Consulting firms are great for growing businesses as it enables them to hand over their business matters to someone else. That gives them enough time and space to focus on other business-related queries. However, before hiring a firm, you need to understand whether they have a technology-centric IT strategy or a business-centric. There is a great difference between both of these, and you as a business should have an idea about that. Typically, in business-centric IT strategies, businesses already have a future plan, and to implement it, they invest in the required technology. At the same time, a technology-centric IT strategy means that you have already had a series of IT systems that are unique and solo, and you have no clue of how they are going to align with your future business plans.
Three reasons to get a business IT strategy from a consulting firm
Keeping all things aside, business-centric IT solutions are necessary for growth. These plans are typically easier to comprehend but are expensive to implement. Evolving a model that is solely based on business IT is not an easier task. Below we are going to mention some of the reasons why it is going to be worth the effort.
- IT systems should be able to move at the pace of the business:
Successfully running businesses have an idea that highly competitive businesses can be found in the market. Flexibility is the only key to success for surviving and thriving in such a dynamic and competitive business. The main reason behind it is that everything is subject to commoditization, and there is nothing much that you can do in this regard. If you want to survive in such an environment, you need to adapt to the requirements of the clients quickly. You need to have the technology and the infrastructure that will be able to match your business’s pace. Your IT infrastructure should be so stable that your software systems, network systems, and communication systems are pliable to the changing needs of your business.
- IT strategies should not be tool-centric:
As discussed above, you do ned tools and technology to run a successful business, but your IT strategies should not be completely based on it. More focus should be on the business plans and the business requirements. For instance, this is what a business-centric IT strategy looks like: You can clearly articulate the business requirements, understand the current state of your business, and effectively document all the consumer and the customer business needs. On the other hand, I read about this technology, it seems a good purchase and I think we should buy it for our business. Now in such situations, you are only thinking about buying the technology. You have no idea of how it is going to be beneficial for the business, or something like my friend’s company has XYZ software. Whereas a tool-centric approach looks like
- Business-centric approach means you prioritize your customers:
The benefit of going for a business-centric approach is that you get to put the needs of your customers first. You continue your business based on what the requirements of your customers are and you try to fulfill them. A tool-centric approach on the other hand focuses on the efforts you are putting into your IT needs. The technology might affect your decision-making process related to the customers. If you want to hire a business-centric IT consulting firm, go for X-Centric. Their main concern is to help their clients in lowering the technology ownership cost while reaping. The benefits of feature-rich tools that are proven to deliver predictable risks. If you still have concerns about business-centric or technology-centric IT solutions, you can ask your consultant for further information.
