What is a delivery consultant and how do I become one?

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With a career spanning over three decades, Marc has seen the transformation of the tech landscape from multiple vantage points. From his early days as a field service representative to his current role as a delivery consultant in Global Sales, Marc’s career is a testament to the power of adaptability and continuous learning. But what does it take to become a delivery consultant, a technology expert who ensures clients get precisely what they need?

Let’s explore the ins and outs through Marc’s eyes, and perhaps, ignite that spark of curiosity within you to embark on your own journey in this dynamic role. Join IBM’s Talent Network for the latest career opportunities according to your interests.

 

What is a delivery consultant?

A delivery consultant is responsible for guiding clients through the complexities of their technological journeys. Delivery consultants customize solutions for clients, focusing on technology performance enhancements so that they’re operating at peak efficiency.

“Think of them as a personalized expert assistant, remotely delivering consulting services,” said Marc, a delivery consultant in Global Sales at IBM. “The work efforts of a delivery consultant are defined in a statement of work. The requirements are outlined, and timeline-driven.”

Job postings may refer delivery consulting as management consulting or technology consulting.

This client-facing role is one that interacts directly with the customer. In the case of Marc’s role, he’s part of IBM’s Expertise Connect team, which provides immediate personalized assistance throughout the entire lifecycle of the solution built for the client. Usually, these solutions are built using IBM products, so this boots-on-the-ground engineering team ensures that the applications are performing as expected, while meeting the client’s demands.

Marc supports technical account management for a client using Turbonomic and Instana, two IBM AIOps products that use AI for IT operations to deliver exceptional business performance.

“We perform knowledge transfers and look for opportunities to help our clients realize savings and value. We track and document those benefits ensuring our clients are up-to-date on the advantages attained from the services we provide,” said Marc on how his team measures value.

 

Responsibilities of a delivery consultant

The responsibilities of a delivery consultant depend on your specific role, as some may serve as a project manager or a solution architect. They may even use software development skills to deliver projects in either client or hosted environments.

“Oftentimes, clients have use cases that they do not know can be addressed with our products and our role is to help educate them on how our products can solve those needs,” said Marc, who ensures customers get the most value of IBM’s products using the client’s environment.

By optimizing and automating tasks, delivery consultants can help client teams redirect their focus to other initiatives, thereby driving efficiency and cost savings – and even having them consider adopting usage of other products.

“We consistently look to expand the client’s adoption of our products and assist them with product enhancement previews and support escalation needs. We also engage with our clients’ internal teams and help with knowledge-sharing and highlighting the value of our products.”

 

Projects of a delivery consultant

Depending on the project, delivery consultants may be involved in:

  • Implementations
  • Migrations
  • Upgrades
  • Enablements
  • Troubleshooting

Marc explains how he worked on a solution for a pharmaceutical client, who was facing an issue where their remote virtual desktop environment could not sustain the demands of their internal customers, disconnecting employees upon logging in.

“Upon examination of their physical environment, I pointed out that they had overprovisioned their clusters and that our product was designed to alleviate the pressure through the implementation of a super cluster. This was a solution that enabled clients to move virtual workloads through disparate clusters of age and capacity, effectively creating a single cluster that all workloads freely migrated to.” Marc says his team came up with a solution, helping the client not only free up hardware, but employee resources who were manually ensuring the clusters were healthy.

 

Hard and soft skills of a successful delivery consultant

These are the hard and soft skills Marc recommends for delivery consultants to be successful in their role and deliverables:

Hard Skills

  • Software knowledge: “Show the client you’re proficient in product knowledge and how you can help them achieve their goals,” said Marc.
    • Marc advises on an understanding of OnPrem and Hypervisors, like Broadcom vSphere, Nutanix & MS HyperV.
  • Infrastructure knowledge: “It’s beneficial to know what storage and backend infrastructure supports these implementations,” said Marc.
    • “Cloud infrastructure covers AWS, Azure, GCP & IBM Cloud. Each of these cloud service providers offers a similar and sometimes different offering. Understand why your client chooses their respective cloud provider and become proficient in the value their provider brings.”

 

Soft Skills

  • Have humility and empathy
    • “Speaking to clients with humility evokes trust,” said Marc.
  • Be honest and upfront: assure the client you share the same goals.
    • “Never exaggerate or make promises you cannot keep, as trust is hard to regain once lost,” said Marc.
  • Be a problem-solver
    • “You may not have all the answers, but let them know you know where to find them,” said Marc.
  • Stay organized
    • “Be on top of dates, meeting minutes, and deliverables. It shows our clients the efficiency at which we operate. Have agendas and goals during each cadence session. Stay on target and avoid drift. Time is so valuable for our clients and ourselves, we need to manage those 30-minute and 60-minute cadence sessions and avoid losing focus,” said Marc.
  • Prioritization is key
    • “Understand that the customer’s timelines and initiatives are why you were brought on. Those initiatives come first! While there may be a slew of opportunities or other work efforts on the table, focus on making the customer happy and successful with their principal initiatives,” said Marc.

 

Depending on what application(s) a delivery consultant will be delivering on, Marc says the individual should be comfortable in presenting product offerings and use cases.

“Be proficient enough to deliver mock engagements to your peers to help you gain that experience and comfort level. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of being proficient: to be as knowledgeable in your products as you can be,” said Marc. “If you can’t, be sure to know where to get the clients the answers they need. Never answer ‘I don’t know,’ but rather ‘let me get that for you.’”

 

A career in delivery consulting

Marc is the product of blended cultures: he was raised by a Peruvian mother and German father – both immigrants who met learning to speak English in night school. Growing up, he describes his household speaking a lot of “Spanglish” and “Germish.”

He started his career as a field service representative, where he traveled throughout the US to service client needs. As an IT expert, his career continued to unfold in the Banking and Defense industries. He joined IBM through the acquisition of Turbonomic and has been working as a professional technical account manager with Turbonomic since 2017 and Instana since 2021.

 

Certifications and education

While Marc has over 30 years of professional expertise, he says much of his upskilling is thanks to certifications available for delivery consultants.

Those vying for a delivery consultant role may be asking themselves:

What courses do I need to take to become a delivery consultant?

What collegiate education do I need to become a delivery consultant?

Marc’s collegiate studies landed him a degree in eCommerce, but he believes the real value comes from completing industry certifications.

“Some of those were Microsoft, Red Hat, VMware, AWS & Azure. Through the certifications, I could apply what I learned to real-world use cases that I came across. Additionally, I feel that by gaining these certifications, I have a comfort level that helps me when talking to our clients,” he said.

For those looking to carve out a career as a delivery consultant, Marc advises building a strong foundation in the product offerings relevant to your field.

 

Envisioning the future of delivery consulting

As organizations continue to streamline and optimize their operations, the need for delivery consultants remains steadfast. Marc sees a future where delivery consultants are more integral than ever, filling vital gaps for clients and facilitating the internal team’s focus on core competencies. This role not only brings added value to clients, but also opens avenues for upselling and deeper engagement.

 

 

Discover your potential at IBM

For more than 110 years, IBM has been a catalyst that makes the world work better, and we remain dedicated to driving actionable change and outcomes for a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive society – and in the world of delivery consulting, you could do just that. Each day is a chance to solve new puzzles, meet new challenges, and help clients achieve their goals — all while growing your expertise and expanding your horizons.

So, if Marc’s journey and insights have intrigued you, consider the rewarding path of a delivery consultant at IBM.

 

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