If your company is in need of a computer consulting firm, you need to be very careful about the company or consultant you choose. Identify your problem and then consider the following Computer Consulting 101 hiring criteria when screening and interviewing local computer consulting vendors.
PREVENTING FUTURE ISSUES BY COMPUTER CONSULTING 101
Small business owners often find it hard to handle difficult computer consultants. If you can identify potential problems at the beginning of any potential relationship you can completely prevent issues from developing.
WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?
Small business managers and entrepreneurs typically know what to ask when hiring internal staff, but don’t know the first thing about hiring computer consulting firms. In addition to managing the legal issues involved with contractors versus payroll employees, you need to know how to ask the questions that will tell you the most about your potential contractor. You can ask potential computer consultants the following questions, and they can act as a checklist to help you do homework before anyone signs a contract:
1. Are you a part-time or full-time consultant?
2. Do you have a day job or is computer consulting it?
3. Are you a solo practitioner or a real computer consulting company?
4. Do you work alone or are there others at your company?
5. Are the other staff members employees or contractors? What are their names, specialties and some details about their background? How long has everyone been with the company and will they be involved in this project?
6. Are you a small business or large company?
7. What size is the typical consulting client served by your firm?
8. Are you a generalist or specialist company?
9. What is your industry and software background?
10. What kinds of products, services and platforms are you not excited about working with, and do you work with any specialty hardware, software or services companies?
The above tips are just the first part of a series on Computer Consulting 101 hiring tips. The next article on this topic deals with how to evaluate how a computer consulting firm can best handle your needs as well as the true cost of using the firm.
Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit
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