ICT CONSULTANCY

This Standard covers all consultancy services in which ICT is involved to a significant extent – whether it is advice on how to make best use of the ICT for achieving business benefit, how to manage ICT resources effectively, or how to ensure that ICT systems and their information contents are resilient, safe and secure. Hence it can include (as examples):

• Advice to businesses on how to use ICT to achieve business outcomes;

• Business transformation enabled by ICT;

• Advice on the selection or procurement of ICT solutions, services, or outsourced services;

• Advice on the organisation, structure and management of an in-house ICT service;

• Assessment of the value for money obtained from ICT investment in an organisation;

• Advice on technical options – for example, the business case for shared ICT services, or of server virtualisation.

The outcomes of ICTC services are advice, recommendations, strategies, plans, and may also include completed procurements, re-organised ICT services, and the provision of ICT interim management, where the requirement is for an in-house placement to provide what are effectively consultancy services.

It excludes:

• General business consultancy in which ICT is not a significant factor;

• The delivery of tangible products other than advice or recommendation – hence it does not include the supply of hardware or software, the provision of hardware configuration or testing, software development or network installation;

• The detailed design and implementation of networks (ND&I), and the design and development of software products (SPD&D);

• The direct management or provision of an ICT service (i.e. it excludes the delivery of managed ICT services).

Some organisations offer both consultancy and the provision of Solutions. This ICTC Standard will examine only the consultancy capability (and quality and integrity) of such organisations. The ICTC Standard ensures that any solution supplier links with the organisation are very visible and clearly stated ‘up-front’.

You may be covering one, two or all three Specialisms depending on your business type.

Specialisms

This Segment contains three key specialisms. The specialisms are:

ICT Business Consultancy

Consultancy and advice focusing on alignment of the strategic use of ICT and of business change to organisational objectives and priorities, strategy development for the effective use of ICT to support and influence business change, change management, programme management and the application of business change methodologies to effect transformational change supported by ICT. This can include helping clients on how best to select, procure and deploy hardware and software to meet their business objectives. It also covers the provision of advice and support on pan-organisation information requirements, the management of information and the ICT needed to underpin these. Embracing all aspects of information assurance, and supporting the corporate CIO – covering issues including information integrity and security, Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts.

ICT Technical Consultancy

Consultancy services relating to ICT and its use, helping clients on how best to select, procure and deploy hardware and software to meet their stated business objectives. This also covers information management, by reflecting the specialist skills needed to provide security consultancy. It includes security policy and design, risk management, security standard, disaster recover, authentication, encryption, data protection and governance, and penetration testing. This specialism also includes consultancy services relating to data and voice networking, network design, strategic approach, IP convergence, mobile and flexible working infrastructures. The service includes high level strategic design, options and feasibility analysis, but excludes detailed network design and installation (ND & I). This specialism further includes IT membership organisations, IT specific recruitment agencies and other service businesses that offer IT specific departments.

Service Management Consultancy

This specialism covers the providing of advice and support on the quality of ICT service provision in meeting business needs, service monitoring, capacity planning, asset management, application of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), business continuity, legal compliance, governance and resourcing, skills requirements, provision of IT interim management.