Knowledge and self-assessment of personal consulting activities

Personal Consulting

My role as a consultant focuses on IT, with the specialization of setting up networks, cloudy computing, remote access and computer technology. My primary client base consists of senior citizens. I do not use a formalized model when conducting my consulting activities, but I do go through some basic steps that are usually the same. These begin with the consultation process. During this process, I basically take on the role of an IT doctor. I listen to the client tell me about their problems and their needs, and then I ask questions for clarification. After this point, I am prepared to make a diagnosis, and to set the client up with the technology that meets the client's needs.

I work both with private clients and with institutional clients, as such as assisted care facilities. In each case I would try to find out what constraints I might have in implementing solutions. Some seniors have a very low level of Internet literacy, which is one basic constraint. When dealing with institutions, I will often have other constraints as well. I need to balance the needs of the end users (the seniors) with the needs of the customer (the institution). Often this means dealing with their existing IT consultant, or whoever has been responsible for IT in the past, as I will be building on their infrastructure or have to work within constraints that they have set up. There are also financial constraints to take into consideration. It is my role as consultant to initiate communications with the relevant stakeholders in order to determine the full set of needs, wants and constraints, before I begin to determine the best solution and especially before the solution is implemented.

This scanning process relates primarily to two of Choo's (2001) scanning modes: conditioned viewing and searching. The former is undertaken mainly with the end user, and relies on my experience in understanding the signals the users are sending about their needs. Often, they are unable to adequately articulate what they want, so I will have to either make an inference or at least get a sense of what questions need to be asked. Searching is the other major environmental scanning technique that I use. This involves probing the different stakeholders for information that will help me make a better diagnosis, or find the best method of implementation. Searching is particularly important, in my experience, when there are multiple stakeholders -- for example I would need to gather clear information about what the end user wants, but have to evaluate that in the context of the project budget. To do that, I need to find out what the budget might be.

One of the other strengths that I have with respect to my consulting activities is that I feel I have a good understanding of the key success factors to any consulting activity. For example, for any project to succeed it needs to have a high level of managerial support, especially for the success in the post-implementation phase (Ferreira, et al., 2007). The more I understand about the strategic objectives that senior management has for the project, the more I will be able to tailor that project to meet their objectives. This in turn leads to a high degree of support at the highest levels of the organization for my work. I feel that this is critical, and emphasize this in my consulting.

There are, however, some areas where I can improve my consulting skills as well. For example, I do not always make the best use of ongoing consulting arrangements. This is a valuable source of income for a consultant, but I often either fail to pursue it or when I do I am unable to set out terms that are beneficial to me. For example, I should make use of formal contracts and service level agreements (Goo, et al., 2009), but I think the ones that I have traditionally used are poorly written. This leads to demands on me that offer a poor rate of return on my time, relative to other functions. I have probably failed to capture as much income from ongoing customer relationships as I could as a result.

All told, however, I have been quite successful in my consulting career and I attribute that to a combination of technical skills and listening skills. Being able to understand customer needs and meet them is essential, and strong listening skills ensure that I avoid getting into a death march situation. I feel that given more business acumen and more resources, I would be able to expand and possibly even take on the role of a lead consultant working with a team. I feel that my ability to relate well to clients, IT professionals, and senior management gives me a lot of potential to success long-run as an IT consultant.