Why partner up with a digital consulting company?

Collaborating with a digital consulting company may be just what you need to reach your business goals and take your organisation to the next level. Find out what makes digital consulting unique and why interdisciplinary teams like ours excel at driving results and pushing clients towards long-term competitive advantage.

Achieving goals – not solving tickets

Software houses, design agencies, traditional consultancies – most companies on the market are built to execute tasks according to briefs provided by their clients. This approach does serve a purpose and may be the right choice for simple projects not meant to provide high business value.

But what if you need professional support in meeting a specific objective? In numerous instances, you may know where you want your organisation to be in a year – but not necessarily know what needs to be done to get there. This is where digital consulting services come in.

Companies like ours are here to ensure you meet your business goals – and we know how to make it happen. You don’t need to point the finger at specific assignments to ensure we get the job done. For example, Flying Bisons’ value proposition is that we “unleash your digital potential”. That is because our expertise allows us to help companies get results they may not have even thought possible.

If you hire a digital transformation consulting company, you can entrust it with taking your company from point A to point B and holding it accountable for delivering tangible results.

How? It is our job to understand how to take your organisation to the next level, and we will use our know-how to figure it out and ensure you accomplish what you need.

A holistic and realistic approach to building digital products

Hiring a digital consulting company means ensuring your company’s needs are taken care of by a group of interdisciplinary experts with a holistic approach to technology and business.

Discovery, UX strategy and research, UI design, software development, continuous optimisation… Combining all these competencies within one organisation means that the deliverables provided by each part are automatically suitable to be used by the others.

The sad truth is that companies specialising in a segment of the digital product creation process often need to be aware of their work's implications beyond their own narrow scope. What’s the use of a beautiful UI design that is technically impossible to implement in your application? How do you build a state-of-the-art digital product by outsourcing it to software developers without any idea about accessibility patterns?

If you’d rather avoid having to answer such questions – especially after receiving a barely usable end product from a mediocre provider – consider choosing holistic digital consulting services instead.

Rather than shopping around for several vendors, you can conveniently reach your business goals by working with a single partner via an end-to-end formula. This procedure takes you from the concept phase to a fully functional digital product that is constantly improving as new user-generated insights come to light and are analysed to maximise your results.

What’s the exact meaning behind an end-to-end digital product development process? It usually consists of the following stages:

• Research
• Digital Strategy Consulting
• Design
• Development
• Optimisation

To make such a complex process possible, a digital consulting company can only hire experienced consultants who not only specialise in their narrow area but also have a broad understanding of the surrounding context.

For instance, a UI design expert at a design agency may have a good idea about aesthetics. A UI designer at a digital consultancy also needs an understanding of the UX research principles that drive design choices and the development-related implications that will impact front-end developers’ work.

Specialists understanding their role in the broader development process increases the quality of both individual building blocks and the final digital product. However, you don’t have to be starting from scratch to take advantage of digital consulting services. Thanks to its experience across diverse industries and contexts, a company like Flying Bisons is more than capable of taking on a project at any stage and finalising it in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Switching to a digital consultancy may mean that a certain amount of technical or strategic debt is suddenly discovered, which can startle some previously unaware stakeholders. If your digital product is to be a success, though, the earlier the reality of the current project condition comes to light, the better.

Side by side with the client

A company that provides digital consulting services is more than a vendor – it is a full-fledged business partner. Digital consultancies have extensive experience across different industries and sectors and usually deliver meaningful results for their leaders. This allows them to guide their clients towards business success by indicating the overall direction or setting ambitious goals, guaranteeing their feasibility, and, most importantly, flawless execution.

Thanks to an overarching understanding of the digital product development process, a digital consultancy can also work as a contact point between your organisation and subcontractors or service vendors if you want to use them. It has the skills and know-how required to manage all providers in a centralised way that will ensure their deliverables fit the context of your business and are genuinely usable in practice.

The claims cited above are more than enticing – most companies, no matter the industry, would have a much easier time building sustained competitive advantage with the support of a trusted and qualified partner. But how can you make sure a digital consultancy is worth its salt? After all, any company could try to brand itself with this respectable phrase without being fully transparent about its actual capabilities.

The first thing you can and should verify is your potential partner’s experience. A digital consulting company should be able to show you more than a portfolio with a couple of exciting projects. Instead, it should prove its legitimacy by presenting serious, long-term strategic collaborations that drove meaningful results for major brands. If the company’s claims about having achieved such feats for their clients are truthful, recommendations from key stakeholders should naturally follow.

Looking at a vendor’s past is not enough, though – what matters is what your future collaboration could look like. A great way to ensure your potential partner is a genuine digital consultancy is to discuss tying remuneration to the results – at least in part. An authentic digital transformation consulting and related services provider will be more than open to being held accountable for achieving actual outcomes. This type of billing model reduces the risk for your organisation. It strengthens the bond with your digital consultancy thanks to a direct relationship between the goals of the two companies.

Not afraid of harsh truths

When you reach out to a regular vendor with a plan of action already in place, what will likely happen is what you expect. You’ll shake hands, and sooner or later, the plan will be executed. You’ll be left with an invoice and… something that someone thought your organisation needed.

What if someone wasn’t exactly aware of technological debt, current market trends, compatibility with your other systems, or any other crucial factors that may not lie in their area of expertise?

Regular companies like software houses and design agencies simply do not care. Even if they notice potential threats or inadequacies in the task they’re entrusted with handling, they will likely leave it unsaid. After all, why would they say anything? They’re paid to follow the brief, not dissect it and analyse if what they’re doing makes sense for your organisation’s short-term and long-term business objectives.

We’re sure you already know who you can expect to do a much better job working in your company’s favour, and you’re absolutely correct. A digital consulting company won’t stay silent after seeing a faulty brief or being pushed to implement an inadequate solution.

If your planned UX design would alienate a crucial user group, a digital consultant will let you know all about the risks before you actually start pouring money into a doubtful venture. If an expert sees holes in your approach during a digital strategy consulting session, they’ll be sure to speak up… and quote relevant data points that won’t let anyone ignore them. A workshop held by our consultants often turns out to be an unforgettable and formative experience for board members and stakeholders.

Why are digital consultancies this transparent and open about risks, threats, and inadequate ideas – even if it might lead to unpleasant interactions with their clients? The reason is simple. If a digital consulting company enters a long-term strategic partnership with your organisation and agrees to tie some of its remuneration to your business results, it would be against its best interest to allow you to commit costly mistakes.

That’s what you call a win-win.

Ultimately, working with digital consultants is slightly uncomfortable in the best possible way – the way that makes you leave your comfort zone and head towards unleashing your company’s potential. Expect experts like ours to dig deep into your organisation’s unique situation and combine industry know-how with years of tech and business experience and an in-depth understanding of the digital product development process across all stages. Partnering up with a digital consultancy may be just what transforms your organisation into its best possible version.