For a growing number of organisations, outsourcing tasks and operations is a must to compete in the gruelling race for the highest business efficiency. As obvious as it is for simple tasks, it is less so for more complex services. So, is employing an end-to-end technology consulting and software delivery partner to your next digital transformation project a wise step to take? If so, how can it impact your general business efficiency?
The Traditional Business Efficiency Model and External Technology Consulting
Efficiency indicates how well a company is capable of turning resources like finance, labour, time, and material into products or services producing revenue.
To revolutionise efficiency, you must focus on how to produce more profit with less input in areas like general expenses, energy consumption, or employment. This is when technology comes in handy, as implementing solutions based on data, cloud or AI can improve efficiency in core processes.
Previously, the outsourcing of discrete tasks was mainly being introduced to bring cost reduction to companies that preferred to transfer isolated tasks to third parties, while keeping their core processes and decisions in-house.
In the times of digital transformation, with nonstop developments in the technology area, holding tight to a team of in-house technology experts and developers may turn counter efficient, or, to put it bluntly, even impossible. To get access to talents, know-how and fresh insights into technological novelties, what’s worth considering is approaching a good quality tech consulting companies with software development capabilities.
So, before embarking on a time-and-money-consuming quest for building a strong in-house team, why won’t you try changing your mindset towards more efficient ways of gaining access to dedicated teams who will translate your business challenges to digital solutions?
End-to-End Technology Consulting: Bring Your Efficiency to the Next Level
The everchanging world of disruptive technologies has created a demanding environment in which third-party companies have successfully evolved their capabilities to offer made-to-measure sets of services (1), such as a convenient combination of both tech consultancy and software delivery.
Organisations can now push gains to their limits (2) by hiring only an end-to-end tech consulting and software delivery company to meet all their digital needs: from analysis and consultancy, through software design and delivery, to future product development and management.
10 Reasons Why You Should Consider Combining External Consulting with Software Delivery
As the outsourcing of technology consulting is a bold move on its own, entrusting a wide number of services to one partner is a seemingly precarious decision. On a closer look, however, you can notice a number of benefits strengthening your competitive advantage.
1. Innovative approach to time and labour efficiency
Finding the right external service provider is not an easy task. It requires hours of scrambling through portfolios and sitting through endless calls and countless meetings with potential partners.
In a more conservative outsourcing scheme, your organisation would probably have to double the efforts to find two external companies: a consulting firm and a software house. But that’d be only a small part of what lies ahead, as your digital transformation managers would have to establish short-term business relations with two vendors and assure seamless knowledge transfer between them. That’s not the most efficient way to go, is it?
Employing one firm with both consulting and software delivery competences may require increased initial effort in finding the most suitable partner to entrust such a wide range of services. But once you have it – walking this extra mile is going to pay off in a long-lasting relation based on trust and growing understanding of your business needs reflected in the most accurate solutions.
2. Access to coherent end-to-end delivery
A combined team of tech consultants and highly-skilled developers can seamlessly guide you from vision towards positive digital solution delivery. But a feasible strategy and swift software release is just a starting point of your collaboration, as this very team knows your code inside out and is eager to present you with the most innovative development possibilities which will make your tech systems impervious to any turmoil global innovation may bring in the future.
3. Flexibility and swift reaction to change
Digital transformation is not a single event – it’s a process that requires swift and accurate reactions to unpredictable changes in disruptive technologies. This means that your organisation’s strategy must be constantly updated to include in-depth analysis of tech novelties. And as soon as your plan is revised, you must be ready to immediately turn new ideas into reality.
In this never-ending quest for keeping your software and digital solutions up-to-date, entrusting consulting and software delivery capabilities to one partner is a smart step to take. One team of experts and agile developers can internally secure the whole process of analysis and software updates, considerably reducing time you need to accommodate and draw profits from change.
4. Processes transparency
Who are you more probable to trust: visionaries with no prior experience in end-to-end technology delivery that would promise you the world for your money or a leading company with a team of experts from across the tech landscape, a portfolio of successful strategy-to-reality transitions and a strict practice-what-you-preach approach?
In the uncertain era of digital transformation, mutual trust is a must. To make a successful software development transfer to the digital world, you must be certain that goals set by an external technology consulting and software delivery company are feasible, trustworthy, and suitable to your overall business needs. Having a partner who can deliver both the tech strategy and the implementation under one roof, means that the vision and the solutions will be more closely aligned and more feasible than doing the two activities with two separate agencies.
5. Control over responsibility
With great digital change comes great responsibility. With two separate providers of consulting services and software delivery – which one is to blame for insufficient results? The one who provided you with ineffective recommendations or the one who delivered you unsuitable software?
As painful as it is, answering those questions and getting to the bottom of any failure is crucial to take corrective actions.
If you collaborate with only one tech consulting and software delivery company, the suspects’ list is cut down to one. But keep in mind that the necessity to search for the culprit is the worst case scenario, as you probably won’t have to engage in it in the first place.
One consultancy and software delivery partner bears responsibility for every aspect of your collaboration: from strategy to future innovation. A perspective of carrying out the project from vision to reality imposes a great dose of accountability for the final outcome and gives very little space for error. And even if any lapses occur, they can be easily tracked down and instantly corrected.
6. Access to independent business decisions
Remember that your internal consultants, no matter how competent and skilled, are still your employees. Although they know your corporate culture and business requirements like no other, their expertise may be biased by the simple fact that their income and careers literally depend on your organisation. It may be difficult to encourage your in-house teams to speak their minds freely, especially when it involves challenging your existing digital strategy.
An independent tech consulting company can offer you the opposite: a unique challenge-as-a-service experience. External experts are not afraid to respectfully question your ideas and present you with the most effective alternative. And as the consulting services are combined with software delivery, those visions can be promptly transformed into the most efficient lines of code.
7. Gaining broader perspective on tech solutions
With an independent IT consulting and software development company comes yet another value: a broader outlook on digital solutions resulting from its vast experience – not only in providing theoretical solutions, but, most importantly, in creating and successfully launching digital products for a number of organisations from a wide range of industries and sectors.
An external partner may give you a credible and fresh perspective on possible solutions to your most daring business challenges. Even if the proposed strategy may seem precarious or unheard of in your line of business, your partner’s wide case study collection and extensive clients’ testimonials show that the expertise is credible and trustworthy.
8. Benchmarking
Thriving tech consulting companies with software delivery capabilities have rich histories of successful collaboration with a plethora of clients from every industry, sector or geography. This gives you assurance that not only their advice, but also the software they deliver have been benchmarked against other organisations’ digital solutions.
Such an approach builds trust that you are presented with the most efficient and cutting-edge tech solution which has been successfully implemented and proven in numerous working environments.
9. Access to rare talents
According to Forbes’ findings (3), three-quarters of employers are now struggling to find the right talents to guide them through digital revolution. Moreover, technology today poses challenges too complex to be grasped by a substantial number of tech workers who, as a result, decide to quit lifelong learning approach and leave the tech industry for good.
When talent shortage and a growing skill gap are plaguing the labour market, entrusting combined operations of both tech consultancy and software delivery to an outsourced team may be the only possible option of gaining access to experts in rare or novelty technologies.
10. Enhanced financial performance
With a growing number of organisations prioritising value, lots of firms still focus on cost reduction when deciding on outsourcing of tech consulting, software development, or managed services. Assigning the whole scope of operations to one vendor may open gates for further negotiations on financial terms of long-term collaboration.
As many benefits as you can get from merging external tech consulting with software delivery, it is still understandable that transferring complex operations to only one vendor may provoke a number of concerns at every stage of partnership.
Addressing the Concerns: Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them
With the particular needs of your organisation and no two identical cases of collaboration with an external technology consulting and software delivery company, it is impossible to predict all the challenges which may arise upon building a new partnership.
The remedy for the most common concerns, however, can be found in the right balance between the amount of control and trust in your tech consulting and software delivery partner.
The application of well-designed legal tools (with NDAs and SLAs still being effective methods for setting collaboration ground rules), followed by proper IT outsourcing relationship management on both sides of the agreement shape a solid base of an efficient and long-term partnership.
Geographical and cultural proximity may further lower the risk of your partner not fully understanding your intentions and requirements. A firm which shares similar culture and geography is more likely to instantly grasp your philosophy and reflect it in more suitable solutions and ideas delivered without no time zone related delays.
The number of third-party choices offering an extensive set of advisory and software delivery services is mind-blowing. Consider this an opportunity to be picky. Before extending your company’s ecosystem, check:
- the vendor’s portfolio – read through case studies in search for an experienced partner to suit your specific needs in both external technology consulting and software delivery;
- collaboration style – reach out to a number of companies and see if they are able to work with you in the exact way you wish, not the way they wish you to work; state clear your expectations about the scope of your future collaboration; set your boundaries on how much you’ll allow your partner to influence your team’s decisions;
- language proficiency of teams – as down-to-earth as it sounds, communication capabilities of a tech consulting and software development company are crucial to provide expertise and drive positive product delivery; don’t forget that time zones and cultural background similarities may strongly enhance the overall collaboration’s agility.
Future Outlook: The Revolution of Business Efficiency through Outsourcing
Technology, if applied properly, offers an immense opportunity to increase your work, time and process efficiency. With the existing challenges of a growing skill gap and talent shortage, however, getting the most of this opportunity with in-house capabilities alone will for many be challenging, or even impossible.
Professional partnership assures you that all your digital needs are taken care of on both strategic and operational level.
Third-party companies are ready to give you full technological support, as they have built capabilities to focus on a set of specialised services, including technology strategy consulting and expertise in distinctive areas like AI, Machine Learning, Cloud, Data or Blockchain.
With a proper tech consulting and software delivery partner comes a set of invaluable benefits which you won’t get from a software house or a consulting agency.
Tech consulting and software delivery companies keep up-to-date with the latest trends in technology and working methods. Their broad experience of working with clients from every industry helps them to apply only the most effective strategies, while their strict hands-on approach ensures that you’ll get the digital solution tailored to your particular needs.
The vast perspective they bring to the table gives you certainty that your software was designed not only with possible opportunities, but also threats in mind, making it resistant to future problems, like end of support or the need for upgrades.
This means that entrusting your technology needs to a good tech partner can be just the right step towards enhancing your organisation’s efficiency. As a result, you don’t need to focus on staying up-to-date with technology, but instead can fully concentrate on achieving your business goals – with help of your strategic tech partner of course.
Resources:
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/operations/articles/global-outsourcing-survey.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/06/21/how-outsourcing-has-changed-the-traditional-way-of-doing-business/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/01/27/how-to-navigate-the-it-talent-acquisition-landscape-in-2023/