In IT consulting, communication skills are vital, says a new ComputerWeekly article, citing several industry insiders who have made the move to consultancy.

While many professionals employed in IT industry perceive consulting as a desirable career option mainly for the money and interesting projects that go with it, not all of them are cut out to make the move.

“Consulting is very much more people-oriented and people skills are much more important than in many in-house roles where you can be more focused on the technology," says Rebecca Smith, who had made the move from IT industry to Deloitte’s technology delivery management arm.

"In house, you are working with the same people and get a chance to build up a rapport. In consultancy, you are involved in projects that last perhaps three to six months and you need to integrate quickly into the team to get the work done,” she says.

She also points out that IT consultants need to be able to adapt to management styles on different projects and be quick to acquire industry terminology and get up to speed on operations for each project.

Linda Jureidini-Cox, IT Practice associate director at the Hudson recruitment consultancy, shares some further insights:

"You have to be comfortable managing client expectations and making decisions, and have a can-do attitude. You have to be a very good listener and be able to convert a good idea into a practical solution for the customer. There is often a misconception that you go into a client site to do a particular piece of work, but with consultancy there are add-ons, and everything is billable."

Recruiters consider both character and a person’s extra-curricular activities when selecting candidates, says Julia Harvie-Liddel, recruitment director at Accenture:

"We look for examples of where people have handled sensitive or difficult situations - not necessarily just commercially but in extra-curricular activities - and where they have been able to move a group of people forward to a successful conclusion. We want people who are capable of working in teams and influencing and driving things forward, not being the one who sits in the background.”

Information technology is still the top choice for future employment at engineering colleges in India for the Class of 2009, according to an AC Nielsen Campus Track T-schools study.

The study included 140 top engineering schools and surveyed students’ attitudes toward recruiting companies and prospective employers.

The top three companies among the students are Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Google and Accenture.

Asked about the top five industry sectors of the future, students listed IT products and services, nanotechnology, management consultancy, energy, oil and gas and finance.

Vatsala Pant, Associate Director, Client Solutions at The Nielsen Company, said:

“Though IT continues to be the favourite among engineering students, we can expect to see them face the heat from unexpected quarters in the years ahead through the resurgence of energy, oil and gas, financial services and banking firms, and an upsurge of nanotechnology.”

A new global survey of information technology service providers and clients who buy IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) services shows that the current economic slowdown in the United States will most likely not have a major impact on the global IT services and BPO industry.

The survey was conducted by CyberMedia and it included 129 buyers of business outsourcing services and more than 200 service providers, both groups mainly from the U.S.  

IT services giants such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro will be at an advantage during the slowdown period as they are better equipped to pursue new business opportunities.

The survey also shows that, in response to the slowdown, the IT services industry is increasingly focusing on markets outside the U.S. and re-aligning existing services areas.

IT service businesses mainly plan to focus areas that are currently in demand – systems integration, BPO and infrastructure management – on markets outside the U.S.

Companies that offer business outsourcing, infrastructure management and application maintenance services reported that the market recession had not affected the deals pipeline in this quarter and that, in many cases, the exact opposite was the case.

On the other hand, businesses selling new application development and offshoring services said that they were suffering delays, downsizing or renegotiation of contracts.

More than a third of the service buyers said that there were no large scale cuts in IT spending and approximately the same number of respondents said that their business leaders may outsource IT projects in the short term.

The majority of respondents predicted that the staff most likely to be affected by the slowdown and subsequent spending cuts in the short term were IT contractors, full-time hires and IT consultants.

The area least likely to suffer the consequences of the recession is business process outsourcing, said more than a half of the respondents.

Global Services editor Ed Nair said:

“BPO vendors handle business-critical processes needed to keep the business running. Most BPO assignments are long-term annuity contracts and thus shielded from the effects of economic cycles.”

The survey will be published in the upcoming issue of the Global Services magazine.

Top-Consultant.com has posted a new poll with the goal to assess the effects of the credit crunch and subsequent market slowdown in the consulting industry.

The poll is only three questions long so, if you find the time, please head over to the website and share your views of the current state of the consulting market in the UK.

Your contributions and opinions are most appreciated, as usual. 

Dr. Rory Donnelly, a postdoctoral research fellow at Manchester Business School, is conducting an international study on consultants and IT workers, titled "Careers and Flexibility in the New Economy – A Transatlantic Study."

He has stopped by our forum to ask all the consultants who post there to complete an online survey that will provide “comparative insight into the career dynamics and flexibility available to consultants and IT workers in the UK and the USA.”

The survey is not a long one, it consists mostly of multiple choice questions and any information you submit will be treated confidentially.

If you are interested in participating in the study, you can fill out the survey here.

Mindshare Consulting Principal Michael W. McLaughlin has written a new article titled “When a Client Says Yes,” in which he tackles some of the problems that may arise after a consultant has been hired to do a project.

“After you’ve done the high-fives, remind yourself that seemingly inconsequential actions early-on can influence the eventual outcome of any project. Make good decisions at the outset and you’re set. Misstep, and get ready for a long and painful ordeal,” he writes.

 

You can read the article in the Thought Leadership section.

Business-to-business marketing and research firm Quadriga Consulting and MR agency Blauw Research have formed a partnership in order to offer the IT and telecommunications sector better insights and a broader range of international research resources.

Quadriga Consulting Ltd. is an experienced consultancy and a firm that focuses on technological research in the IT and telecom sector.

Based in Northern Ireland, Quadriga has broad international experience in enterprise and telecommunications software, computer hardware and digital content.

Blauw Research brings 15 years of experience in information and communication technology (ICT) to the partnership. It has offices in London, Rotterdam and Nürnberg.

Commenting on the new partnership, Quadriga Consulting Managing Director Jeffrey Peel said:

"This represents a major step forward for ICT players that need both specialist sector expertise and international data collection resources across multiple markets. Many so-called international agencies try to offer turnkey international research capability but typically that means farming data collection out to local agencies that have no overt sector understanding. What we offer is end-to-end management of the process, while never losing sight of the business and research objectives."  

Jonathan Wheeler, MD at Blauw, added: "The ICT sector is very demanding in terms of international capability. Many MR and marketing managers in tech firms get very frustrated that they can’t find agencies that can offer a full understanding of their product management challenges at the same time as offering an international data collection ability. We can offer both. The result is easier, more responsive project management and a focus on the findings rather than the process.”

Wipro Technologies, the Bangalore-based global provider of technology, process and integrated business solutions plans to open a low-cost software development facility in the UK.

Depending on such factors as tax breaks, government incentives and access to science and engineering graduates, the Indian IT company will choose among several areas to open the next delivery centre. The areas include Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Warwick and Cranfield.

Wipro chairman Azim Premji says: "What we are looking for is a center which has good education facilities. That's extremely critical. And when I say education facilities I don't mean arts colleges I mean science and engineering colleges.

We want a center where the general profile of the young girls and boys graduating there is of a nature where they would like to work in that area, they have family roots in that area, they come from a background which is comfortable in that area and don't necessarily want to migrate to... the larger cities."

Wipro's UK branch has its central office in Reading, where the company employs 300 people. In line with the trend of ''reverse offshoring,'' the company has also recently opened new customer support facilities near Detroit and Atlanta.

The Indian company's aim is to recruit more people in the western countries, get higher end consulting services and increase the annual revenue by 12.5 to 15 percent over the next five years.

Premji adds: "Our objective would be to have our people force in Europe, which is resident in Europe, at least 50-60 percent local Europeans and we are rapidly driving towards that. We are dead serious about this. We want to build a local cadre. We generate a much stronger image for bidding for local contracts, which is also important."

In a similar move, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the other Indian global information technology services provider, has recently announced a new delivery centre that will employ 1,000 people in Cincinnati, Ohio.

It's been more than six months since TopITconsultant.co.uk, our job board for IT consultants looking for employment in the UK, was originally launched as a spin-off of the management consulting career site and big brother, Top-Consultant.com. Since July 2007, TopITconsultant.com has garnered a respectable number of visitors in its own right and we felt that the time was right to launch a blog.

Here, you will find alerts on company recruitment and career events, on updates on the main part of the website and on the most interesting topics debated in our consultants' forum. Beyond that, the TopITconsultant blog will also feature news from the IT consulting sector, recruitment news as reported on the forums and links to other places on the web that may be of interest to our visitors.

As a side note to all consultants, recruiters and other industry insiders who have considered sending us an article for our Thought Leadership section, the offer now extends to all consulting professionals who would like to be featured on our blog and share their knowledge and experience with our readers. If you are interested in contributing, simply send an email with the article to the editor.

If you are a first time visitor looking for an online community of your peers or just need a piece of advice or first hand information, please don't hesitate to visit our forum and ask. In the meantime, any suggestions regarding the content you would like to see featured either here or on the main part of the website are most welcome, as usual.