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IT Decision-makers Tips & errors to avoid

Test These Upcoming Dynamics 365 Features

Test these upcoming Dynamics 365 features
Microsoft makes public its Dynamics 365 features release plans months before starting production deployment. New and upgraded features are rolled out...

In a true CI/CD fashion, Microsoft makes public its Dynamics 365 features release plans months before starting production deployment. New and upgraded features are rolled out twice per year in two phases: wave 1 (April – September) and wave 2 (October-March).

The company published the 2020 wave 1 plan last month, with deployment set to begin on April 1st. Some of these features, like UX improvements, will be automatically enabled for end users during April. We suggest you review the full list of updates if you haven’t done so yet and assess ; whether or not a heads-up to those affected is in order.   

Meanwhile, customers and partners can explore a host of early–access features in a non-production, sandbox environment. It’s always recommended to test these new functionalities ahead of deployment to ensure they run properly within your ecosystem. Early access also offers a great opportunity to revise business and reporting processes to see how the new tools can help optimise workflows.

We have gone through the official documentation and highlighted a few features for you and your staff. To tinker with before wave 1 kicks in. You can find a step-by-step guide on how to turn on early access here.  

Enhanced automation and data-sharing for marketing

Dynamics 365 Marketing is getting several additions to improve the customer journey experience and the automation of personalized email marketing. Delivering more dynamic and content-rich messages is now easier thanks to new test-sending and content design capabilities. Smarter customer journey management allows users to set time-sensitive automated emails to expire at a given time. While defining segments is now quicker and more intuitive.

In addition, marketers can now export customer data and results reports to Excel for further manipulation and analysis.   

Sales forecasting and smoother user experience

To facilitate the creation of bottom-up sales forecasts that help managers goal progress; Microsoft is introducing new model customization capabilities and increased forecast accuracy. End users will also enjoy a more seamless user experience, with easier email template selection and faster product-to-opportunity matchmaking.    

Good news for administrators! You’ll finally be able to explore feature settings and configure the Sales Hub application from a single location. Not, until April, however.   

Learn more about Microsoft career paths & Microsoft certifications

Dynamics 365 features: Greater efficiency of service and supply chain management

Microsoft is making it easier to deliver customer service in a faster and more personalized manner. Both remotely and on the field. Dynamics 365 Customer Service is improving search of and access to knowledge articles. As well as providing a more immersive timeline experience to review and register a customer’s history in real time.

As for Field Service, the module is getting a new dashboard for service managers to control the use of resources. Additionally, technician time tracking entries are being integrated into the platform for enhanced visibility.

In yet another push towards operational efficiency, Microsoft is also expanding IoT capabilities for Supply Chain Management. You can now set up notifications and relevant actions for users to take during order delays. Quality anomalies and equipment down scenarios. Users can set up devices via a non-code interface for quick and effortless access to this IoT intelligence service.  

Learn all about Microsoft careers and the various paths one can take within the Microsoft Technologies ecosystem with the Microsoft Technologies Careers Guide

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Press review Tech Magazine

Weekly News Digest #5

Weekly News Digest

A week in retrospect…

The global association of mobile operators (GSMA) announced on Wednesday that it is cancelling this year’s edition of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the world’s largest mobile trade show. The decision was taken after several industry giants like Amazon, Ericsson and Deutsche Telekom pulled out for fear of the newly baptised COVID-19 virus.

The announcement comes as a huge financial blow for the city of Barcelona and for many smaller consumer electronics companies that rely on the show to debut their new devices and make most of the year’s deals.

Interestingly, it’s business as usual for other global trade shows of similar scale being held right now, like Amsterdam’s ISE. Multiple companies that cancelled their attendance to MWC are currently exhibiting their products and solutions at ISE, suggesting fear of the virus is not the only factor at play here.

Good and bad news fo ther UK’s tech sector. First the bad ones.

We learned this week that British tech firms ended 2019 with the worst quarterly results since 2012. The bump in the road seems to have been motivated by the political uncertainty surrounding the country’s geopolitcal future.

Don’t panic, though. The UK’s tech industry is doing great. In fact, it registered the tech world’s biggest salary raises in 2019. Even ahead of San Francisco and New York.

Meantime, in Switzerland…

What’s the easiest way to crack a country’s encrypted communications? Well, of course — to secretly buy the company selling them encryption services in the first place.

At least that’s what the CIA and the West German government did with the Swiss company Crypto AG. In what the CIA itself describes as “the intelligence coup of the century,” the U.S. intercepted other countries’ communications for decades.

The whole thing started with mechanical encryption devices and ended in 2018, when ubiquitous cyber-encryption services brought the Swiss firm to bankruptcy.

Lastly, if you’re working on apps for Windows, here’s a friendly reminder that Microsoft released this week a new dev toolkit for its dual-screen OS, Windows 10X.

Dual and foldable screens are the latest fad. Will they last?

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IT Decision-makers Tips & errors to avoid

Secure your S/4HANA migration team before costs skyrocket

Secure your S/4HANA migration team before costs skyrocket
If your business is dependent on SAP’s ERP software suite and you are still running on ECC, the clock is ticking. How to secure your S/4HANA migration?

If your business is dependent on SAP’s ERP software suite and you are still running on ECC, then we’re probably not the first ones to tell you this — the clock is ticking. Yes. As of last week, SAP is officially extending free ECC support throughout 2027 and optional maintenance until 2030. But that’s not that much extra time considering the hefty work the upgrade requires. How to secure your S/4HANA migration, the Golden Opportunity for IT Professionals?

In any case — What perhaps you haven’t considered yet is that, with every month that passes, the migration’s financial impact on your bottom line increases exponentially.

That is, of course, if like most companies, yours is not considering building S/4HANA capabilities in-house. According to a recent report by Resulting IT, only 18% of managers admit to having put a focus on developing internal SAP expertise.

Bringing external personnel into your team to infuse a good dose of talent is one of the best-proven skill development strategies out there. However, you might want to take into account external factors that are sure to turn the process into a very time-sensitive matter.

It’s a very simple equation:

Volume of work + Skills Shortage + High Percentage of Experts Retiring Soon = £ £ £ £ £ £ £

Let’s break it down, to secure of your S/4HANA migration.

Secure your S/4HANA migration #1 – Volume of work and internal reluctance

In recent years, we’ve all gotten used to software updates taking just a few minutes or hours at most. Not surprisingly, a lot of companies think of the migration to S/4HANA as a simple software update that will be ready over a weekend. Nothing further away from the truth.

Read our article about The Value of SAP and SAP S/4HANA.

Moving to S/4HANA requires a complete redesign of your ERP environment and, in many cases, of your business dataflows and reporting pipelines. That is a sizable project, especially considering that the same Resulting IT report puts the ECC product set at around 400 million lines of code. Add that to the extensive customizations most companies have implemented throughout the years, and you end up with quite a thick book to translate into S/4HANA.

However, it is not in the technical details that the biggest challenges reside. As SAP co-CEO Christian Klein stressed in the company’s most recent earnings call, the biggest obstacles to S/4 implementation are changing legacy business processes and gaining the acceptance of managers and employees.  

Undertaking the migration is a lengthy and resource-heavy process, but SAP has put in place all the tools your team will need. Now, convincing your organization to revisit its internal procedures and get used to a host of new tools — That’s different. And it is precisely why the move to S/4HANA demands a clear business case to start with. Which, in turn, requires time and advance planning.

#2 – Widening skills gap and an ageing workforce

Skill obsolescence is an unpleasant side effect of progress. Nothing new here, especially if we are talking about IT. Still, when it comes to S/4HANA, the difficulties in finding talent that is well-versed in the new environment multiply.

The aforementioned report also reveals a generalised lack of experience in the live or nearing go-live stages of the transition. Although 48% of SAP specialists declare having been involved in S/4 projects, a significant portion of these are solutions architects and therefore only have experience in the early blueprinting stages of the project. Securing the services of consultants with operational know-how will be no easy feat.

Couple that with the fact that 40% of UK SAP experts plan to retire within the next 10 years, and we are looking at the perfect storm.

S/4-savvy consultants surveyed in the report expect to charge between £650 and £749 per day. And that’s not only true for external talent. Permanent employees with proven S/4 skills will also benefit from the situation, with an estimated yearly salary of at least £100,000 and increased career prospects.

In a nutshell – Migrating to S/4HANA is a race against increasing employee costs as much as it is a race against the clock. If your organization plans on sticking to SAP solutions, it is a good idea for both your wallet and peace of mind to start procedures as soon as possible

DISCOVER OUR ULTIMATE S/4HANA CAREERS GUIDE

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About us Captains’s Log

Freelancers in tech: did you say precariousness?

Freelancers in tech: did you say precariousness?
How the Covid-19 Pandemic is Accelerating the hybridisation of Careers in Tech & IT

Freelancing is the subject of much ink as the gig economy keeps on growing. Frequently portrayed as the future of work, freelancing is not always the Holy Grail of well-being … especially not in tech, an area that is so buoyant.

Whoever says freelance often implies freedom, autonomy, a passion-driven career. But make no mistake: the reality is often far from ideal. Freelance status is also synonymous with limited social protections, fluctuating activity and having to deal with a good amount of internal red tape. A mixed bag, then. A status that might not always be enviable.

What’s it like in the fields of technology, digital and data, which are particularly dynamic and hungry for talent? Are freelancers to envy or do they face the same difficulties?

Tech, a sector rather favourable to freelancers

It is quite evident that the situation of freelancers in tech is significantly better than for those in other sectors. With the same level of experience, a freelance web developer or a SAP consultant will find it easier to find assignments and will be better paid than a freelance photographer or a communications consultant.

Firstly, because the talent war is particularly intense in these areas of competence, with companies fighting to attract and retain the best profiles. Secondly, because in tech and digital companies often work in “project mode”. This operational mentality lends itself very well to freelancing, with very specific skill needs and limited time.

And this trend is accelerating — Organizations are progressively opening up to the idea of ​​collaborating with freelancers and are increasingly structured in ways that allow for greater integration of this type of employee. However, on closer inspection, the reality is more heterogeneous than it seems.

Varying career prospects

As in all sectors and areas of activity, it can be difficult for freelance consultants to make themselves visible to companies. Furthermore, the logic of supply and demand varies greatly depending on the field and the function.

If a consultant with expertise in SAP management software is in addition specialized in a specific SAP module, they will be able to expect an average daily rate of between 500 and 850 pounds. Meanwhile, an independent web designer will often be satisfied with a daily salary of 250 to 350 pounds.

Beginners can find it difficult to find a place among the experts, as companies never hire a freelancer that needs to be trained. Additionally, for assignments that require a lower level of expertise, firms are more likely to call on lower-cost, offshore services.

In contrast, some tech freelancers hold a “rockstar” status, with a very high level of experience, highly specialized and sought-after skills, and excellent references. These profiles have a particularly enviable situation because they are over-solicited by recruiters and agents, and therefore in a position to impose very high levels of remuneration and particularly advantageous contractual conditions.

These rare profiles do not endure a latency period between two gigs, often have higher salaries than they would on permanent contracts, and enjoy the luxury of being able to choose their assignments. All the advantages of being self-employed, without the constraints.

Freelancers in tech: what is the recipe for success?

No miraculous formula here: success is first reserved for those who have proven themselves in terms of results and performance in the workplace. Reliability and flawlessness are fundamental.

And that’s not all. The entrepreneurial spirit counts quite a lot. Working freelance is a lifestyle choice that does not suit everyone. You must know how to manage the relational aspect and build trust with your customers, juggling between know-how and interpersonal skills. It’s also important to know how to make the right career choices.

What does exactly mean to make the right career choices? Well, first specialize in areas of expertise and / or sectors where the demand is high. Among the highly rated profiles of the moment: SAP consultants, Microsoft technology specialists and security and infrastructure expert.

Then you must make an effort to continuously improve and develop your skillset. Build a good CV with solid experiences, keep abreast and adapt to technological developments. Finally, learn how to enhance your profile and experiences, manage your visibility and maintain and nurture your professional network. It’s not easy when you’re independent since you often tend to focus on the present or the near future.

The good news is that you’re not alone. Tech recruiters and sourcing experts are well placed to guide professionals in the management of their development, as well as in the present and future development of their skills.

In summary, if tech freelancers want to be successful in this ever-evolving market, it is vital for them to know how to seize the right opportunities while positioning themselves in the best niches of expertise.

And thus the “rockstar” is born.

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Press review Tech Magazine

Weekly News Digest #4

Weekly News Digest
Weekly News Digest

Good morning! So… Thursday. Quite the week, right?

The UK is officially no longer part of the EU. The Wuhan coronavirus is spreading almost as quickly as the xenophobia it has sparked. Oh, and Trump finally managed to turn the State of the Union address into a full-blown reality TV show.

We have prepared a whole new batch of resources and interesting reads for you to explore this week. But, first things first. Let’s see what the tech world has been up to.

A week in retrospect…

In case the Iowa caucuses weren’t complicated enough, the app designed to collect and share the vote results for the US Democratic Party went absolutely bonkers. It wasn’t hackers, though.

Apparently, someone was so excited to implement new voting technologies that they went ahead with an untested app developed by the aptly named company Shadow. No training for volunteers either. Because, you know — why. They spent the rest of the week manually counting the results. Oh, blessed be paper backup.

Meanwhile, somewhere over the rainbow…

The Cloud Wars wrapped up this fiscal year’s offensive as the big players announced Q4 earnings.

AWS retains its leadership, with Microsoft on second place and narrowing the gap. In third place, Google Cloud, which released its first official cloud earnings report earlier this week.

The FY2019 revenue table for the top 3 cloud divisions stands as follows:

  1. Amazon — $35 billion (37% more than in 2018)
  2. Microsoft — $16.4 billion (39% yearly increase)
  3. Google — $8.9 billion (53% spike from last year)

Also —IBM recently changed CEOs, promoting its head of cloud to the top position in an effort to catch up with the competition.

Let the 2020 race begin.

Big news for the SAP community this week — The company is extending free ECC support throughout 2027, with optional maintenance until 2030.

Looks like SAP has finally accepted an extension as inevitable if it wants more of its customers to migrate to S/4HANA. The ERP vendor has vowed to support the new iteration until 2040.

Finally, human trials of the first AI-designed drug will soon start in Japan.

Targeted at patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the new compound represents a major technological and medical achievement. While the average drug development takes about 5 years to get to trials, AI did it in just 12 months.

Let’s hope it actually works. That would mean better, faster, and cheaper medicine for all.

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IT Decision-makers Talent strategy

Building the dream team for multi-cloud success

Building the dream team for multi-cloud success
So, what specific roles should you look for when building the core of your dream team? Nemertes Research CIO John Burke proposes the following three. And we agree with him.

What specific roles should you look for when building the core of your dream team for multi-cloud success? Nemertes Research CIO John Burke proposes the following three. And we agree with him.

About 83% of companies are expected to be in the cloud by the end of this year. Moreover, the industry is experiencing a major skills shortage. That generates a considerable level of uncertainty for those daring to venture into the cloudy unknown. Especially considering the increasing complexity of the cloud environment itself.   

The multi-cloud environment of today requires organisations to establish proper processes and talent strategies to remain on the winning side. From designing a formal workload placement process, to carefully onboarding all employees accessing the cloud, there are many matters to consider

In a recent TechRepublic survey, over 67% of respondents said they’re currently using or planning to use services from multiple cloud vendors. If you are part of this collective, you are probably aware that identifying and securing the right professionals to build your team is of crucial importance to the success of your cloud strategy.

Multi-Cloud Success Team

Cloud solution architect  

Ideally involved from the beginning in the design of a cloud strategy that suits the needs of the organisation, a cloud architect is the one with the big-picture perspective. This is a vital attribute when pondering the strengths and disadvantages of different cloud providers.

Then, a cloud solution architect is responsible for monitoring its proper functioning and for looking into ways to optimize operations by continuously upgrading tools and services.

Cloud integration specialist 

Let’s squeeze a bit more out of the architectural analogy: think of the cloud integration specialist as the construction manager. While the architect designs the building, the cloud integrator is in charge of ensuring its correct construction. This, by managing and integrating the workflows of the many parties involved. In IT terms, that means integrating the myriad of tools, dataflows and workflows that collide in a multi-cloud environment.   

Cloud security specialist 

We’ve touched on this topic in other articles: when it comes to security, specialization is key. This is particularly true in a multi-cloud environment where threats are especially difficult to detect and cauterize due to the disparities in response time and security tools that come from working with several vendors.

Moreover, and as we’ve seen in our cybersecurity predictions for 2020, the vulnerabilities and sheer amounts of data of the multi-cloud are just too many and too alluring for hackers to ignore. Attackers will be doubling their attempts to breach into company systems through the cloud. They will even leverage the cloud themselves to launch more cost-effective attacks with greater frequency. Make no mistake — Dedicated cloud security experts are a must in this evolving environment.           

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Growing your career: permanent & freelance IT Consultants

S/4HANA Migration: A Golden Opportunity for IT Professionals

S/4HANA migration is no easy feat. With 2030 as the deadline for companies to move to the platform, talent is in high demand. Benefit from it.

A shadow looms on the horizon for organizations running SAP’s ECC. Although the ERP provider has announced this week that it will be extending support until 2030, that’s not that much more time. S/4HANA migration is no easy feat. And, as of now, it doesn’t look like many companies are rushing to be done with the migration as soon as possible.

According to a report by Resulting IT, only 8% of organisations using ECC have made the transition to the new iteration of SAP’s software suite. That is alarming, especially considering that the report estimates the current product set has over 400 million lines of code and many companies have invested millions customizing it. These will have to be re-written when moving to S/4HANA.

But that’s just the beginning of the story. And the next part has some great news for you.

Find your next assignment on our freelance and permanent IT recruitment platform, or join Mindquest so you don’t miss out on any job opportunity!

A widening skills gap

The same Resulting IT report revealed that, although 48% of respondents had worked on S/4 projects, a good chunk of these are solutions architects. That suggests that SAP experts are mostly in the early blueprinting stages of the project. Hence there’s a general lack of experience in the live or nearing go-live stages of the transition.

In other words – Not that much boots-on-the-ground experience.

Since the report also indicates that only 18% of business managers plan to develop their in-house S/4HANA expertise, SAP consultants will be in high demand in the months and years to come. If you couple that with the fact that 40% of SAP experts plan to retire within the next 10 years, we are looking at the perfect storm. And that opens up the opportunity for you to seize the moment and become the most desired SAP pro in town.

S/4 skills will pay well. Very well

Think about it. If you get involved in S/4 projects now and gain as much real-world experience as possible, your career prospects and salary expectations will increase exponentially. And that’s not only true for SAP consultants and freelancers. Permanent employees with proven S/4 skills will quickly advance ranks within their companies. The S/4-savvy consultants surveyed in the report expect to charge between £650 and £749 per day. Experienced in-house specialists estimate a yearly salary of £100,000.

So, how should you go about gaining these career-critical skills?

Should You Become a Freelance S/4HANA Consultant?

Becoming an S/4HANA migration expert

Start small. There are plenty of resources available online for you to start getting your feet wet, most of them provided directly by SAP.

If you’re an ABAP developer, for example, SAP has made available for purchase a S/4HANA development guide. The e-book encourages you to combine your skills in ABAP, SAP Fiori, core data services, and more to master the end-to-end development process for SAP S/4HANA applications.

If you are looking for a broader perspective, SAP’s training academy has a complete set of in-depth courses. They come in both self-paced and instructor-led formats. Dive into your topic of choice and get certified. Once you’ve mastered the theory, find a project or job that gives you that real-world experience.

These are golden days for SAP consultants. Take advantage of it.

Want to make the most of S/4HANA’s career potential? Check out our comprehensive S/4HANA Careers Guide.

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Press review Tech Magazine

4 Things Sci-Fi Might Still Get Right by 2029

4 Things Sci-Fi Might Still Get Right by 2029

You have probably recently seen plenty of articles examining what sci-fi movies and books set on the 2020s have to say about the decade. It’s something bloggers and journalists like to do at every turn of the century, with every new decade, at any time possible. Last year it was all about Blade Runner (1982) and Akira (1988). This time things are a bit more crowded, with nine years ahead to account for.

Now, we didn’t want to mindlessly throw movie plots at you without assessing their relevance and potential to become true — As we’ve seen some sites doing. No, sorry. No planet ruled by apes, no mutants, no dragons. Just a few trends and predictions that proved to be accurate or might be proven right by the time the 3030s prompt us to write a similar article.

Need tips on how to find a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

Megacities and the wealth gap

Set in 2026, Fritz Lang’s masterpiece Metropolis (1928) depicts a futuristic city powered by advanced technology and plagued with inequality. We’re already there, folks.

The UN estimates that two thirds of the world’s population will be living in cities by 2050. That means the 2020s will see a constant increase in city development and population density. Cities will get bigger and merge with neighbouring ones. Buildings will get taller. Streets will get busier.

On top of that, inequality is on the rise on a global scale and has reached unprecedented levels. A recent UN report found that over 70% of the global population lives in countries where the wealth gap is expanding. Civil unrest like the recent Chilean protests is a familiar sight these days.

But Metropolis got another thing right: airborne transportation. Earlier this month we learned that Hyundai will be manufacturing Uber’s flying cars. The company’s air taxi service is expected to launch in the mid-2020s.

Robotic augmentations

Here’s another thing sci-fi accurately predicted. In the 2014 film Edge of Tomorrow, Tom Cruise relentlessly battles aliens with the help of a robotic exoskeleton.

While the story is set in 2020, exoskeletons have been changing the lives of people since the late 2010s. From helping construction workers lift heavy weights, to allowing a paralyzed man to run a full marathon, robotic exoskeletons are the real deal.  

In fact, the U.S. Military will be getting the first shipment of Sarcos Robotics Guardian XO later this year. Just like in the movie.

Climate change and fake meat

Soylent Green is a 1973 film set in 2022 that presents a world where overpopulation, pollution and the greenhouse effect are causing a global humanitarian crisis. There are severe water, food and housing shortages, and only the extremely rich can afford a spacious apartment in a dystopian New York City.

Sounds familiar?  

The movie’s title refers to an artificially produced line of meat substitutes. They are packed with protein and come in different colours. There’s Soylent Red, Soylent Yellow, and the super tasty Soylent Green. Well, it turns out that the green variant is actually made with human meat, but that’s a creepy story for another creepy day.

Interesting fact — Although plant-based burgers are all the rage in 2020, humans were producing meat substitutes as far back as 965.

Destination: Mars

Brian De Palma’s Mission to Mars (2000) tells the story of a first manned mission to Mars gone wrong. Although the movie is set in 2020 and we’re clearly not going to the red planet this year, chances are someone is before 2030.

Earlier this year, Elon Musk unveiled his plan for a SpaceX Mars mega-colony. The tech superstar wants to build 100 starships every year to send 100,000 people whenever the orbits of the two planets are aligned favourably. That amounts to 1 million people living on Mars by 2050.

Ambitious to say the least. Musk, however, has suggested that the first manned landing could be achieved by 2028. We’ll see.

Also discover our article: The IT Jobs Market of Today

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Press review Tech Magazine

Weekly News Digest #3

A look at the week in news
A look at the week in news

A week in retrospect…

Have you ever dreamt of becoming a bestselling author? Well, get that manuscript ready, because it’s never been easier.

You just need to send a memo to your 48,000 employees encouraging them to buy your book and expense it as business material. At least that’s what Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff did. Hey — At any rate, they donated the profits to charity. Or so they say.

On a way more serious note….

The coronavirus keeps making headlines as fear of a pandemic spreads across the globe. Sadly, the death toll continues to rise, and many countries are activating their lockdown and quarantine protocols. The good news is that scientists around the world are racing to create a vaccine. Their focus? A protein responsible for identifying entry points into a cell. But the tech silver lining to this story is that the Canadian AI firm BlueDot was the first to detect the outbreak. Solid evidence of how AI can help humanity in so many critical ways.

Last but not least. Let’s talk about the UK for a second…

Remember last week’s story about the EU considering a 5-year ban on facial recognition technology? Well, the UK just went and did the opposite. It’s almost February, and Brexit is in the air.

I’d say we’re actually experiencing somewhat of a repeat of the days before the referendum. Trump and Nigel Farage are again teaming up, this time to stop the British government from allowing Huawei to build part of its 5G network. Oh, well. Too late — Or maybe not? Ironically, this is all unfolding at the same time that the UK has announced a very comprehensive set of IoT security regulations to protect connected devices and spur innovation.

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ERP & SAP Job Descriptions

IoT Consultant : Job Description

IOT consultant: job description
An IoT consultant is involved in the development of IoT projects in all types of companies. Explore the role with our job description.

Use our template to create a compelling and comprehensive IoT Consultant job description to attract top talent.

IoT is undoubtedly a rapidly expanding field. Accordingly, the IoT consultant role is on the rise. An IoT consultant is involved in the development of IoT projects in all types of companies. They can also help a company transform its existing products into connected objects as part of a global innovation process.

Also discover the role of the IT Business Analyst

What is the role of the IoT Consultant?

Support and advise the company before, during and after making the decision to enter the IoT space.

The first step in the IoT consultant’s mission is often to analyse the situation and understand the level of stakeholder awareness. The world of connected objects is complex, therefore the consultant must ensure that the project is coherent and beneficial for the company.

They must also assess the opportunities and risks that connected objects can offer in relation to the specific context of a company (sector, products, customer uses, internal organization, etc.). They then estimate the investment required, in terms of time and costs for a given project.

Identify customer needs and define a strategy

Further, the IoT consultant must make recommendations that take into account the capabilities and constraints of the company. For example, it can perform an IT and technology audit, design a business plan, and design an implementation plan.

Develop complex analytical solutions

In addition, the IoT consultant often plays a key role in drafting the project’s specifications, all in coordination with the other departments of the company. They can then subsequently manage the implementation of the project, playing a coordinating role to ensure the correct deployment and monitoring of the projects concerned. This process covers the implementation of IoT products and services, as wells as of user training and support procedures.

Learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of SAP

Required Skills

Listening skills and excellent analytical skills

The IoT consultant must also demonstrate great listening skills to best meet the expectations of their client. Their adaptability must also allow them to interact with any type of interlocutor, regardless of their level of seniority or their knowledge of IoT technologies.

Advanced technical knowledge

The IoT consultant must obviously have a deep and broad knowledge of information and communication technologies and, in particular, of the latest technologies developed in terms of connected objects. They must also be able to work with technical experts whose language they must understand and have mastered.

The soul of a leader

Moreover, to lead a team and convince them to embark on often profound changes, IoT consultants must be able to assert their ideas, as well as to get their clients to trust them, despite possible resistance from certain stakeholders.

Great responsiveness and curiosity

Dynamic, lively, reactive, they must learn how to continuously evolve in an often-complex customer context, be creative and keep strengthening their proposal skills.

Education

To access this profession, one must go to engineering school (some have IoT-focused programmes or specializations).

Dual management skills in a business school are also highly appreciated.

And, remember — An IoT consultant is an expert. Access to this role is therefore not possible right after graduation. Job seekers must first have experience in business and in project management related to the Internet of Things.

Deeping on the difference between Big Data and Business Intelligence