When & how does IT consulting work?
IT consulting services can bring a new breeze to your business. Their constant exposure to different IT matters across industries and company sizes is why we need them. With diverse experiences, they can provide support for IT strategy, architecture, implementation, and optimization.
When do you need IT consulting?
The biggest barrier to IT consulting is the high cost. It’s not like you can have a qualified consultant by your side daily for decision-making. Relying too much on consulting services also kills your strategy-planning instinct and narrows your knowledge.
IT Consulting might come in clutch:
1. To expand your technology infrastructure to a new domain that your internal team hasn’t been exposed to. You have an idea but question about the right angle of execution. For examples:
- Incorporating Blockchain or Smart contracts to automate an internal process.
- Embedding AI to improve your IoT and data processing.
- You are thinking of adopting DevOps but unsure if it fits your current business operation and team dynamic.
2. When you notice a down in your performance and find it hard to catch up with business goals, but you are unsure of what cause it or how to fix it after multiple efforts. This is when a consultant steps in and brings outside ideas to the matter.
The process behind IT consulting
The main job of an IT consultant is to identify the right pain points and impose an effective solution. Their work includes:
- Gather business data and analyze your technology state.
- Work with the internal team to identify the bottlenecks.
- Learn about your competitors and market trends.
- Create a clear roadmap for improvements, including what technology to use (and why), how to use it and what are the steps.
- The proposed solution must also deliver business results, not just technical improvements. For example, it should optimize your IT spending, improve your process, or boost efficiency.
- Perform risk assessment and find the safest route.
Some Dubai IT consulting companies also offer Execution/ Development services, or they work with a third-party that can handle the task. For the best result, some businesses opt for both consulting and development services (with an extra fee, of course!)
Dubai and UAE on the IT consulting market
Named as the business and innovation hub of the MENA region, UAE, specifically Dubai, has numerous strengths for a decent IT consulting service.
- Many large consulting and tech firms choose Dubai for their East Asia office. This attracted both foreign and native workers to join tech-related careers, allowing you to select the right expertise from the 250,000-worker pool.
- Dubai excels in IT infrastructure, managed services, AI, IoT, and cybersecurity adoption.
- Known for their work in industry-focused IT solutions, especially for public sector, transportation, healthcare, aviation, and education.
The truth is IT consulting in Dubai has some drawbacks. Despite having a large talent pool, they are facing a lack of native specialists. High price is another indicator. Compared to other regions, Dubai skills in technology are not widely certified, as they still do lots of outsourcing.
Here are some alternatives:
- Certified quality – High price: UK, Mexico, Singapore, United States, Poland.
- Affordable – High to Medium quality with a growing interest: Vietnam, Ukraine.
- Affordable but mixed quality: India, Brazil.
Dubai IT consulting companies are best for the MENA region, as they already understand the market. There are better alternatives for the global market.
Top 10 IT consulting companies in Dubai and UAE
| Company | Talent | Best for | Pricing | Quality rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tata | 3500 | IT consulting for enterprises | N/A | 5/5 |
| Pinnacle | 100 | IT strategy consulting | N/A | 4.5/5 |
| Azpirantz | <50 | Cybersecurity consulting | $100-$149/hr | 5/5 |
| Stackgenie | <50 | Cloud consulting | $50-$99/hr | 5/5 |
| Affility | <50 | ERP, IT consulting for SMEs | $100-$149/hr | 5/5 |
| Inventale | <50 | Product consulting | $50-$99/hr | 4.9/5 |
| UCGP | 30+ | Oracle consulting company | $50-$99/hr | 5/5 |
| Intcore | 50 | Software revamp | $50/hr | 4.7/5 |
| Blackrock | <50 | MS Cloud & AI consulting | $50 – $99/hr | 4.3/5 |
| Bluechip | 100 | IT strategy consulting | N/A | 4.5/5 |
1. Tata Consulting
With over 50 years of consulting business and technical solutions worldwide, Tata came to Dubai with a focus on delivering sustainable and data-led strategies for enterprises.
This Dubai IT consulting company has worked for the MENA region for 8 years. Their technical and business mindset promises to drive utmost resilience along with high-tech approach, which their clients love. Here’s what Tata can bring for you and has done with more than 150 clients:
- CIO advisory services.
- Consultation for IT risk management and cybersecurity strategy.
- Consultation for SAP, Oracle and Microsoft adoption.
- Consulting on AI, IoT, Cloud and Data.
- Offer execution and development services.
2. Pinnacle
After 20 years of work, this Dubai IT Consulting company is trusted by big clients and partners. Their rich industry knowledge has helped Pinnacle stand out, allowing them to design practical IT solutions that best suit your team.
Here’s what they will do:
- Create an IT strategy specialized for your business.
- Analyze your IT infrastructure and IT health.
- Implement new technology to modernize your IT system.
- Reduce IT complexity and increase IT adoption.
You can also work with their team on cloud integration, ERP development, eCommerce development and RPA setup.
3. Azpirantz
Specialized in cybersecurity, Azpirantz is one of the leading Dubai IT consulting companies in this segment. If you are looking for an actionable strategy to protect your software and IT assets, their team is the right choice.
With nearly 50 security professionals on board, they understand every security matter, know which methodology to use, and adhere to every regulatory compliance. You can entrust their security consultation for:
- ISO, NESA, SOC, SAMA, and GDPR consultation and implementation (for 27001 and GDPR only).
- Security assessment, advisory, and audit (mostly testing and fixing simple threats, not comprehensive execution).
- Cyber security strategy consultation.
4. Stackgenie
Solely focusing on cloud technologies, this UK-based consulting company has expanded their expertise with branches everywhere, including UAE. Their best domain is cloud-native and Kubernetes, confidently guiding business through cloud transformation journey.
Their IT Consulting services in Dubai consist of four stages: Asset, Strategy, Development, and Innovation, using various tools to craft high-benefits and low-risk cloud plans.
Here’s what you can do with Stackgenie:
- Kubernetes and Cloud Native consulting service.
- CI/CD consulting.
- Service Mesh consulting and implementation.
- Transformation to microservice.
- Offer execution and implementation for certain services.
5. Affility consulting
This IT Consulting company in UAE has worked with over 300 clients across an array of industries for the last 7 years. Affility mainly serves SMEs, providing consultation in technology, IT management, and IT risk.
Using their years of experience, their team of advisors carefully built a bespoke system that is right for your business model, operation process, and team size. This set them apart, completing 10+ compliance audits, 6+ internal audits, 10+ ITPA engagements, and 20 valuations.
Working with Affility, you can:
- ERP advisory.
- IT audit and advisory.
- VAR and ERM assessment.
6. Inventale
One of the first Dubai IT Consulting companies, Inventale has more than 20 years of experience working with UAE companies and even the MENA regions. Specializing in AI and machine learning, their team of professionals can guide you through the adoption of emerging technologies.
Here’s what you can do with Inventale:
- Product Concept consulting: market research, competitive analysis and pricing study.
- Development Roadmap consulting: functional and technical specification, choosing tech stack, and drawing solution architecture.
- Product Audit: checking code quality and software architecture.
- Mostly consulting, not much execution.
7. UCGP
With 8 years of experience, UCGP Consult has worked with nearly 150 clients to build cloud adoption plans, investigate IT infrastructure, and roll out a good IT strategy. Aiming for high efficiency, this Dubai IT consulting company promises to solve every IT issue in 2 weeks and within budget.
As a prominent Oracle partner, this is also the dominant field of their service. No matter if you are a startup, SME, or enterprise, you can work with them for support and consultation on:
- DevOps and Cloud Strategy.
- Oracle System Integration (DBA, Middleware and NetSuite).
- ERP consultation.
- Health check and cost optimization strategy.
- Upgrade and Migration Strategy.
8. Intcore
Unlike many other Dubai IT Consulting companies on this list, Intcore specializes in technical consultation. Meaning that, they will check your code quality, perform software analysis and plan for future optimization. Their main job is to revamp your technical solutions, find bugs and fix them (if possible).
The team works with clients from various industries, from established institutions such as the government to dynamic sectors such as Fintech and startups. Their commitment to deadlines and money-back policy are what their clients love most.
9. Blackrock
Standing out as the best Dubai IT Consulting company for AI and Microsoft Cloud, Blackrock are transforming themselves into a full-cycle AI consulting and development agency.
However, unlike other competitors, Blackrock excel in web and mobile app development. They can consult you on which tech stack to use and the development roadmap to adopt. With their detailed consultation, you are assured of an effective development strategy with minimal risks ahead.
At the best part? Their team also provides execution and development afterward.
10. BlueChip
Promising to help you identify and choose the right software approach for your business model and interest, BlueChip consultancy also includes a comprehensive analysis of your IT health. They can help you find suitable software, suggest ways to implement it or advise you on customization to reduce the functionality gap.
Despite having a wide range of IT services, for consultation, BlueChip mostly focus on:
- Strategic IT planning and development.
- Network and Internet security set up and consultation.
- System integration.
- Project management consultation.
Step to choose & measure the quality of an IT consulting services
You can easily find a Dubai IT Consulting company through this blog, Google, or listing sites such as Clutch. But first, here are 5 steps to find a qualified consulting team:
- Prepare a Request for proposal that states your current problem, describes your business operation and IT infrastructure, explains your expectation.
- Shortlist your vendor.
- Evaluate their portfolio and credentials to select a few that best fit your needs.
- Interview them and ask for a POC or proposal.
- Seal the deal once you find a plan that matches your expectations and budget.
Next, the question is how to measure their performance and the quality of their delivery. Before that, you must set a measurable goal and clearly identify the final outcomes you want to achieve. Afterwards, make sure your Dubai IT consulting partner understands it and is on board with your mind. Finally, ask yourself these questions:
- Does the project meet the deadline?
- Is your project over budget or within the agreed amount?
- Rate the quality of communication and collaboration process?
- Did they provide you with the necessary documents and resources after the consultation so you can tackle the problems yourself? Rate the quality of said document in terms of details and transparency.
- Does the project meet all the KPI and expected ROI?
Examples of a successful IT consulting project
Let’s look through a few stories of how IT Consulting improves business performance and decision-making.
1. Consulting and development of ERP using low-code
For our mid-sized client, most off-the-shelf ERP are either not advanced enough or too pricey for their size. Customization is also out of sight, as they require an immediate solution.
We consulted them on using low-code, which allows them to speed up development but still leaves room for customization. At the same time, we suggested a modular architecture, which our client can further scale the system.
2. Metaverse/blockchain consulting for game startup
In this project, we assisted our client with Metaverse development, NFT marketplace architecture engineering, and Crypto infrastructure integration. Using our blockchain expertise, we provide a comprehensive product structure and recommended tech stack. Our client continues to work with us on Development.
With 250+ professional developers, we have consulted and developed digital solutions for 100+ clients. Leveraging an extensive tech stack, our team can assist on IT strategy, legacy modernization plan, development cost optimization, software architecture and system integration.
Based in Vietnam, we are not too far from Dubai and can guarantee high-quality, low-risk and optimal ROI software your team, starting at $20 per hour!
Wrapping up
From the list of top Dubai IT Consulting Companies, we hope you can choose a suitable partner. However, IT consulting in Dubai might be the strongest, unless you are looking for a nearshoring partner with the same mindset and culture. Otherwise, you can opt for a better partner somewhere else at the same price.
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