Research Consultant, Info-Tech

Comments (8)

RE: Info-Tech: Think twice before you cut IT staff

by DA Juicer 9/9/2008 12:00:00 AMA consultant is a trained and certified expert and first and foremost a Certified Management Consultant (CMC). They must maintain their independence and objectivity by avoiding partisanship with vendors. Contractors are simply temporary employees operating under the direction of the employer's staff.

Senior Consultant

by AB SME 9/9/2008 12:00:00 AMWell folks, what a response. Lets get this right. Consultants are hired guns to clean-up internal IT staff incompetancy, provide Subject Matter Expert services when it does not exist internally because senior management hires inexperienced staff to perform activities that should be addressed by much more experienced IT professional. There is also the other side of the coin. That is, we need a fall person to flip the politics away from internal staff. Designation is not a replacement for hard earned hands-on experience earned in the trenches ovwer many years working for numerous corporationsin a diverse industry. In summery, 'When you are ripe/out of touch, you rott'...

IT Contractor/Consultant

by Finnigan 9/9/2008 12:00:00 AMSomebody is a little touchy on the subject. Thanks for the clarification. Hope you feel better. I am humbled. In Summery? Hope you don't write your SOWs without a spellchecker.

Senior Consultant

by Douglas P?ron 9/9/2008 12:00:00 AMThe difference between a contractor and a consultant is as follows: a contractor is an extra set of 'arms & legs' for an IT Dept., whereas a consultant 'transfers' specific IT knowledge to the IT Dept.'s staff and does not do work in the place of IT Dept. staff. Plus the rates paid for a contractor are significantly lower than a consultant.

Struggler against lost opportunities

by Irritated 9/9/2008 12:00:00 AMWhat happened to the old thinking of doing more with what you have? What happened to innovation? If companies have extra slack in their resources then use them! Too many companies cut staff to only maintain status quo instead of trying to beat the competition with stronger applications. There is a ton of info in all the companies. Take the staff and get them to carve up the data in to manageable pieces. Management can be so blind to opportunities for growth. Risk gains reward!

IT Contractor/Consultant

by Al DV 9/9/2008 12:00:00 AMI agree partly with the above but at the core they are the same thing. They are a resource an organization doesn't have that they contract from external sources. Consultants tend to be paid more because they are more advisors to the management then doers.

Tech Industry Veteran

by Tech Industry Veteran 12/6/2008 12:00:00 AM?IT professionals needn?t worry about massive layoffs or job shortages?. The numbers speak for themselves: There have been over 45,000 job cuts in the tech industry this year alone, not including HP?s planned 26,000 job cuts and AT&T?s upcoming 12,000 cuts. Let?s not forget the 65,000 job cuts by Nortel in the last recession and 60,000 cuts by IBM in 1993. The tech industry has layoffs as massive if not more so than the auto industry or just about any other industry. I would say IT professionals should be very worried as their jobs disappear to China and India. Public companies don?t think twice about cutting IT staff when those layoffs boost their stock prices and satisfy shareholders.

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by jim 9/4/2008 12:00:00 AMSo contractors follow behind at 17 percent then consultants at 5. Aren't contractors and consultants the same thing?

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