A consultant (from Latin: consultare "for intentional") is a professional who provides expert advice on specific areas such as as security (electronic or physical), management, education, accounting, law, human resources, marketing (and public relations), finance, engineering, science or other specialized fields.
A consultant is usually an expert or a professional who is experienced in a particular field and has extensive knowledge of the subject matter. The role of consultants outside the medical sphere (where this term is used specifically for the doctor's level) may fall under one of two general categories:
- Internal consultants : someone operating in an organization but available to be consulted in their area of ââspecialization by other departments or individuals (acting as clients); or
- External consultant : an employee externally hired to the client (either by a consulting firm or other agent) whose expertise is provided temporarily, usually for a fee. Consulting firms vary in size from sole proprietorships consisting of single consultants, small businesses consisting of a small number of consultants, up to medium- to large consulting firms, which in some cases are multinationals. These types of consultants are generally involved with many clients and the changed, which is usually a company, nonprofit organization, or government.
By hiring consultants, clients have access to a higher level of expertise than financially feasible for them to maintain in-house in the long run. In addition, clients can control their spending on consulting services by simply purchasing as many services from the desired outside consultant.
Consultants give their advice to their clients in various forms. Reports and presentations are often used. However, in some specialized fields, consultants may develop special software or other products for clients. Depending on the nature of the consultation service and the client's wishes, advice from the consultant may be published, by placing reports or presentations online, or advice may be kept confidential, and only granted to senior executives of organizations that pay for consulting services.
Video Consultant
Cara kerja
The range of areas of expertise covered by "consultants" at length. One of the more common types is management consultant. Consultations and facilities used by consultants (external) vary according to local industry and practice. But the main difference between a consultant and temp is generally one direction. A consultant or temp is involved to meet briefly in terms of helping to find a solution to a specific problem but the ways to do generally fall into the consultant to decide. An information system or project management consultant is also referred to as a consultant who manages constraints such as budgets and resources as agreed with the client. External consultants, on the other hand, usually fulfill the non-employee role that is usually within the organization and help bridge the gap caused by staff shortages, skills and expertise. They are directed by the organization's normal management structure. There is, however, a hybrid form in which consultants may be hired as temporary managers or executives, bringing a combination of specialist expertise to bear a temporarily vacant role (usually at the senior level).
The second difference is the temp (slang term) is generally used for work-oriented jobs whereas external consultants are generally used for service-oriented work. Consultants and temps are those who work for clients. Both are not employees of an organization and both work under contractual terms. Some companies have company employees acting as internal consultants and they provide cross-team advice. However, in many cases, employees of companies named consultants are those who work with clients of the company and are outside the client. A manager in the client company to whom the consultant or temp (slang) reports to not have direct authority or responsibility for the results of the consultant's work because they are external and provide services to the company. As long as they are outside the company/team, they are consultants, but once they join the company/team, they become employees/team members and are given positions based on their skills.
Some consultants are employed indirectly by clients through consultant staff firms, companies that provide agent-based consultants. The employment company itself does not usually have consultancy skills but works somewhat like a labor agent. This form of work is very common in the ICT sector. Such consultants are often called "contractors" because they usually provide technical services (such as programming or system analysis) that can be done at home that is not easy for a company to operate a flexible system simply by recruiting the technologist at peak workloads rather than permanently.
While many consultants work for the company, there is also an increasing number of independent consultants. Many of these professionals also join networks or alliances that enable them to find new collaborators and clients.
Maps Consultant
General type
In business, and more recently the personal sphere, the most widely found consultants are:
- 3D consultants who are specialized in scanning, printing, modeling, design, engineering, building, and all three-dimensional matters.
- Business transformations consultants are specialists in helping business stakeholders to align strategies and goals with their business operations. This may include assisting in identifying business change opportunities and capacity gaps, defining solutions to enable the necessary business skills (this may include technology, organization, or process solutions) and support the implementation of these changes across the business.
- Engineering consultants provide engineering-related services such as design, monitoring, implementation, repair, operation, maintenance, technology, image creation and specification, and make recommendations to the public, companies, companies and industries.
- Educational consultants help students or parents make educational decisions and advise on issues such as tuition, fees, visas, and enrollment to higher education.
- Human resources consultants providing expertise on labor and people management practices.
- Immigration consultants help with immigration law procedures from one country to another.
- internet consultants who are specialists in Internet business usage and keep themselves updated with the new and changing capabilities offered by the web. Ideally, internet consultants also have practical experience and expertise in management skills such as strategic planning, change, project, process, training, teamwork, and customer satisfaction.
- Information technology (IT) consultants in many disciplines such as computer hardware, software engineering, or networks.
- The interim manager as mentioned above may be an independent consultant who acts as a temporary executive with the power of decision-making under company policy or law. They may be sitting on a special council or committee.
- Marketing consultants are usually called on to advise on areas of product development and marketing related matters including marketing strategies.
- Process consultants who are specialists in the design or improvement of operational processes and may be specific to industry or sector.
- PR (Consultant) deals specifically with external public relations matters to client organizations and is often involved semi-permanently by larger organizations to provide input and guidance.
- Performance consultants that focus on implementing their clients' overall initiatives or performance.
- Sales consultants focusing on all levels of sales and marketing for increased ROI sales and removing share from competition.
- Strategic consultants (also known as management consultants) work in the development and improvement of organizational strategy with senior management in many industries.
A more complete list of types is shown below.
Workplace
Although most back-office research and analysis takes place in consultant offices or home offices, in the case of smaller consulting firms, consultants usually work on the client's site for at least some time. By spending time in client organizations, consultants can observe the work process, interview workers, managers, executives, board members, or other individuals, and learn how organizations operate.
The governing factor in which a consultant works tends to be the amount of interaction required with other employees of the client. If a management consultant advises software companies struggling with employee morale, absenteeism, and problems with senior managers and engineers who leave the company, consultants may spend a lot of time in the client office, interview staff, engineers, managers and executives, and observe the process work. On the other hand, legal consultants who are asked to provide advice on a particular property law issue may have only a few meetings at the client's office, and do most of the work in the consultant's office and in the law library.
Similarly, the growing market of highly skilled online consultants began to grow. This online platform provides consultants with experience working for a typical consulting firm to easily transition into casual workers. This means that many consultants become more flexible in which they can work and the nature of their work.
Qualification
There is no single qualification to be a consultant other than those established in relation to medical, psychological and technical personnel who have achieved this level in it or a professional license. Consultants may have a bachelor's degree, a postgraduate degree, a professional degree or a professional designation relating to their area of ââexpertise. In some areas, consultants may be required to have certain professional licenses (for example, a civil engineer who advises on a bridge project may have to be a professional engineer). In other types of consultations, there may be no special qualification requirements. A legal consultant may have to be a member of a bar or have a law degree. An accounting consultant may need to have an accounting appointment, such as the status of a Chartered Accountant. On the other hand, some individuals become consultants after long and honorable careers as executive or political leaders, so that their government's management or experience can be their primary "confidence", rather than professional titles or titles.
Consultant Peter Block defines consultants as "someone who has an influence on individuals, groups, or organizations, but who has no direct authority to implement change." He compares this with a substitute manager who is a person who "acts on behalf of, or as a substitute, a manager." The main difference is that a consultant never makes a decision for an individual or a group, while a substitute manager makes a decision.
Accredited colleagues are bound by a Code of Ethics that requires consultants to only provide "successful practical advice" - "Analyze as a Generalist and Solve as a Specialist" - using the skills and experience of sub-contracting peers, so that at any time provide clients with suggestions and the best support available. Internationally, accreditation of management consultants is overseen by higher education training and accreditation organizations.
- The International Council of Management Consultants (ICMCI) was established in 1987 and has approximately 50 member institutions covering the world. The Certified Management Consultant (CMC) status award is internationally recognized accreditation (in some countries such as the US, in accordance with ISO/IEC 17024: 2003 standards) that are not specific to the technical content of consultant practice. For example, this can be done by human resources experts or chemical engineers who operate as management consultants in their areas of expertise. There are about 10,000 CMCs around the world.
- The Federation of International Engineers Consultants (FIDIC) is a federation whose members are national technical consulting associations.
For management consulting services, ISO 20700 standard has been available since 2017.
Type
See also
- Adviser
- Biotechnology consultation
- Contingent workforce
- Economic consultation
- Interim Management
- IRS reclassification
- Management consulting
- Permatemp
- Political consultation
- Public consultation
- Tax advisor
- The umbrella company
- ISO 20700
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia