Digital Consulting Services: What They Are, How They Work, and When To Use Them

What are digital consulting services?

Digital consulting services help an organization decide how it should use digital channels, data, and technology, then support the work to make those decisions real. Typical topics include digital strategy, customer and employee journeys, data and analytics, AI use cases, and the way product and engineering teams are organized.

NMS Consulting describes this set of topics on its
Digital and Technology Consulting Services
page and in two deeper articles,
What Are Digital Consulting Services
and
Digital Consulting Services Guide 2025: Audit, Roadmap, Data, AI, Change and ROI,
which outline how digital consulting connects strategy, audit, roadmap, and delivery.

For a policy view on how smaller and mid sized businesses adopt digital tools, you can see international work such as the
OECD report on the digital transformation of SMEs,
which looks at adoption, obstacles, and support for digital projects in smaller firms.

A simple way to think about digital consulting services is that they aim to answer three questions:

• Where should digital investment go first?
• What needs to change in journeys, data, and platforms?
• How will we run the work and track value over time?

How are digital consulting services different from IT services and software vendors?

It can be easy to group all technology work together, but digital consulting services have a distinct role alongside IT services and software vendors.

• Digital consulting services.
  Focus on what the business is trying to achieve and how digital tools should support that aim. Work covers digital roadmaps, value cases, target operating models, and change plans. NMS Consulting’s digital pages and its article
  What Is a Digital Consultant and What Do They Do
  set out this role in more detail.
• IT services.
  Focus on running and maintaining systems, such as infrastructure, networks, and core applications. These teams keep the environment stable and secure and carry out changes once they are agreed.
• Software vendors and integrators.
  Provide specific products and implementation skills. They are essential, but their view is usually centred on a given tool or stack.

Digital consulting services sit on top of this mix, helping leaders decide what the combined picture should look like and how different providers and teams should fit together.

Which problems do digital consulting services help solve?

Digital consulting services are most helpful when there is a clear gap between current performance and what leaders expect from digital efforts. Examples include:

• High spend on platforms or campaigns, but limited effect on revenue or cost.
• Data that cannot be trusted for decisions because it is late, inconsistent, or incomplete.
• Customer journeys that involve too many steps, handoffs, or channels.
• Slow release cycles and frequent rework in product and engineering teams.
• Overlapping tools and vendors without a clear plan or ownership.
• Pressure to use AI without clarity on where it will add value or how to control risk.

NMS Consulting’s
Digital Consulting Services Guide 2025
gives examples of these problems and shows how audits, roadmaps, and pilots can tackle them in a structured way.

These themes also appear in global work such as the World Economic Forum’s
Digital Transformation Initiative,
which looks at how digital projects affect value creation and operations across sectors.

What types of digital consulting services does NMS Consulting provide?

On the NMS Consulting site, digital consulting services appear under
Digital and Technology Consulting Services
and in several connected guides. Across these pages, the work can be grouped into a few service types.

Digital audits and roadmaps

Short audits review customer journeys, data, platforms, and governance, then lead to a practical roadmap. The Digital Consulting Services Guide 2025 describes a typical pattern that starts with a 2 to 4 week audit, followed by a roadmap and prioritised workstreams for the next 12 months.

Data and analytics consulting

Data work in digital consulting covers how information is collected, stored, and used. NMS Consulting links this to its wider digital and technology practice, which looks at data platforms, reporting, analytics use cases, and how to build trusted dashboards for decisions.

AI consulting and GenAI enablement

AI now sits inside digital consulting services rather than apart from them. NMS Consulting outlines this in its
AI Consulting Guide 2025
and in content on artificial intelligence consulting and AI value offices, which cover AI strategy, use cases, data, MLOps, and governance.

External guidance, such as the
NIST AI risk management work,
can also help organizations think about how to manage AI related risk while they design and deliver digital projects.

Digital operating model and delivery support

Many digital consulting projects focus on how teams are organised and how work is run. Topics include product ownership, agile delivery, roles in technology and business teams, and how digital work connects with finance and risk. NMS Consulting’s consulting and management consulting guides describe these aspects in the wider setting of consulting services.

Change, adoption, and training

New platforms and journeys only deliver value when people use them. Digital consulting services therefore include sponsor coaching, training, and adoption support, often linked with NMS Consulting’s change management material.

How do digital consulting projects run from first call to steady state?

While every project is tailored, many digital consulting services follow a similar pattern. The details in NMS Consulting’s digital and AI guides can be summarised in five stages.

1. Initial scoping and goals.
   Sponsor and consultants define the problem, current state, and desired outcomes, such as uplift in conversion, fewer manual steps, or a clearer view of performance.
2. Audit and quick findings.
   The team reviews journeys, data, platforms, and delivery practices. They highlight a small number of practical issues and early wins rather than long lists.
3. Roadmap and value case.
   Work is grouped into streams with owners, timing, and simple metrics. Finance and business leads join these discussions so that value and feasibility are clear.
4. Pilots and priority builds.
   Teams run focused pilots, such as improving one key journey or building a trusted dashboard for a single priority. AI pilots may sit here, guided by AI consulting methods from NMS Consulting.
5. Scale up and handover.
   Successful pilots are scaled and integrated into routine work. Digital consultants support handover, training, and governance so teams can continue without heavy external support.

When should you buy digital consulting services vs build in house?

Leaders often ask whether they should rely on digital consulting services or hire more permanent staff. Both have a place.

• Use digital consulting services when:
  you face a new type of digital challenge, need an independent view across functions and vendors, or want to move fast on a roadmap or AI plan without waiting to build a full team.
• Build in house when:
  you are clear on direction and need ongoing capacity to run and extend digital products, data platforms, and automation.

NMS Consulting’s general articles on consulting services explain how clients mix external support with internal capability, including the piece
Consulting Services Meaning: What They Are and How Companies Use Them,
which shows when consulting services are most useful.

How do digital consulting services connect with AI, cyber security, and compliance?

Modern digital consulting services rarely focus on front end experience alone. They usually involve AI, cyber security, data privacy, and IT compliance as part of the same work.

• AI and automation.
  Digital projects often include AI use cases, such as recommendation engines, agents that assist staff, or analytics that predict churn. NMS Consulting’s
  AI Consulting Guide 2025
  and AI strategy content show how to design and control these efforts.
• Cyber security and data privacy.
  Digital initiatives have to protect systems and data. The
  Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Services
  page and related articles on cyber security and data protection explain how security and privacy teams work with digital consultants so new features are protected from the start.
• IT compliance.
  Many digital programmes must support certifications and controls described in NMS Consulting’s
  IT Compliance Consulting Guide 2025.
  It is common to align design choices with standards such as the
  ISO 27001 information security standard,
  so that controls and evidence for audits are easier to manage.
• Risk and governance.
  Digital work is tied to risk appetite and board reporting, as set out in content on risk management consulting. This keeps digital activity aligned with wider risk views instead of running on its own.

How should you choose a digital consulting partner?

Choosing a firm for digital consulting services is easier with a short list of checks. NMS Consulting’s consulting and consultancy guides suggest questions that apply here too.

• Do they have recent digital work in your sector and of similar scale?
• Who will be on the core team and how much senior time will you see?
• How do they connect digital work to finances, risk, and operations?
• How will they coordinate with your IT, security, data privacy, and compliance teams?
• What does a typical first 90 days look like and how is value tracked?
• Which internal skills and roles will you need in place once the project ends?

The
Core Consulting Services
page gives an overview of how NMS Consulting thinks about service lines across business, digital and technology, risk, and change, which can help organisations check for fit.

FAQ on digital consulting services

Are digital consulting services only for large companies?

No. While large groups often run big programmes, smaller and mid sized organisations also use digital consulting services, usually on narrower scopes with clear budgets and timelines. The main point is that the effort should match the size of the opportunity and the risks involved.

Can digital consulting services help with legacy systems?

Yes. Many projects start from a base of older systems. Digital consultants help decide which systems to keep, which to replace, and how to limit disruption, often using staged moves and clear guards around high risk changes.

How do we measure results from digital consulting services?

Useful measures combine business and technical views, such as conversion, revenue per user, cost per ticket, or cycle time, alongside platform health and incident rates. NMS Consulting’s digital guides suggest tracking a small set of metrics that connect directly to the aims of each workstream.

Do digital consulting services always involve AI?

Not always, but AI shows up in more and more digital projects. Even when AI is not a central theme, digital consultants may recommend simple uses such as support for search, summarisation, or monitoring to make teams more effective.

How long do digital consulting projects usually last?

Short audits and roadmap efforts can run for 2 to 6 weeks. Larger programmes, such as new digital channels or data platforms, often run for several months, broken into phases so sponsors can review progress and adjust scope.