Software Consulting Explained!
What is software consulting?
Software Consulting means the assessment of your organization’s processes to offer a software solution based on the assessment. This is required for increasing efficiency plus minimizing manpower and cost. In short it is required for increasing the productivity of any organization or company.
Who is a software consultant?
A software consultant is a professional who assesses a business or organization’s processes and provides software solutions and other recommendations based on that assessment. This professional may perform this function either as a self-employed individual or as part of a software consulting firm. He or she may integrate customized software into a business or organization’s processes in order to increase efficiency and minimize manpower or costs.
For example, a gym or fitness center could benefit from the integration of proprietary software that tracks the progress of the gym’s members, in the form of measurements and other personalized data. A consultant, either individually or as part of a firm, might specialize in the creation of such a software for fitness centers, and pitch the software to various business and organizations within the fitness industry. Similarly, at Pegasusone, our clients get a dedicated consultant for each project, who guides and assists them throughout the process until delivery of the project.
As software can perform a wide variety of functions, a software consultant might deliver software solutions to a wide variety of industries. Businesses and organizations will often hire one or a firm on a contract basis if such expertise is not already available in-house.
For example, a real estate company that already employs a computer programmer, webmaster, or other software professionals hire consultants like us to create a database of properties customized to suit the company’s information management needs.
Responsibilities of software consultant include but are not limited to:
- Meeting with clients to determine requirements.
- Working with clients to define the scope of a project.
- Planning timescales and the resources needed.
- Clarifying a client’s system specifications, understanding their work practices and the nature of their business.
- Travelling to customer sites.
- Liaising with staff at all levels of a client organization.
- Defining software, hardware and network requirements.
- Analysing requirements within companies and giving independent and objective advice on the use of technology.
- Developing agreed solutions and implementing new systems.
- Presenting solutions in written or oral reports.
- Helping clients with change-management activities.
- Purchasing systems where appropriate.
- Designing, testing, installing and monitoring new systems.
- Preparing documentation and presenting progress reports to customers.
- Organising training for users and other consultants.
- Being involved in sales and support, and where appropriate, maintaining contact with client organisations.
- Identifying potential clients and building and maintaining contacts.
Why this is desirable for your business?
Creating new software is a lengthy process. Let’s take an example: before you engage any supplier they will submit a presentation for the software they are going to create and you may only imagine what will be the final product. Just assume that on an average there are 5 providers for each market sector and in total if you have 3 market segments then for just seeing the presentation you need to invest your 15 working days. This means that you are killing your 15 days just for getting an overview of the product.
Well in any manner this is not the productive scenario for any company or organization. To get free of this potential loss you need a software consultant or software consulting agency. They will evaluate the market as per your specification, complete the initial conversations, look at the presentations and then provide you with the results in a concise form.
You only need a short presentation to get the idea and can then immediately go for the investment decision.
Thus, 66% effort for you is saved and the efforts saved means the money and time is saved that you can use for developing your company. You may save a lot of your efforts and money by investing a relatively small amount for software consultancy.
You may also appoint software consultant, who is engaged by a company or a consultancy. The consultant’s role is to advise customers in selecting a software system during the phase of analysis and audit management processes of the company & then assist the clients in:
- Adaptation process for the selected software
- Writing functional requirement prior to selection of the software
- Preparation for application means tests to validate the settings.
- As part of quality approach consultant undertakes the setup process which decreases the risk of errors.
So for acquiring the finest software that can benefit your organization, you need to select a consultant or contact a software consultant agency such as Pegasusone.
Software consulting firms that are contracted by businesses or organizations are often hired on a project basis. This means the consulting firm must integrate new software into the business or organization within a certain time frame agreed-upon by both parties. The project team, which is typically made up of personnel from both the hirer’s organization and the software consulting firm, work together to come up with software solutions that suit the needs of the business or organization. Personnel who will work closely with the software often receive special training during the project and are heavily involved in its integration to help familiarize them with its various functions.
As businesses and organizations have become increasingly reliant on technology, the development of new and improved software systems delivered by a software consultant can sometimes render certain positions or expenses obsolete. For example, software can be programmed to analyze patterns in data, retrieve specific information from a variety of parameters, and eliminate the need for hard copy storage, such as filing rooms and various filing systems. This further enhances the cost savings of a company. Pegasusone has helped reduce 40% development costs for its clients with expertise in agile development.
You can take a look at our software development related whitepapers here:
