Business Process Consulting and Software as a Service

With the growth of software being provided as a service, for rent rather than purchase, some consultants have the opportunity to make themselves experts in the processes behind these software products.

In the past, many consultants have provided support for specific software products, because there was revenue available by selling the hardware and software as well as installing and configuring the software. In his article on "SaaS drives business consulting", Michael Vizard describes some of the opportunities. Software products have seldom been utilized to their full capabilities. If consultants start to focus on helping businesses understand the processes behind the software and extend the use, so that they get better value, they become much more closely tied to the processes rather than the software product.

This is a good thing.

Too much time has been spent on the technology or the specific software product, and not enough on the business process. Improved business processes help to drive business value. Focusing on trying to get the software to deliver more value to the process can only help to improve performance and reduce costs.

I haven't seen many consultants with a business process focus, but if more get into it, I think it's great. To see Michael's full article click here.