When seeking assistance for challenges that arise from IT-related projects, businesses can find IT consultants that offer a wide range of services for businesses of all sizes. To decide on the best consultant for your business, it is essential to know the services consultants can provide and the benefits of working with one that offers more than just advisement or managed service provider (MSP) support. In this article, we want to highlight key services companies should look for in their IT consultant and explain why having a partner in IT that provides advisement, MSP, and value-added reseller (VAR) services can improve your project timelines and better support your IT environment.
IT Consulting Services
Not all IT consultants offer the same range of services and level of expertise a business needs to solve its challenges. Understanding which array of services your business needs to plan, implement, and support its IT projects is essential to finding the right consultant. For example, some consultants only offer advisement services, which means they can recommend vendors for technology acquisition but do not assist in technology procurement themselves. For managed service provider (MSP) support, this can mean a consultant may recommend solutions they do not have experience implementing and configuring.
For businesses that are unsure of how much support they need, it is recommended to understand the core services provided by a consultant and the ways in which they overlap. This way, your team can plan for success and seek out an IT consultant that can provide the right level of support throughout a project. The three core services to research with a consultant are advisement, MSP, and VAR.
Advisement
The signature service provided by IT consultants is advisement. With advisement services, a consultant gets to know your business’ IT environment in order to provide insightful and actionable advice on how to solve the IT challenges you face. A consultation includes an identification of key pain points and a thorough plan for solving your business’ unique challenges. If your consultant is also a managed service provider, then they can offer specific solutions that they have first-hand expertise in, which can allow for new solutions to be implemented correctly and on a shorter timeline.
Managed Service Provider
Not every IT consultant offers MSP services, but those that do provide network management, security services, and systems and cloud computing support. These services help businesses orchestrate their technology to make their IT environment efficient while hardening their endpoints and ensuring your system architecture is optimized for your needs. When working with an IT consultant that offers MSP services, a business reduces the number of third-party service providers needed and has access to IT professionals that can advise, build, and maintain their environment.
Value-Added Reseller
Value-added reselling makes technology procurement simple for companies that either know exactly the devices they want or need assistance narrowing down best-fit choices. A consultant offering VAR services can also help manage vendors and balance the cost and performance of acquired technology to keep projects on budget. A consultant that provides VAR services for the clients they advise and give MSP support allows a business to move from advisement to technology implementation with a single team of experts.
Benefits of Using a Consultant as MSP
An IT consultant that also provides combined MSP and VAR services can function as an all-in-one resource for businesses that want to streamline projects. During the early advisement consultations, they can offer solutions based on first-hand experience with the services and technology they recommend. Their managed service provider support is backed by experience implementing and configuring services for clients with similar challenges to your business. Value-added reseller capabilities also allow the consultant to provide flexible technology solutions based on the devices available for procurement and the resources a business allocates for a project.
Developing a relationship with an IT consultant that is also an MSP and VAR allows a business to build a strong relationship with a flexible team of IT specialists. Whether your business knows the exact services it needs managed or benefits from an initial consultation to identify needed technology, an IT consultant that is also an MSP/VAR can help. From the initial planning stages of a project to just-in-time support, having a reliable partner in IT can improve project timelines and offer dynamic support to businesses based on their size and needs.
Summary
Advisement, managed service provider support, and value-added reseller services are just the beginning of the support a consultant can provide. For example, staff augmentation and skill augmentation are advisement services a consultant can provide to support businesses that need just-in-time support for on-going projects. However, understanding the pillars of consulting services can help your business find the right IT consultant that meets your needs. At Robinett Consulting, we recommend developing a long-standing relationship with a partner in IT so you can have a reliable consultant that finds the best-fit solutions for your needs.
Our engineers have years of experience providing consultation services that include managed service provider and value-added reseller support. We believe businesses deserve a partner in IT that can assist with their projects from start to finish. If your business is looking for a consultant that values the human element of IT, then our team is ready to provide a complimentary consultation to see how we can help!
