I was recently interviewed for a research report from BlueShift Research titled “Consultancies to See Near-Term Surge from Cloud Adoption,” and I thought I’d share some of my thoughts from the final report. In the past few years, there has been a great fear cast over “shrinking” IT departments and the decreased relevance of IT consultancies. But the truth is the Cloud has provided an opportunity for both to grow. IT departments that invest in Cloud technologies are able to reallocate their resources and spend time on strategic projects instead of break/fix operations. In this shift of priorities, the same seen in small businesses, IT consultancies have the opportunity to adapt to the clients’ evolving needs and offer their expertise to support this new direction.
“The consulting companies that are suffering are still not embracing the new technology. As a consulting company, our job is to provide a solution, be it on premise or in the Cloud. Successful consultancies change direction and truly advise the client on the market.”
Over the past decade, I’ve worked with CIOs and CFOs of larger companies, as well as CEOs and owners of SMBs, and they are all looking for the same thing. Ways to make their companies run smoother, more efficiently and more cost-effectively. The Cloud offers these organizations just that, a solution to take their businesses to the next level.
“The CIOs and CFOs I talk to are reallocating those IT resources away from break/fix support and routine maintenance. They’re steering them into taking the organization to the next level. I see that as a strategic advantage; they’re looking not just at an infrastructure but at how they do business. They’re not [always] reducing the size [of IT staff]; they’re reallocating.”
With a fully outsourced IT solution, executives have more time to focus on projects and initiatives that can move their businesses forward. This is an extremely valuable opportunity and we’ve seen that clients are investing more into these strategic resources.
“We’ve seen a lot of growth in our organization, which leads us to believe people are spending money on IT. They recognize the need for and embrace the Cloud as they become more comfortable with it. I think too they’re trying to look around the corner at what the market’s doing.”
And so are we.
“The market and IT in general reinvent themselves every five to seven years. Consulting firms that lose out haven’t adapted to the needs of the client. It’s not so much that the market has changed; it’s the clients driving the wave in this direction. Clients are coming to us saying, ‘I’m tired of buying servers every year; give me a solution,’ and that drives the market in the direction of the Cloud.”