What Do IT Consultants Do? Responsibilities and Hiring Process Explained

Having a startup company or medium business, you may feel a lack of tech expertise at some point. IT consultants can help you find the best tech solutions to improve your workflow or automate your business processes.

But first, you need to understand what IT consultants do and how they can be useful for your company.

You can find the explanation of IT consultant responsibilities in this post. I’ve also covered how to hire IT consultants and what are the ways to cooperate with them.

The right IT consultant can save you thousands of dollars. But it can be a struggle to find a qualified specialist with the required expertise. Moreover, you should trust the IT consultant you work with as you share access to your servers and internal business process.

To understand how important the choice of the right consultant is, you have to be aware of the IT consultant’s responsibilities and when you need to hire one.

Of course, IT consultants have more responsibilities. I’ve covered only the most wide-spread ones. Among other responsibilities are:

• Hiring IT professionals
• Choosing tech stack
• Improving the architecture

You understand that you have a lack of tech expertise and want to cooperate with an IT consultant. Where to find IT consultants?

There are several options:

• Look around. You can cooperate with software development companies that you’ve already dealt with.
• Ask for recommendation. If you already work with software service providers, you can ask them for references of a consulting firm they know.
• Check Clutch or GoodFirms, if you’re looking for software development companies that offer IT consultants. Using these platforms, you can study the companies’ reviews and other customers’ feedback.
• Consider a freelancer. There are a lot of platforms like Upwork where you can hire a freelance IT consultant. There you’ll find reviews from previous clients and skills of a specialist.

The most popular options of hiring IT consultants remain software development companies and freelancers. Especially if you want to save some money and have an option for offshore outsourcing.

Freelance IT consultants

Freelance is becoming more popular these days. However, it’s not the best option for an IT consultant. The IT consulting position requires long-term cooperation, while freelancers often quit the project without finishing it.

Besides, it can be quite complicated to check the quality of work unless you're a tech guru.

If you decide to use this model, then make sure that the freelancer is reliable. You can look through feedback on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr.

Where to look for:

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• Freelancer

Software development company

Apart from software development services, IT firms often provide IT consulting. Cooperating with a software company, you can reduce the time required for interviewing candidates and end up paying less.

Where to look for:

• Clutch
• GoodFirms
• IT Firms

There can be a lot of reasons to hire an IT consultant.

• In-house specialists don’t have the required skills and knowledge.
• You don’t need a full-time, permanent employee. You’re looking for a specialist that can fulfill the necessary scope of work.
• You want in-depth third-party research for your company’s processes.

However, the most wide-spread reasons to cooperate with an IT consultant are:

It can be a struggle to hire a qualified and experienced IT consultant, especially if you don’t have tech expertise.

There are several primary steps for you to follow while hiring an IT consultant.

You need to clearly understand why you need an IT consultant. Otherwise, you’ll just waste time and money.It’s better to have a list of your expectations from a specialist and tasks for an IT consultant to do.

Based on these requirements, you can consult with a software development company. They’ll offer you a specialist that meets your requirements.

I’ve already mentioned platforms like Clutch and GoodFirms where you can find the clients’ reviews. You can contact several vendors and pick the right partner.Ratings and review platforms tend to verify customers’ feedback, so you can be sure that all the comments are valid.

Every reliable vendor has a portfolio with previous works. You can look through the released tech products on the company’s website. For example, here’s Cleveroad’s portfolio.

Studying the company’s portfolio, you can find if it worked on similar projects before. It approves the vendors’ expertise in the required field.

Don’t forget to protect your data.

You need to choose a partner who guarantees the safety of your data and is ready to sign the appropriate documents.

It’s better to sign an NDA agreement before discussing the project.

NDA agreement covers such aspects as the procedure of data collection, transfer, access, and more.

Also, software development companies should follow the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

You need to prepare for the IT consultant interview. It’s better to consider the communication channel beforehand (if you have different time zones). It’s common to have the first contact with the company’s representative via phone call.

Phone call

The first meeting lets you share expectations, business goals, and requirements. You can also check the IT consultant’s CVs, skill set, and more.

It's better to arrange the video interview during the phone call to test the candidates' hard and soft skills. It’s required to have a tech specialist from your side or independent expert unless you’re a tech guru. The first phone call takes 20-30 minutes. This time is enough to draw up the first impression of the candidate.

Video interview

During this interview, you need to check if the IT consultant has the required expertise and experience to improve your business processes. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to test the developers’ hard skills without a technical background. You should interview candidats with your in-house developer (if you have one). Otherwise, you can cooperate with a tech consultant like a startup CTO.

IT consultants should also have soft skills to manage the team effectively. There’s a PDF file with interview questions to ask an IT consultant during the interview.

You need to check the following soft skills:

• Communication skills
• Creativity
• Conflict management
• Work in a team
• Adaptability
• Dedication

Unlike other hiring opritions (like a freelancer), you can draw up a contract with the company and be protected in accordance with the law.

A valid contract should contain the following data: full name of the services, price, payment, and delivery procedure. You also need to sign an NDA agreement (if you haven’t yet) to protect your project idea.

The IT life cycle can differ depending on your project requirements and business goals. If you need to develop a project from scratch, it’s better to follow the software development process.

In most cases, companies stick to the following workflow:

As you can see, IT consultants can bring many benefits to your business. To reach better results and reduce expenses, you can cooperate with a software development company.

Cleveroad is a software development company offering IT consulting services and located in Ukraine, Eastern Europe. We’ve 6+ years of experience working with software of all complexity levels: from modernizing CRM and ERP systems to creating iOS and Android apps from scratch.

We’ve developed solutions from scratch for startups and mid-sized businesses. We have expertise in eight industries including healthcare, education, and logistics.

Take a look at the projects we’ve helped to deliver in our portfolio.