It is important to distinguish software consulting from other similar service offerings like contract programmers, or staffing agencies that involve software development resources. There are several key factors that differentiate the software consulting firm.

Consulting Business Model

In order for a firm to truly be in the Software Consulting business, it needs to engage clients as a consultant! This seems simple, but in reality, many companies simply provide technical resources for a period of time, many of whom are not employees and may or may not know anything about the customer's business or industry focus.

Rather than being implementation-focused, a consulting business model means that the client has a business problem (rather than a strictly technical one) and is seeking a business solution. Software consultants provide business solutions using relevant software tools.

Unbiased Opinion

This means that the firm will not typically prefer "buy" to "build" and also will not offer only one vendor choice for a given software package. Other firms may have a strong, yet unexplained technology platform bias. In other words, the consultant is working on behalf of the client to find the best solution for that client's particular business challenge. The best software consultants provide the best solutions for the client, rather than the best solutions for their own firm.

Industry Expertise

The best software consulting firms provide higher degrees of industry focus. For example, they may specialize in solutions for the Manufacturing industry, or the Medical services industry. Industry expertise brings additional value to the customer, in that there is less ramp-up on the business problem. Also, industry expertise provides some perspective on your problem, often from similar engagements with peer-level client firms from the same industry. The most skilled software consultants bring to the table a technical mastery that can be applied in the client's business problem domain.