A few words on the wisdom of hiring local talent for IT projects.
I think a lot of the times small to medium sized companies over look local talent when they have an IT project they need assistance with, or have a network or systems emergency and they do not have the talent in-house to handle it. Every major metropolitan area in this country has a wealth of local IT talent in the guise of independent consultants at their disposal. I think most companies believe that just because local talent may not have a $10,000 high end Cadillac office that they do not have the technical skills or expertise to handle the project.
This is a very common misconception, as I have witnessed this belief first hand on more then one occasion. You see, I’m one of those local consultants. My name is William King, the owner of RSMB Consulting, a computer and network consulting firm located in Portland, OR. Prior to 9-11 I had more business then I could possibly handle due to the explosive growth in the computer industry here in the Northwest. Post 9-11 business has been, shall we say, challenging. I find myself running into the belief that I can’t possibly handle a challenging project or get it completed on time, or that I lack the technical skills to complete the project. Most of the other independent consultants I know are experiencing the same results, having a very difficult time trying to find enough business to keep operating. Yet there continues to be a demand for these services by the same companies that overlook local talent when it comes to providing those services.
I have watched more and more of these projects being handed over to national firms that charge 100’s and sometimes 1000’s of dollars per hour instead of hiring a local consultant to perform the work. In most cases the local consultant can complete the project in the same time frame and do it for much less than the national firm. But for some reason the belief is that the local consultant can’t handle the project. If this trend continues there will not be any local talent available due to all of the consultants being forced into low paying hourly jobs to try and survive. This is not only bad for business but it is also bad for the local economy. The local consultants contribute to the cities revenue by paying fee’s for business licenses, registration services, office space, and making purchases from other local merchants. Not to mention several of them have employee’s that they pay wages for.
Let’s put an end to this trend and keep our local businesses in operation by hiring local talent for our IT and other business needs. Not only will this help keep a local business in operation but it will keep revenue in the local area.
For more information you can log onto www.rsmbconsulting.com for more info or to hire us for your local project.
