The business doctor
One of the most difficult things for organizations all over the world is to find IT solutions that truly match their needs. In the IT industry we call it “aligning customer requirements with program functionalities”. Big organizations have already a structure and personnel to run optimization projects regularly, their growth depends strongly on being able to be one step ahead the rest. However, smaller companies need to reinvent themselves every time they need to update their software, causing a direct impact into their business processes. This is actually good, since it pushes them to optimize those processes, technologically upgrading their work force and allowing more efficient methodologies, improving quality and service...
On the other hand, the role of the business consultant/coacher is decisive to help organizations define their needs and align them with those IT solutions that potentially match better and are within the affordable budget. They will analyse your current business processes, IT infrastructure and DBs, dissecting and understanding, to finally propose optimizations along with the IT solutions that can make it happen. They can help you dealing with the IT suppliers, knowing that, deal with the pre-sales consultants and account manager in charge of your sales cycle to make sure they meet your requirements as a potential customer/user of that or other program, and match them with the functionalities that they offer.
But company owners should not trust in any consultant just because they say they know more. The business consultant must proof to have a “scientific” work approach, apply high-level solutions, have a strong customer focus and investigate problems to establish real and even hidden issues. When you are contracting a consultant, you are hiring a business doctor, who will study your symptoms and provide a diagnosis and a potential treatment.
