Skills International GmbH

ECQA Certified IT-Consultant

Training description:

The IT Consultant for SMEs - Software COTS selection training course aims at delivering the required skills for an IT consultant for helping SMEs and small organisations to select a packaged software solution. The main skills addressed in this training are related to System and Software Requirements Engineering and to Call For Tenders processing.

 

Training Structure:
The training lasts 2 days and includes 2 Units each including  learning elements:

 

UNIT 1: Requirements Engineering
Business Analysis
Requirements Elicitation
Interviews Management
SRS Writing


The skills unit Requirements Engineering includes Learning Elements related to Business Analysis, Requirements elicitation, Interviews Management and Software and System Requirements Specification Writing.


Unit 2: Call for Tenders Processing
Market Analysis
Call for Tenders Management
Bid Analysis
Contract Management

The skills unit Call for Tenders Processing includes Learning Elements related to Market analysis, Call for tenders management, Bid analysis, Reporting and Contract definition.

 

By applying to this training the trainee will learn

* how to elicitate system and software requirements related to business processes,
* how to describe them in a synthetic document,
* how to explore the software market for finding packaged software potentially answering the requirements,
* and how to objectively select the best packaged software and service provider by performing a call for tenders.

This training requires experience or knowledge in the field of Software Project Management or Requirements Engineering.

Context:
In many European areas, economy is characterized by a large number of SMEs, and, in particular, of Very Small Enterprises (VSE). More and more the vitality and even the survival of these companies is heavily depending on how they can improve their business activities (logistics, customers management, accounting & finances ...) with IT opportunities

COTS (Software packages) acquisition is one of the most important IT-related activities in SMEs. The higher demand for COTS business solutions is often one of the following:

* ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
* CMS  (Content Management System)
* DMS (Document Management System)
* CRM (Customers relationships management)

The offer for such COTS software solutions is high. In most cases, there exists an effective IT solution for solving SMEs business issues. The challenge is to find the right one! The right one means the COTS software solution that suits best SMEs' context and needs.

However we observe that if SMEs' managers are excellent in their business, they lack competences in the IT domain and often, under-estimate and miss opportunities. As a consequence we developed the job role of an IT consultant expert in COTS selection for SMEs and VSEs.