Why do you need an IT Consulting company in 2020?

In a day and age where technology is so prevalent and intertwined in our daily lives, it’s hard to imagine any organization operating without leveraging some technology. This could be as simple as using email to communicate, leveraging the “Information Highway” to research topics of interest, or advertising a business online on one of the various platforms. In fact, it is almost inconceivable that any business could remain competitive without the use of technology.

The problem is further compounded by the fact that most, if not all, of your competitors are trying to use technology to gain a competitive advantage over you. Technology is making innovation happen at scales and speeds that mankind has never seen before. Technology seems to accelerate at exponential rates.

Take flight for example. The non-commercial flight distance records have increased exponentially ever since man’s first flight.

^{(Resource: Technological Progress, Max Roser and Hannah Ritchie)}

According to Moore’s law, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years.

^{(Resource: Technological Progress, Max Roser and Hannah Ritchie)}

Most organizations do not specialize in technology. A quick-service restaurant chain is focused on producing great menu items and delivering them to their customers and keeping their customers satisfied. A coal mining company is focused on finding coal and extracting. Even companies that specialize in technology, such as a Digital Marketing firm, only focus on one small area. 

Building and maintaining a strong technology team is very time consuming and expensive. Most organizations do not have the budget or time. And frankly, it does not fit directly into their core business operations.

Only large companies (which are not specializing in technology) can really afford to build and maintain a high-performance technology team. Unfortunately, at that level, the people managing the IT departments are usually more concerned about negotiating contracts, reducing costs, and maintaining SLAs than innovating and building or applying technology to gain competitive advantages. At the enterprise level, non-technology companies are more concerned about stability and controlling costs.

This is why some companies such as Intuit, actually create small fast-moving teams that do not have to fully comply with the normal organizational controls in order to innovate and build products faster.

The sum of these issues is why it is better for most companies to hire an IT consulting company that specializes in building technology products every day to assist them in new digital initiatives. It is the same reason why most companies do not have their own medical staff or electrical power plants.