ICT consultant

ICT consultants provide advice on how to optimise the use of existing tools and systems, make recommendations for the development and implementation of a business project or technological solution and contribute to project definitions. They raise awareness on information technology innovations and their potential value to a business. They also participate in the assessment and choice of ICT solutions.

The following job titles also refer to ICT consultant:

ICT ERP consultant
IT consultant
ICT consultants
ICT advisor
IT advisor

Bachelor’s degree is generally required to work as ICT consultant. However, this requirement may differ in some countries.

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

• the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
• the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
• the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

ICT consultant is a Skill level 4 occupation.

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to ICT consultant.

ICT system integration consultant
ICT security consultant
green ICT consultant
ICT business analyst
software manager

These occupations require some skills and knowledge of ICT consultant. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of ICT consultant with a significant experience and/or extensive training.

This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of ICT consultant.

Visual presentation techniques: The visual representation and interaction techniques, such as histograms, scatter plots, surface plots, tree maps and parallel coordinate plots, that can be used to present abstract numerical and non-numerical data, in order to reinforce the human understanding of this information.
Ict sales methodologies: The practices used in the ICT sector to promote and sell products, services or applications such as SPIN Selling, Conceptual Selling and SNAP Selling.
Ict system integration: The principles of integrating ICT components and products from a number of sources to create an operational ICT system, techniques which ensure interoperability and interfaces between components and the system.
Legal requirements of ict products: The international regulations related to the development and use of ICT products.

These skills are necessary for the role of ICT consultant.

Identify customer requirements: Apply techniques and tools, such as surveys, questionnaires, ICT applications, for eliciting, defining, analysing, documenting and maintaining user requirements from system, service or product.
Manage changes in ict system: Plan, realise and monitor system changes and upgrades. Maintain earlier system versions. Revert, if necessary, to a safe older system version.
Keep up with the latest information systems solutions: Gather the latest information on existing information systems solutions which integrate software and hardware, as well as network components.
Create project specifications: Define the workplan, duration, deliverables, resources and procedures a project has to follow to achieve its goals. Describe project goals, outcomes, results and implementation scenarios.
Provide ict consulting advice: Advise on appropriate solutions in the field of ICT by selecting alternatives and optimising decisions while taking into account potential risks, benefits and overall impact to professional customers.
Provide user documentation: Develop and organise the distribution of structured documents to assist people using a particular product or system, such as written or visual information about an application system and how to use it.
Manage ict project: Plan, organize, control and document procedures and resources, such as human capital, equipment and mastery, in order to achieve specific goals and objectives related to ICT systems, services or products, within specific constraints, such as scope, time, quality and budget.
Optimise choice of ict solution: Select the appropriate solutions in the field of ICT while taking into account potential risks, benefits and overall impact.
Analyse ict system: Study the activity and performance of information systems in order to model their usage and weaknesses, specify purpose, architecture and services and discover operations and procedures for accomplishing them most efficiently.
Monitor system performance: Measure system reliability and performance before, during and after component integration and during system operation and maintenance. Select and use performance monitoring tools and techniques, such as special software.
Manage contracts: Negotiate the terms, conditions, costs and other specifications of a contract while making sure they comply with legal requirements and are legally enforceable. Oversee the execution of the contract, agree on and document any changes.
Solve ict system problems: Identify potential component malfunctions. Monitor, document and communicate about incidents. Deploy appropriate resources with minimal outage and deploy appropriate diagnostic tools.
Define technical requirements: Specify technical properties of goods, materials, methods, processes, services, systems, software and functionalities by identifying and responding to the particular needs that are to be satisfied according to customer requirements.
Verify formal ict specifications: Check capabilities, correctness and efficiency of intended algorithm or system to match certain formal specifications.
Manage standard enterprise resource planning system: Collect, manage and interpret data relevant for companies related to shipping, payment, inventory, resources and manufacturing using specific business management software. Such software as Microsoft Dynamics​, SAP ERP, Oracle ERP.
Analyse software specifications: Assess the specifications of a software product or system to be developed by identifying functional and non-functional requirements, constraints and possible sets of use cases which illustrate interactions between the software and its users.

This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of ICT consultant. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

Systems development life-cycle: The sequence of steps, such as planning, creating, testing and deploying and the models for the development and life-cycle management of a system.
Agile project management: The agile project management approach is a methodology for planning, managing and overseeing of ICT resources in order to meet specific goals and using project management ICT tools.
Emergent technologies: The recent trends, developments and innovations in modern technologies such as biotechnology, artificial intelligence and robotics.
Software components libraries: The software packages, modules, web services and resources that cover a set of related functions and the databases where these reusable components can be found.
Hardware components: The essential components that make up a hardware system, such as liquid-crystal displays (LCD), camera sensors, microprocessors, memories, modems, batteries and their interconnections.
Ict project management methodologies: The methodologies or models for planning, managing and overseeing of ICT resources in order to meet specific goals, such methodologies are Waterfall, Incremental, V-Model, Scrum or Agile and using project management ICT tools.
Process-based management: The process-based management approach is a methodology for planning, managing and overseeing of ICT resources in order to meet specific goals and using project management ICT tools.
Lean project management: The lean project management approach is a methodology for planning, managing and overseeing of ICT resources in order to meet specific goals and using project management ICT tools.
Copyright legislation: Legislation describing the protection of the rights of original authors over their work, and how others can use it.
Ict process quality models: The quality models for ICT services which address the maturity of the processes, the adoption of recommended practices and their definition and institutionalisation that allow the organisation to reliably and sustainably produce required outcomes. It includes models in a lot of ICT areas.

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of ICT consultant. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

Manage ict change request process: Specify the incentive for an ICT change request, stating which adjustment in the system needs to be accomplished and execute or supervise the execution of it.
Maintain relationship with customers: Build a lasting and meaningful relationship with customers in order to ensure satisfaction and fidelity by providing accurate and friendly advice and support, by delivering quality products and services and by supplying after-sales information and service.
Keep task records: Organise and classify records of prepared reports and correspondence related to the performed work and progress records of tasks.
Interact with users to gather requirements: Communicate with users to identify their requirements and collect them. Define all relevant user requirements and document them in an understandable and logical way for further analysis and specification.
Identify ict user needs: Determine the needs and requirements of ICT users of a specific system by applying analytical methods, such as target group analysis.

2511 – Systems analysts

 

 

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References

1. ICT consultant – ESCO