Functional consultant: a role close to the business processes

The job of a functional consultant

The functional consultant is an expert in a particular field (HR, Finance, Purchasing …). It is also known as “project management consultant” or “organization consultant”. Many companies and industries use a project management consultant to meet their rapidly evolving digital process digitization needs.

This consultant is in charge of providing his clients with advice and support in all types of business projects in order to ensure their performance and ensure consistency between the various process of a function. The functional consultant must have a global vision of the project, from the analysis of the company’s needs to the implementation of the business processes, including the management of the stages of an IS project. His scope of work covers a wide variety of sectors within small or large infrastructures, notably in the fields of insurance, health, finance, distribution, automotive or food.

The integration of a new business process in a company usually requires a reorganization of the work of several staff members. This is why the functional consultant must adopt a clear and explicit communication. He is entitled to propose training or assistance sessions so that all the company’s employees can familiarize themselves with the new processes and information systems that have been implemented or reorganized.

The projects of the functional consultant can be carried out in delegation at the customer’s and require a punctual intervention, following a peak of activity, to answer specific needs which can generate organizational constraints. The functional consultant then performs a service on his own account. His billing is determined by a daily rate (TJM). There is another form of project of fixed price type where the consultant in assistance of control of work is solicited to intervene with a multidisciplinary team to take care of whole or part of the activity of the customer.

The missions of the functional consultant

The project management consultant takes charge of very complete and varied missions. Its main missions are articulated around several stages: the organizational audit,
business process reengineering,
the creation of the contractual terms and conditions and the realization of the project.

Organizational audit

It includes:

• the identification of the main actors involved in the implementation or renewal of the project,
• the realization of an audit of the business processes and the present information systems: the project manager notes the useful information and writes the specifications,
• Determining the impact on the company’s operations (cultural, on roles and responsibilities, on workload, on tools, etc.),
• participation in the realization of the terms of the project contract and the related special provisions (charter, specificities, etc.),
• evaluation of the project’s integration into the company,
• the definition of the rules of conduct of the project and of the governance.

Participation in the creation of the specifications

It includes:

• the naming of the project’s objectives: distribution of tasks, budget, deadlines,
• Evaluation of the various solutions available on the market,
• the drafting of a list of partners and possible software solutions,
• concise and precise writing of the project’s implementation steps.

The realization of the project

Its different stages are :

• Verification of the conformity of the work plans before the implementation of the project,
• the realization of the different works and the distribution of the tasks to the concerned partners,
• Monitoring the progress of the work and managing unforeseen events,
• communication with the partners involved on the state of evolution of the works,
• Supervision of the implementation of the applications.

Skills and abilities required to become a functional consultant

Demanding and requiring functional specifications, the job of functional consultant requires a certain number of professional skills and personal qualities.

Technical skills:

• knowledge of the various sectors of intervention: finance, banking, insurance, media, industry ..,
• ability to understand the business processes of each company,
• knowledge of project management techniques, management of modeling tools,
• proficiency in English for international assignments.

Personal skills

• Stress management to anticipate and react adequately to unexpected events,
• Good listening skills to understand customer needs,
• sense of priorities to write operational specifications,
• good communication and education with customers,
• autonomy to make the right decisions in all stages of the project.

Training to become a functional consultant

People who wish to work as functional consultants must have a degree in finance, management, accounting, purchasing management or HR, depending on the expertise they are looking for. These professional courses are given in an engineering school, a business school or in a university course. There are career opportunities to become a project manager.

Also read in our "project governance" file:

• Project comitology: the governance bodies of an IT project and their roles
• Steering and governance of an HR project: which profiles should be involved?
• Steering and governance of a Finance IS project: which profiles should be involved?
• Steering and governance of an IT project: which profiles should be involved?
• Project governance: what role for the steering committee?
• The actors of a project team: organisation, role and skills
• The IS manager at the heart of the development and evolution of systems
• HRIS Manager: what role in the evolution of HR Information Systems?
• IS project manager : what role and responsibility in an IS project?
• Functional consultant: a role close to the business processes
• Technical consultant: a profession at the heart of technological development
• Solution architect : a profession that manages development and deployment
• DevOps Consultant: role, missions and development skills
• Data Protection Officer (DPO): what roles and missions?
• CISO: a key job within the business for system security
• The service delivery manager at the heart of team management
• Scrum master, a key profession for Scrum project management
• Data scientist: a strategic profession at the service of management
• MOA / MOE: how are the roles divided on an information system implementation project?