firm owner, you may have set high standards of conducting business and you are dead sure that not everyone can endure this run and do everything right. If you trust your employees and believe in their abilities it will be easier to transit into a freer schedule. Employees will have their three months trial period to win your trust and show themselves off. Within the trial period you will have your own observations as well as customers’ feedback and then decide whether you hired the right person.

IT consulting firms are essential to many companies nowadays. If you take account of all the factors for business development, you will have more solid plan for your future.