When Does It Make Sense to Hire an External Technology Advisor?

Most companies can handle most technology decisions internally. You have smart people. You know your business. Why pay an outsider?

This is a reasonable question. I am an external advisor, so I have obvious bias here. But I will try to answer honestly, including when you should not hire someone like me.

When external advice adds value

There are specific situations where an outside perspective genuinely helps:

You are making a high-stakes decision outside your core expertise. If you are a manufacturing company selecting an ERP system, you probably do not have deep expertise in ERP implementations. You will do this once every 10-15 years. A good advisor has done it dozens of times.

The same applies to cloud migrations, major platform changes, or any decision where the cost of getting it wrong is measured in years and millions.

You need credibility with stakeholders. Sometimes the internal team knows exactly what should happen, but they cannot get buy-in. An external perspective, especially one backed by experience across multiple companies, can validate recommendations and help move decisions forward.

This is not about the advisor being smarter. It is about organizational dynamics. Outside voices sometimes carry different weight.

You are stuck. Projects stall. Teams disagree. Vendors blame each other. When you are too close to a situation, it is difficult to see clearly.

An advisor who is not entangled in internal politics or vendor relationships can often cut through to what actually matters.

You need capacity, not capability. Your team may be fully capable of solving a problem, but they are already working on other priorities. An advisor can take on a specific initiative without disrupting your existing workload.

When you do not need an external advisor

External advice is unnecessary, and potentially wasteful, in several situations:

The decision is routine and reversible. If you are choosing a project management tool for a small team, just pick one and try it. If it does not work, switch. The cost of extensive analysis exceeds the cost of being wrong.

You have strong internal expertise. If you have a CTO who has done exactly this type of project before, at similar scale, recently, you probably do not need outside help. Trust your team.

The real problem is internal disagreement. Sometimes companies hire advisors hoping an outside voice will resolve political conflicts. This rarely works. If your leadership team cannot agree on strategy, an advisor's recommendation will not fix that.

You are not ready to act. Advisory only creates value if you implement the recommendations. If budget, resources, or organizational will are not in place, wait until they are.

What to look for if you do engage an advisor

If you decide external help makes sense, choose carefully:

Relevant experience matters more than credentials. You want someone who has done what you are trying to do, recently, at similar scale. Ask for specific examples and references.

Independence is valuable. Advisors who also sell implementation services have different incentives than pure advisors. Neither is inherently better, but understand what you are buying.

Clarity on deliverables. What exactly will you receive? A recommendation? A decision? A plan? Make sure expectations are explicit before engagement begins.

Defined scope and timeline. Open-ended advisory relationships can drift. Good advisors work toward a specific outcome within a defined timeframe.

How I work

I position myself as a technology advisory partner, which means I provide strategic guidance. But I can also connect clients to delivery capacity when needed.

Through my role at Helmes, I have access to 1,500 engineers across Europe for implementation work. This means I can advise on what to do, and if you need help doing it, I can bring in teams I have worked with for years.

But plenty of clients engage me purely for advisory. We work together on a decision, I deliver my recommendations, and they execute with their own teams. That works too.

If you are facing a technology decision and want to talk through whether outside input would help, or whether you should just handle it internally, I am happy to have that conversation. No obligation, and I will tell you honestly if I think you do not need me.