This is a very common question I get from Ivanti prospects. In fact I rebranded for this reason. It’s not that I like showing of many titles like “Ivanti HEAT Architect“, “Ivanti Developer“, “Ivanti Consultant“, “Ivanti Project Manager”, there is actually a very important distinction. Another reason is that I do it all!
Developers are coders and typically focus on software development, coding, and Ivanti HEAT configuration. Whereas Consultants may be functional, technical, or both, bringing years of industry experience to the table and using their knowledge & experience to advise management in areas such as but not limited to SOPs, standard industry practices, workflows, business processes.
Nowadays most “Consultants” are either A) “Developers” with a hefty daily “consulting” rate that far exceeds a developer’s typical rate. or B) “Consultants” with little hands-on development or Ivanti Implementation experience. By “little experience” I mean less than 10 years and less than 25 Implementations.
It really comes down to competence vs skill. Sure, Ivanti HEAT is “configurable” however the Ivanti ITSM tool has come a long way and does tend to require someone with Development AND Consulting experience to consultant with clients to make informed configuration, architectural, business, functional, and technical decisions.
Experience plays an important factor too, as does the the number of Ivanti HEAT ITSM Implementations. After all, there are many freelancers, and developers disguised as consultants with 5 or 10 years experience however more often than not it’s the same 1 year repeated 5 or 10 times, working on 1 Ivanti HEAT Implementation.
Last but not least you need to consider industry experience, customer revenue & location. You want to find a developer/consultant/freelancer that has experience in many industries. Why many industries and not your industry exclusively? There’s a saying, “What’s as common as dirt in one industry, is an atomic bomb in another!”, that is, you want to leverage best practices & ideas from other industries. Customer Revenue (i.e. Fortune 500 or Global 500) play an important role as well, after all an Ivanti HEAT ITSM Implementation with thousands of employees and dozens of Service Desk staff has different sets of challenges and solutions than a service desk team of 5 supporting hundreds of employees. And this is where location plays an important role as well, multi-national, versus international, vs domestic operations. If you have offices in the UK, EU, Middle East, Africa, Australia, Canada, and the US for example then you likely have another set of challenges, reporting requirements, and solutions that apply to you versus someone based in a city/municipality for example.
Make no mistake about it, combined, experience, and number of implementations as well as solid Testimonials are key to when searching for a competent Ivanti HEAT ITSM “Developer” or “Consultant” or “Ivanti Freelancer”.
PS: Be sure to read “Is Ivanti a Professional Services Provider?“
ITSM/ITAM/ESM Blog 
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