#1 in a series of posts on When to Use an IT Consultant and How to Get the Best Results
Late in 2025 Stuff ran a story about a Project Management Office (PMO) Consultant charging $535 per hour. It’s hard to criticise when all the details aren’t known, however it would have to be an incredibly special skill set with a substantial result to justify that hourly rate.
The real issue, however, is not the rate. It’s whether the engagement delivered measurable value.
Excerpt from Stuff
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s Official Information Act response for the National Ticketing Solution shows a highest consultant hourly rate of $535, and $24.2m spent on consultants between 1 July 2022 and 30 September 2025. Rates like this can be justified for specialist expertise — but only when scope, outcomes, and accountability are clear. - Waka Kotahi NZTA OIA response letter (OIA-19868)
I’ve run an independent IT consulting firm for 12 years. During that time, I’ve seen consulting engagements that transformed organisations — and others that over-ran or failed to deliver the promised benefits. In my experience, the difference is rarely technical skill. It comes down to clarity of purpose, governance, independence, and how the engagement is structured from the start.
If you’re a CEO or senior leader considering external help, the question is not simply: “Should we use an IT Consultant?” The better questions are:
When should I bring in IT consulting expertise and when not?
What should we expect from an IT Consultant?
How do we get value for money?
What are the common mistakes?
In this four-part series, I’ll step you through these questions based on my practical experience across commercial and government organisations.
When is it best to use an IT Consultant?
No organisation has every skill it needs in-house. The decision is not whether consultants are “good” or “bad” — it is whether external expertise is the right tool for the job at that particular moment.
Hiring directly versus external resource
Hiring directly: If you have a skills, capability or capacity gap in your team, it may be appropriate to employ someone.
When the capability is required on an ongoing basis, whether part-time or full-time, bringing that expertise in-house is often the most appropriate and cost-effective option. This is particularly relevant in situations like the one highlighted in the Stuff article, where the level of financial commitment suggests a permanent need.
The New Zealand Government addresses this in its guidance, “Using contractors and consultants in the public sector”.
NZ Government advice on using consultants
NZ Government procurement guidance is explicit that agencies should not use consultants/contractors to deliver core functions, and notes they’re best used in limited circumstances such as specialist skills not available in-house, independence, short-term capacity, capability uplift, or efficiency. - NZ Government Procurement: Using contractors and consultants in the public sector
External resource: if the need is not full-time, or you cannot find or afford the right person, bringing in short-term external resource makes good sense.
In some cases, it is also effective to build a longer-term relationship with a consulting firm or team that can be engaged as required. Over time, they develop a strong working knowledge of your organisation. This leads to:
Faster mobilisation.
Improved delivery outcomes.
Reduced impact on internal staff.
Lower project risk.
Greater flexibility when managing cost and timing.
The key is matching the engagement model to the actual need, not defaulting to one approach over another.
When IT Consultants are particularly useful
Here are some examples of when IT consultants frequently add value.
A. When you have a major technology decision
For example:
Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management or other core system purchase, upgrade or replacement.
Network and communications strategy.
Cloud migration, data centre decisions, identity/security redesign.
IT vendor reviews, contract renewals, or a tender.
Why: Independent analysis and decision support helps avoid costly long-term mistakes and most companies don’t have this expertise in house. Certainly, suppliers are a key partner, but you don’t want to outsource your decisions to your partners.
B. When project expertise or capacity is limited
Your internal team is busy keeping the light on or working on other projects.
You need specialist depth for a short period (e.g. Enterprise Architecture (EA) or planning, cybersecurity, EA modelling, project assurance).
As a general rule, having technical people running projects is not a good idea.
Why: Independent project support helps you deliver outcomes faster and with less risk. If a project delivers a quantifiable business outcome, then the faster these are delivered the better. Choose consultants who have a track record in the services you are after.
C. When digital transformation or organisational change is required
When the goal is not just a new system, but better business outcomes:
Redesigning digital services including IT
Improving customer or ratepayer experience
Simplifying and modernising business processes.
Why: Independent direction, modelling and ideas support your team to make real improvements to business services that lead to improved services, lower costs or reduce risk. This is difficult for internal teams to do in light of the level of technical risk and complexity.
D. Vendor review or project correction
Sometimes it is helpful to have assurance that vendors are delivering what they promised, or can be doing things in a different more cost-effective way or to identify whether the same outcomes could be achieved in a more cost-effective way.
A project is “off track” but no one can articulate why.
Why: Sometimes you need to review supplier performance. You cannot rely on other vendors and it can be difficult for internal staff who may have a long relationship with a supplier. An independent assessment brings not only analysis but marketplace knowledge of suppliers – cost, service composition and performance.
E. For cost and performance optimisation
Telecoms/Unified Communications review.
Cloud bill analysis.
SaaS sprawl, licence optimisation.
Contract and vendor performance reviews.
Why: This isn’t something vendors can help with and very often these things are de-prioritised by staff because invoices look “OK”. These are quick wins for you and help your organisation run as efficiently as possible.
F. To define IT strategy, portfolio direction and clarity of purpose
Leadership needs confidence to understand the support IT provides the organisation beyond a list of projects. Helping to clarify strategy and ensure it is linked to organisational goals is key.
When leadership needs a prioritised roadmap tied to strategy, risk, cost, and benefits.
When everyone agrees IT is busy — but no one knows if it’s busy on the right things.
Why: The most important things a busy organisation should ask of IT is: firstly, to provide clarity of purpose, not a 100-page document but a simple easy to understand direction and execution plan. And secondly, it is very important to ensure project delivery is working effectively i.e. delivering benefits. Consultants can objectively review this and suggest a plan to improve service delivery.
Consultants are not always the answer. But in the right circumstances, the right independent support can materially improve the outcome.
The key is knowing when to bring external expertise in — and when not to.
When help or expertise is needed, IT Consultants that are well engaged and managed will deliver meaningful business outcomes and their costs will be long forgotten as the benefits are recognised.
You do not need a consultant for everything. But when you do, it pays to get the engagement right.
If you would value an independent conversation about whether external support makes sense — and how to structure it for real value, get in touch with Kerry.