Many start-ups founders have great ideas that they can’t wait to try. But the challenge is to actually turn the ideas into real products. This requires investment of money, time and technical expertise that many startups sometimes lack. As a solution, many founders then turn to IT consulting services to help develop their solutions.
In fact, hiring an IT outsourcing consulting service is a smart move as it helps the founder work with a limited budget while having external help to solve technical problems. Instead of hiring full-time IT consulting services, start-ups and non-tech companies can leverage IT consulting services to plan, develop, launch, maintain, and support their software projects.
The question arises: How to find IT consulting outsourcing services that match your specific needs and realize your ideas into real life products?
For the past few years, at Trustify Technology, we’ve been helping start-ups founders and business leaders with their technical and IT needs so they can focus on growing their business. By connecting them with qualified IT professionals, Trustify Technology has helped many startups successfully launch their products into the market.
In this article, we’ll show you how to take advantage of IT consulting as a service to fill in technical gaps.
IT Consulting Service: An Overview
In its simplest sense, IT consulting as a service allows startups to access specialized IT expertise without the need to hire full-time, in-house staff. Instead, start-up founders work with independent IT consulting firms on a contract basis and as per their requirements. This means founders pay for consulting, project management and other services that IT consultants can provide during engagement.
What does IT Consulting Services do in a Startup?
Like the founder, the IT consulting services can play many important and different roles in a startup. But they are focused on the technology side of the company or startups. IT consulting services are primarily responsible for guiding technology implementation in the right direction, keeping costs and time constraints in mind. This role includes adopting appropriate technology, mitigating risk, coordinating development efforts, resolving technical issues, and more.
If you’re building a software product, the role of an IT consulting firm becomes increasingly important. To help ensure a successful launch of your product, IT consulting services focus on:
- Ensure the software solutions are built on a scalable and secure technology stack;
- Answer technical questions and assist to lead the software development team;
- Lead and manage software developers in the implementation of software projects;
- Review the software code base to ensure it meets quality standards and other requirements, including security and data protection;
- Train, manage and lead a team of developers to continuously deliver innovative solutions.
The list of IT consulting services is almost endless. Generally speaking, IT consulting services act as technical advisors that founders can rely on for technical issues. In addition to being leaders, the IT consulting firm is often involved in development and day-to-day operations.
Types of IT Consulting Services Services
Before engaging with IT consulting services, let’s look at the different types of solutions available.
On-demand IT Consulting Services as a Service
Also known as one-time IT consulting as a service, this particular type of consulting solution is suitable for startups that need to solve a very specific technical problem. For example, you want to integrate generative artificial intelligence into your existing applications, but you don’t know how to do it. For this specific project, you can hire external IT consulting services. After completing IT consulting services, they leave your team and return to other IT consulting projects.
Part-time IT Consulting Services Services
Another option for providing IT consulting is to choose a part-time contract. Unlike on-demand IT consulting services, part-time IT consulting stays longer with your team. They provide more stability when your startup is in the early stages of development.
For example, you can engage part-time IT consulting services from IT companies remotely to guide your team through complex technical projects. With this solution, IT consulting services can work on specific workloads and schedules to ensure that the project is completed on time.
Temporary IT Consulting Services as a Service
Temporary or ad-hoc IT consulting is suitable for startups that are expanding their business and are looking for permanent IT consulting services. While you wait for a full-time in-house position to be filled, the Interim IT Consulting Service acts as a key IT personnel that your team members consult for technical advice. In addition to ensuring business continuity, temporary IT consulting services can also help recruit suitable candidates as full-time in-house staff.
When Do You Need IT Consulting Services?
If you’re facing these situations, consider hiring IT consulting services.
You need help determining the right technologies stacks for your product
IT consulting services can recommend a technology stack that fits your application’s capabilities, purpose, and platform. For instance, if you are building a recommendation system for your e-commerce website, an IT consulting service might suggest using machine learning frameworks like TensorFlow or PyTorch. Additionally, IT consulting services will ensure that all software technologies are secure and compliant with privacy laws.
Trouble Identifying Features for Your MVP
An MVP should have core features that are most critical to businesses and their target audience. However, feature selection is not always a simple process. IT consulting services will provide you with a different perspective after talking to your business analyst about keeping only necessary features. This will help you launch an MVP quickly and at a low cost.
You need to streamline your internal software process
It’s understandable that starting a startup can be daunting. Maybe you’ve already launched an app, but you need a scalable IT workflow to grow your business. Through on-the-job IT consulting services, consulting firms can help standardize your software development process and eliminate inefficiencies. IT consulting services analyze the tools, communications, strategy, and other factors that impact your software team.
You don’t have time for the technological side of the business
Not all founders come from a technical background and not all founders can code. Even if they want to, coding isn’t the best use of their time. With reliable IT consulting services, you can focus on branding, marketing, building teams, and other business activities. Temporary or on-demand IT consulting services can take over development, data security compliance, IT staffing, and other IT activities, allowing your team to be more agile.
You need IT consulting services, but you’re not ready to hire them
At some point, your startup will grow so quickly that you’ll need the expertise that IT consulting services can provide. However, some founders find this too expensive and want more flexibility in compensation. This is where IT consulting as a service comes in as a solution for startups. You can benefit from the experience and skills of IT consulting services without having to commit to expensive work.
IT Consulting Services During The Software Development Life-Cycle
The responsibilities of IT consulting vary from startup to startup. But they all have one thing in common: they combine strategic leadership with hands-on software development work. This is what IT consulting services do for your startup:
The discovery phase helps you realize product market-fit. IT consulting services play an important role in adapting your startup’s ideas and product features to real problems that users face. At this stage, IT consulting can help you with:
- Design and implementation of software architecture.
- Identify the key features of an MVP.
- Talk to potential users about pain points and solutions needs.
- Analyze UI/UX requirements.
- Select and evaluate the technology stack.
Project Planning
After identifying the user needs, IT consulting finds a way to design technical solutions. IT consulting services also help startups overcome technical issues that may arise. In short, this is how IT consulting services assist with your project planning:
- Allocation of development budget taking into account other expenses of the startup.
- Recommend software technologies that are cost-effective, scalable and functional.
- Design solutions that align with the business objectives.
- Establish project milestones and timelines
- Identify and mitigate technical and regulatory risks.
Software Development
When IT consulting services are hired by a fledgling startup, they participate in development only after the team is assembled. The responsibilities include:
- Coding, integration and testing of the software product.
- Help troubleshoot technical challenges with their expertise and knowledge.
- Improve your software architecture with improved workflows and third-party systems integrations.
- Deployment preparation.
- Provides post launch support and maintenance and updates.
Team Recruitment
In addition to assisting with software development, IT consulting services provided by outsourcing firms can also take on the responsibility of hiring employees. At Trustify Technology, our IT consulting services are best positioned to help startups recruit technical talent thanks to our decade long expertise. Here’s what they do as recruiters.
- Create interview questions and assessments.
- Actively search for potential candidates for technical positions.
- Review shortlisted candidates to ensure they possess the right technical skills.
- Troubleshooting and ensuring optimal performance of software teams.
Software Project Audit
Once the consulting partner has helped you assemble a team, they will take on a more supervisory role. Your IT consulting partner can regularly review what the project team is working on to ensure the product meets quality and compliance requirements. The work includes:
- Conduct code reviews to ensure they follow coding best practices.
- Evaluate projects in terms of functionality, security, and quality.
- Ensure that development continues within the defined time-lines.
- Coordination with offshore development efforts as necessary .
- Identify development bottlenecks and take corrective action.
Project scaling
After a successful launch, the presence of IT consulting services in the startup is essential for stability and growth. They help founders develop strategies to scale up and acquire new customers using cost-effective software technologies. For example:
- Migrate and Deploy workloads to a secure cloud infrastructure.
- Prepare contingency plans to overcome failure recovery.
- Optimize availability using distributed CDN (content delivery networks).
- Apply security measures to prevent data breaches.
- Implement generative AI services to automate repetitive tasks.
Project pitching
Founders often need to convince investors that their products are capable of creating a solution. Technically expert IT consulting services can help increase the likelihood of securing funding. Here’s how:
- IT consulting services can help prepare answers for technical questions by investors.
- They can explain to you complex technical ideas in a business-friendly way.
- The presence of an IT consulting services partner shows that you do not lack technical capabilities.
- They can ensure that your pitch contains relevant technical points.
What To Consider When Hiring a IT Consulting Services as a Service for a Startup
If you have decided to hire a temporary or outsourced IT consulting service, keep these qualities and characteristics in mind when shortlisting the potential consulting partners
Technical expertise
IT consulting firms should be well versed in the technical knowledge required for your company or startup. Although software development is broad, those suited for a role in IT consulting services are often competent in a variety of areas. For example, when developing machine learning pipelines, you need IT consulting services with strong knowledge of Python, R, or Julia, as these are key languages for building and training ML models. However, it also helps if your consulting partner are familiar with big data frameworks like Apache Spark or Hadoop to preprocess and manage large datasets effectively.
Years of experience
Most IT consulting services should have at least over 10 years of technical experience. However, it is also important to reflect on their track records and work in the field during these periods. For example, some software firms have limited experience in certain technologies after years of work, while others have a strong track record in different industries.
Business-oriented mindset
While IT consulting firms offer commercially qualified software developers, they should also possess business acumen. This is important because good IT consulting services bridge the gap between businesses and startup technology.
Reviews
Before you sign up for an IT consulting service, see what other customers are saying about their experience working with them. In this way, you can know more about the IT consulting firm’s commitment to excellence, professionalism, integrity and other qualities.
Soft Skills
Unlike software engineers, IT consultants must be able to convey their ideas, provide feedback and coach teams effectively. Therefore, communication and leadership are important qualities that they should possess. In addition, the IT Consulting Services firm also acts as a technical representative for the startup in meetings with investors, partners and other collaborators.
Industry expertise
Some IT consulting services are better suited for you if they have worked in a similar industry. For instance, fintech startups building predictive models for fraud detection or credit scoring require IT consulting services that understand Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Where to Find IT Consulting Services as a Service?
Considering the role of IT consulting services, we recommend hiring IT consulting services through these sources:
Software Outsourcing companies
The easiest way to find suitable IT consulting services as a service is to search for IT outsourcing companies. Established software outsourcing agencies have solid experience in providing IT consulting services. You can also check out the customer reviews provided on independent platforms like Clutch and Good Firms.
For example, Trustify Technology is a leading software development outsourcing company in Vietnam that serves startups with our software and IT experts. Our strong portfolio highlights our capabilities. We also offer a range of collaboration models to meet your budget needs, including on-demand and specialist IT advisory.
Recommendations
You can also find exceptional IT consulting services by asking people in your professional network. For example, you may know other founders who have successfully outsourced their software development projects. They will probably put you in touch with a reliable agency. And this is also how some of our new customers found us – through our existing customers.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire IT Consulting Services for a Startup?
IT consulting services cost depends on different factors like expertise, skills and the region where they are located. IT consulting services operating in developed countries such as the United States tend to charge higher fees than their counterparts in developing countries or emerging markets.
In addition to cost, cultural fit and language are also important considerations when hiring IT consulting services. Ideally, you want your IT consulting services provider to share the same language, work ethic and culture to facilitate collaboration and avoid misunderstandings. For these reasons, startups outsource their responsibilities for IT consulting services in developing nations like India, Vietnam, etc. This way they can balance quality and cost while accessing a wider pool of IT professionals.
Conclusion
IT consulting services play a key role in transforming initial ideas into functional, secure and marketable products. IT consulting services offer a solution that provides founders the technical support they need at an affordable cost.
We’ve explained how on-demand IT consulting services can help start-up founders and business leaders delegate technical responsibilities and focus on other areas of business. We also looked at the important qualities that a reliable IT consulting service provider should have and where they can be found. And Vietnam, which offers advantages in terms of price, quality and workforce, is a great destination to start with.
Over the years, startups around the world have turned to Trustify Technology for their on-demand IT consulting services. If you need IT consulting services to accelerate your product development, we are ready to help. Arrange a meeting with us today.