Hire a Professional

(Time to clean-up?)

I can change a faucet and tinker around with minor plumbing issues but for major repairs or a remodelling effort - I hire a professional. The professional comes with years of experience, has the right tools and knows the tricks of the trade. I get the output I desire in a timely and cost effective fashion. The professional gets paid for his expertise. Everybody wins.

Does the same model apply to IT? Absolutely! Here are some reasons and thoughts on this subject.

- Expertise: The reason we call them professionals is because that is what they do for a living. You have to be careful in hiring the right professional but hiring a professional provides you with years of experience, appropriate tools for the job and industry best practices.

- Denial: IT departments stumble on this front because of a variety of reasons, including ego, fear and denial. Ego - we have an excellent IT shop and can accomplish any objective. Fear - lets not expose our deficiencies by bringing in external consultants. Denial - This project is not that hard - we can retrain our folks to learn this new stuff.

- Cost: But external consultants cost money! Sure they do but lets not forget about the concept of "value for money". A good consultant should always be justifiable in terms of value you derive for the cost incurred. Another cost consideration should be comparative analysis of external versus internal execution. A project done in time, within budget and finally yielding a quality product needs to be compared with the expenses of training, shoddy quality and extended timelines that usually are associated with an internal effort.

- Market: Market conditions change fast and companies that cannot react quickly enough to these changes get in trouble. To compete effectively in the marketplace one needs to be quick, fast and efficient. Retraining, retooling and "learning on the job" could be detrimental for critical and strategic IT offerings.

Hiring the right professionals for the right job is always prudent. If you are confident that you can remodel your bathroom yourself - go for it; otherwise don't be shy to hire help.

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