Risk Factors In It Consulting And Services

Risk Factors In IT Consulting And Services

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Anderson CardRisk Factors In IT Consulting And Services IT consulting and Professional IT Services have become big businesses drawing in big bucks. With the sudden expansion in the industry and an unprecedented growth in demand, we have seen an explosion in the number of firms offering consulting and professional IT Services. With this humongous increase in the number of professional IT Service companies demand has witnessed exponential growth leading to a lot of incompetent companies that have managed to enter the business taking advantage of the shortage in supply. Thus there is always the risk of a customer hiring one of these incompetent companies. There have also been cases where an unscrupulous customer has taken advantage of unwary professional IT Service Company. Thus in this industry of cut throat competition it is imperative that one understands the risk factors involved in IT Consulting and services. These risks can be viewed from the following anglesCompany point of view: — The first and the foremost risk is one of non-payment by the customer. The easiest way to avoid this would be to do a proper credit worthiness check on the customer before entering in to an obligation. — The company must also be aware of the periodic cycles of boom and recession that hits any industry. Studying economic records over a period of time can help overcome this risk. — If a company has outsourced its business to a country like India it must keep tabs on the socio-economic and political situation in that country at all times. — Pricing also is a major source of risk. Over pricing will drive the customers away to competitors and under pricing will affect base line profitability, thus pricing must be done with a lot of care. — The company must also take in to account the prevalent economic laws like anti trust or anti competition laws in the country of operation. If the company does not do this there is a very real possibility of violation and heavy fines. — A lot of IT consulting companies have gone bust due to corrupt management practices. A good internal control avoids this riskCustomer point of view — As already stated there are a lot of companies offering IT consulting services the challenge for the customer is to choose the right one according to his needs. There is always the risk of choosing the wrong company. In order to avoid this risk the customer has to first understand the exact nature of his requirement and choose the most appropriate company offering the service. Example: For a small requirement there is no point in going to a big consulting company. There are a lot of small and medium sized professional IT service companies, which may suit the customers need better. — It is imperative that the customer does a proper analysis of the consulting company he approaches. This will reduce the risk of incompetent and poor quality service. This could be done by talking to few of the already existing customers of the consulting company and compiling their feedback. — The customer has to be sure that he is not over charged for the service provided this can be done by keeping tabs on the average consulting fees charged in the industry. — In case the customer hires the consulting company for customized software development then quality after sales service is a very important aspect that the customer must insist on.Author Bio:

My name is William Smith and I ama IT Systems Engineer with over 10 Year Experience; L&C Sunshine Technology Services was started with the business fundamentals that a client should be dealt with on a one on one personal level, not treated like an account number.

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