Project governance almost systematically requires a steering committee. Within the framework of a transformation project, the technical consultant is responsible for defining and designing technical solutions. It is present both upstream of the project, in the construction phase of the technological offer, and downstream for the realization and implementation phase.
Definition of a technical consultant
The name technical consultant is a generic term for a profession that goes by different names depending on the technological expertise, the company’s sector of activity, the functional specializations, etc. Technical consultants may be called “web consultants”, “information systems consultants” or “expert IT consultants”.
Its main role is to propose and develop technical solutions adapted to the customer’s IT specifications. He generally works with companies that want to develop their information systems in conjunction with the advent of new technologies. He must therefore manage the entire project from the construction phase to its completion, i.e. its implementation at the customer’s site.
The main tasks of a technical consultant
To carry out his project, the technical consultant proceeds in stages. His work makes him the IT technical project manager who must direct the project from the writing of the specifications to the production start-up, including the management of the teams’ schedule:
- Elaboration of the offer: after having grasped the client’s needs, the consultant must write a specification sheet including all the functional specifications, essential to the work of the development engineers. Moreover, if they are to be able to intervene in different companies, they need to keep abreast of technological developments in their field of expertise, and be able to train rapidly in new technologies in order to respond to the full range of technical requests from customers. Very often, the consultant needs to get in touch with new technology partners to expand his offer or complete his team with service providers.
- Pre-sales phase: he participates in meetings prior to the signing of the contract. It gives a technical dimension to these meetings and proposes the first IT solutions by drafting the response to the call for tenders.
- Technical audits and recommendations: he analyzes the information system used by the customer through a technical audit. At this stage, he is able to establish a diagnosis and make recommendations concerning the software solutions to be implemented and to respond to the company’s problems.
The consultant is both a project manager and a software development expert (like a software engineer) who masters a particular programming language. He can therefore take charge of part of the development and be a technical referent for the engineering teams. In addition, his mission leads him to contribute in several ways to the development of the project. He/she may be required to configure the developed tool, manage the deployment at the client’s site, assist the project manager and write the specifications for the project manager. All of this is to ensure the performance of the new application.
The missions of the technical consultant can be confusing and correspond to missions that are close to other IT professions. They can be assimilated to those of the functional consultant.
The functional consultant also carries out audits and assesses the technological challenges and risks to the company’s operations. He works essentially in front-office with the customer. Technical consultants don’t have the same working methods, and generally work in the back office.
Note that among the activities of the technical consultant, some are more dominant than others depending on the field of activity of the company. Within an ESN, he or she may be called upon to take on more responsibility for IT development. Whereas in a consulting firm, he is fully occupied as a consultant with a well-defined technical expertise. For a software publisher, he/she is mainly responsible for marketing and responding to calls for tender.
Looking for a rewarding career?
At SQORUS, we firmly believe in the professional development of our employees.
Find out how you can develop your career at SQORUS and join a company that values the potential of every individual.
The skills of the technical consultant
If we were to compare the different forms of analysis and talk about a pyramid of uses, we could consider that descriptive analysis allows us to know what is happening in practice.
Analytics aims to answer the question “why?”, while predictive and prescriptive analyses offer the opportunity to know what’s going to happen and what actions can be taken.
Finally, companies currently wishing to exploitprescriptive analytics face certain legal constraints, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is therefore important to find the best solution in terms of privacy policy to stay within the legislation, for example by anonymizing user information.
Join a great place to work
Your career at SQORUS is more than just a job, it’s an opportunity to grow professionally and personally in an environment where individual development contributes to the growth of the whole.
