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IT Consulting: A systematic literature review
Abhishek Kumar1, Purva Grover2, Arpan Kumar Kar3, Ashis K. Pani4
1,2,3 Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India
4 XLRI School of Management, Jamshedpur, India
2groverdpurva@gmail.com
Abstract. Today information technology has become integral part of every kind
of business. Organizations often need experts who have great insights in solving
their business problems through information technology. This has led to devel-
opment of a new field: information technology consulting (or IT consulting). This
field has matured quite well in last 20 years. This study is an attempt to identify
major focus of IT consulting practices and the challenges associated with them.
123 peer-reviewed academic research papers in field of IT consulting were con-
sidered for this systematic literature review. After filtering these papers, eventu-
ally 36 papers were selected. A number of major focus of IT consulting in last 20
years and challenges associated with them were identified (Education/IT Train-
ing, Auditing, Project Management, Knowledge Transfer, IT Economics, Secu-
rity, Competitiveness, Applications). This review paper provides valuable infor-
mation for business executives who are seeking to use IT practices for their busi-
ness problems. It also provides directions for future research in IT consulting.
Keywords: IT Consulting, Literature Review, Consulting, Information systems.
1 Introduction
Among all developments, the biggest impact on management consulting has been made
by Information Systems (IS) in general and Information Technology (IT) in particular
(Nolan and Bennigson, 2002). It has become a major tool for management consulting
companies to deal with central issues of organizations like scenario analysis in strategic
planning consulting, managing information of organization in data warehouse, data
driven decision making through data mining and business intelligence techniques (Gal-
liers and Leidner, 2014). Systems like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) introduced by IT consulting firms, have played
key roles in management improvements. IS has become de facto necessity for any man-
agement firm to achieve sustainable competitive advantage (Clemons, 1986).
This study is an attempt to identify key areas for which IT consulting have been used
and for achieving a specific outcome. Till now, there is no review article on this inter-
disciplinary domain, which the current study addresses. The rest of the paper has been
structured as follows: Section 2 discusses the methodology adopted, section 3 discusses
the emerging themes whiles section 4 concludes with directions for future research.
2
2 Methodology for systematic review
This section provides outline for systematic literature review. These outlines include
development of review protocol, selection of academic papers and extraction of data.
Protocol development is the first step and this step determines the search criteria for
academic papers for the purpose of review. Research papers for review were extracted
from Scopus database. Specific keywords were used to search these papers. The key-
words used for searching Scopus database are Information Technology Consulting, In-
formation Systems Consulting and IT Consulting. In order to extract all possible com-
binations of search keywords, the Boolean operator “OR” was used. The second step
in this process is to take the Inclusion decision on the basis of title of the research paper.
This step involved the independent readings of titles of the papers by both authors.
Irrelevant papers were filtered out. Many non-English, duplicate, news and commen-
taries were eliminated in this step. After this step, 75 papers were kept for further fil-
tering process. The third step in this process was creating the inclusion decision on the
basis of abstract. This step involved the independent readings of titles of the abstracts
by both authors. Despite of the fact that many search keywords appeared in these paper,
focus of many papers were found not to be in IS/IT consulting. Such papers were fil-
tered out. After this step, 52 papers were kept for further filtering process. 123 peer-
reviewed academic research papers in field of IT consulting were considered for this
systematic literature review. After filtering these papers, eventually 52 papers were se-
lected. For the final selection, the two authors read the papers independently. Following
criteria were decided for final selection:
Does the study address core aspects of IT/IS consulting?
Are more than one factors from technological factors, management factors, social
factors, human factors and organizational factors considered in these studies?
The above criteria lead to shortlisting of 36 papers which could be used for this study.
The selection process and the total number of papers identified in each step are illus-
trated in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Stages of the paper selection process.
3
3 Results
Using the 36 research studies selected by the protocol mention in section 2, the title and key-
words of the selected research study word cloud was formed as illustrated in Fig 2 to identify
dominant themes in such studies. The key terms in the word clouds are consultants, manage-
ment, knowledge, information, system and technology. The objective of such an exploration is
to visualize how the themes connect with each other among the studies, using tools for text
mining.
Fig. 2. Word cloud of the keywords and title of selected research studies
Subsequently, the association among the words present in the title of selected research studies
is identified and illustrated in Fig 3 using association rule mining. The rules found with the help
of Apriori algorithm indicates the nature of association of focus areas within IT consulting liter-
ature. The network illustration indicates that focus in such studies is strongly on the consultants
along with information technology (or systems) and information management.
Fig. 3. Association among the words present in the title of selected research studies
4
The year wise distribution of the selected studies shown in Fig 4. The highest number of studies
had been published in 2016, by looking at the graph it can be said IT consulting is one of the
trending topics.
Fig. 4. Year wise distribution of selected research studies
Selected research papers have been reviewed and classified into eight broad catego-
ries of trends in IT & IS consulting. This categorization is based on the thematic focus
in individual studies. It also provides scope of consulting practices in light of these eight
areas. Fig. 5 shows distribution of papers across several areas. It is evident from the
graphical representation that most popular context touched upon by studies in IT con-
sulting surrounds domains like competitiveness, knowledge transfer and project man-
agement. In later subsections, greater exploration would be conducted in each individ-
ual area of interest.
Fig. 5. Distribution of final papers across 8 fields
5
3.1 Education/IT Training
New technologies are emerging rapidly in field of IS. People seeking to work in IS to
update their knowledge regularly. Most of university students focus on either business
or information technology. Those who wish to launch career in MIS or related fields
need to have specific skills both in business management and IS. Consulting practicum
has potential to help students acquire skills in both areas, thereby enabling smooth tran-
sition from university to a professional career in MIS field (Akpan, 2016). However it
remains interesting to see how this can help people already working in some other fields
like sociology, psychology etc. who have good understanding of business environment
and wish to move to IS.
Universities offer wide range of courses to business executives to help them under-
stand latest updates in MIS. Often times they focus on more on either business perspec-
tive or technical perspective. It lacks proper synergy between research and practice. A
framework for integrated approach based on design science research methodology has
been developed for teaching professionals IT management and IT consulting (ITMC).
This framework has potential to transfer knowledge from researchers working in aca-
demia and industries to companies (Boehm et al, 2011).
The Further Education Maturity Model (FEMM) has been developed to aid young
IT professionals in selecting right training offerings for them based on their maturity
level and quality of training offerings (Boehm at al., 2013).
An Educational Integration Platform Solution (EIPS) which conceptualizes the
teaching of IT management and IT consulting as hybrid package of products and ser-
vices offers a new perspective of ITMC teaching (Boehm et al., 2011). However, im-
pacts of social factors like motivation level of instructors and students remain to be
seen.
3.2 Auditing
Information technologies are being deployed in almost every division of organizations
i.e. sales, finance, research etc. to aid decision making. So, organizations need to ex-
amine and evaluate their IT infrastructure, policies and operations. IT auditing helps
organizations in deciding their IT controls. IT auditing requires people who are experts
in information security (Felley and Dornberger, 2016). It is recommended for students
pursuing IS Bachelor or Masters programs to get trained in IT auditing and security
aspects of IS as well.
Traditionally role of IT auditors was limited to application control reviews (ACRs)
and general control reviews (GCRs). The role has expanded to provide consulting and
assurance services on enterprise governance of IT. Therefore, IT auditors should un-
derstand business processes and frameworks like COBIT 5 as guideline (Zororo, 2014).
Change management and change auditing can be integrated into IT consulting firm’s
methodology in order to deal with risks and uncertainties caused by unexpected de-
mands during project period (Chou and Chou, 2009).
6
3.3 Project Management
IT project management deals with planning, organization and delineation of responsi-
bility for successful completion of IT goals of the firm. Traditionally Project Manage-
ment Information System focused only on scheduling and resource management but
now its role is be a comprehensive system that supports the entire project life-cycle,
project program and project portfolios. However, such PMIS is expensive, thereby be-
yond reach of small and medium enterprises (SME). Teixeira et al, 2016 proposes the
design process of a PMIS which can improve performance of investment projects and
incentives of the firm. This design process can easily be replicated by firms which have
similar projects. However, this design process should be tested and validated against
other non-investment projects. For successful completion of IT project, establishing
effective communication among all stakeholders are of utmost importance. PMIS takes
care of this. But now-a-days firms have multiple IT consulting projects at any time.
Project teams lacking in multiple task management skills can not deliver desired out-
comes on right time. Therefore, adapted techniques of project portfolio management
based on portfolio project management, PMIS and project communication management
can help in tackling this issue (Kaewta and Chutima, 2014).
The hurdle model can been applied to three categories of the IT consulting services
such as Idea generation (before the hurdle), Idea execution (after the hurdle) and Project
management (both sides) and with effective communication skills IT consultants can
better meet their objective (Djavanshir and Agresti, 2007). The quality of the consult-
ing services received by the customers can be measure on the basis of the six dimen-
sions such as reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, process and education
(Yoon and Suh, 2004). Information technology and human resource management ori-
ented tools can be integrated to give rise to knowledge production and it is necessary
for the success of knowledge management (Koch, 2003). Selection of an appropriate
development strategy and the assessment of risk associated with the project are the two
major functions for the planning an IS development project (Lesusky et al., 1987).
3.4 Knowledge Transfer
IT project Knowledge transfer deals with transferring knowledge from one part of the
firm to the other. It aims to increase productivity by making learning process easier and
quicker, thereby reducing the training time. Since learning is social action, social net-
work in addition to incentives have been successfully utilized in knowledge transfer
thereby increasing productivity in the ERP sector (Bologa and Lupu, 2014). Firms
should focus on managing their knowledge network on levels of individual, group, or-
ganization and collectives of organizations to facilitate transfer process effectively. IT
and organization culture play critical role in this (Liu and Zhao, 2009). Knowledge
management in consultancies industry had been key to competitive advantage (Kautz
and Mahnke, 2003). Knowledge management models: reuser, stabilizer, explorer and
innovator, can been developed on the basis of the knowledge and service type (Kim and
Trimi, 2007).
To enable smooth knowledge transfer inside the firm, employees must be willing to
share their knowledge with other employees. Therefore, firms should focus on changing
7
perception of their employees about knowledge sharing and provide them motivation
and proper communication channel to do so (Hidayanto et al, 2013).
Knowledge management systems help the organization in building the social capital
along the three dimensions such as structural, relational and cognitive and enabling the
organization for creating and transferring of knowledge (Sherif et al., 2006). The pro-
cess based on the complex adaptive systems can be used for the creation of knowledge
within the organization. This process first identifies attributes for the knowledge assets,
than finds relationship among them through association, aggregation, generalization
and specialization (Sherif and Xing, 2006).
Usually IT users are not familiar with company’s knowledge management frame-
work but till the framework had been used by 2/3 respondents to search for the general
information (Kautz and Mahnke, 2003). So, the company should focus on its efforts of
making its framework familiar to the users.
3.5 IT Economics
Many multinational companies are utilizing IT consulting practices which have been
successful in developed economies to developing ones. For successful deployment of
such practices in developing economies, complexities of unknown contexts with vari-
ous risks should be taken into consideration (Wang, 2012).
In transitional economies like Serbia, Ukraine, management and IT consulting face
problems due to lack of managerial and restructuring experience in a free-market econ-
omy. Therefore, important innovation, managerial education and improvement in IT
infrastructure are necessary to deal with major problems (Fuxman and Ivanovic, 2012).
3.6 Security
Data breaches to firm may lead to business opportunities to IT consulting firms. But it
has limitations. It has been highlighted that effects of such security breaches are not
limited to the affected firm but also the market value of security consultants are posi-
tively associated with the disclosure of security breaches by other firms. Reputation of
IT consulting firms can be adversely affected if the number of records breaches is mas-
sive (Cavusoglu et al., 2004). This impact becomes even more severe if clients belong
to certain industries such as technology and retail sectors.
According to information transfer theory and capital market expectation, clients and
investors may hold IT consultation providers responsible for IT security breaches,
thereby leading to negative returns (Chen et al., 2012). So, IT firms should have experts
for dealing with cyber threat, data breaches or system hacks as advisory to pre-empt
such security breaches in organizations. However, this is a less explored domain and is
likely to become more critical as an area for exploration in the wake of digitization and
the development of cyber-physical systems.
3.7 Competitiveness
IT consulting firms use their resources and capabilities strategically in order to achieve
competitive advantage. Among these resources, firm’s knowledge on human resources
8
and their relationship with customers are crucial ones (Calicchio and Marcondes, 2016).
They also seek to hire top performing consultants. Top performing IT consultants
should be able to deliver a good balance of technical skills, functional skills for eco-
nomic viability and communication skills (Joshi et al., 2010).
Information asymmetry between clients and IT firms lead them to behave in their
self-interests. This affects legal and social constraints of engagement between clients
and IT firms. Dawson et al., 2010 explains how levels of information symmetry affect
the adopted constraint mechanism for engagement between clients and IT firms. Both
parties use signal and screen to negotiate. This asymmetry highly affects tacit
knowledge-centric projects (Dawson et al., 2016). National culture also play major role
in effects of information asymmetry (Dawson et al., 2013).
To move up in career, IT consultants need recognize and build a skill set that can
satisfy both personal and other stakeholders’ expectations. It has been noted that top
performing IT consultants seems to favor masculinity (Joshi and Kuhn, 2007).
The project phases can been divided into seven phases such as pre-project system
analysis, project initialization, problem analysis, solution development, solution imple-
mentation, project close and post-project system analysis (Becker, 2007).
Organizations use information technology to achieve the competitive advantage over
the others. So to achieve this, project managers need to plan, select the tools for tracking
and monitoring purposes, organize the project for decision making and troubleshoot the
project when it is undergoing the difficult phase (Aitcheson, 1989).
3.8 Applications
Information is regarded as the major asset by many organizations with can help the
organization in long term planning, problem solving, product development and innova-
tion (Harling, 1988).
Concurrent-convergent strategy in IT consulting can be used for increasing the client
efficiency and for deriving the insights from other information based applications (Liao
and Cheung, 2003). Both business systems managers along with IS managers should
design the new information flows across the enterprises and how it can be used for
achieving the business goals (Monheit and Tsafrir, 1990). IS facilities the communica-
tion of information among the people such as organization are assisting their customers
to solve their problems related to services and products offered by the organization
(Harling, 1988).
Global positioning systems, geographic information systems and remote sensing
technologies has been integrated to address the surface environmental issues such as
assessment of the groundwater resources (Gibas-Tracy, 1996). IS for consulting the
passengers with the help of the tools has also been developed (Gance, 1996).
4 Conclusion and Future Direction
The main objective of this study was to find IT practices adopted by IT firms for con-
sulting with their clients and issues associated with them. To accomplish this objective,
this literature review attempted to identify challenges faced in IT consulting and their
9
solutions to deal with them by various firms and researchers, both in industry and aca-
demia. This review found out that majority of research papers follow empirical meth-
odology. Papers which provide conceptual frameworks and theoretical analysis are
lacking. Problems like negotiations between IT firms and clients, signaling among
firms etc. are challenging to solve using empirical approach. They lack a proper frame-
work which could serve as foundation of any further application. With innovation in IT
technologies, malicious practices like fraud, data breach etc. are also increasing,
thereby making roles of IT auditors. Currently, there is no proper framework for IT
auditors and their roles are vaguely defined. Responsibilities and qualifications of IT
auditors need to be clearly identified. Further research needs to be done on cognitive
aspects of IT consulting practices because cognitive aspects play key role in acquiring
new knowledge and deciding how to design training modules for company employees.
Also, many papers provide recommendations for students who wish to work in IT field.
More research needs to be done in designing modules/recommendations for people
working in non-IT fields and wish to switch to IT fields.
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