Nancy,
Consulting Services are typically planned and scheduled engagements delivered by Professional Service Consultants. These are billed based on a Statement of Work for a fixed fee. Alternatively these services can be offered on a variable charge scheme based on number of days/hours work.

Support Services are normally provided under an annual service or maintenance contract. These tend to be more reactive where typically a customer calls into a Technical Support hotline to get help with product or application issues. Could also apply to on-site field service repair for hardware issues.

Hope this helps

John H.

In our world it is very simple. Support is not changing anything, your professionals are working in the scope of an existing system. Consulting is where your professional team working on a change, reconfigurations or additions to an existing system.

However someone can argue that creation of a new user is creating something new but from the system perspective you use existing functionality of the system so it is SUPPORT.

So:

In the scope of an existing system or functionality is SUPPORT.

Out of the scope of existing system or functionality is CONSULTING.

Thanks

Michael P.

Hi,

I run the technical field organization for a software company. This includes presales, consulting and technical support. So I deal with this on an ongoing basis. When to transition from presales to consulting and what is the difference between consulting and technical support. We have a very technically complex product line and require very senior resources throughout. We literally do rocket science and sometimes you need a PhD in engineering to answer a technical support question.

This is the statement from our Technical Support Guide…

“MSC provides technical assistance on questions related to installation and use of the Software. MSC will install the Software for the customer, for an additional fee. Product support does not include training. It is not a substitute for training on the use of the Software.”

We do not provide “engineering judgment” in Technical Support, or any kind of deliverables or training or mentoring. These are all Consulting Services. We get into a gray zone sometimes because to properly “use” the software, engineering experience is necessary and sometimes it’s not straightforward.

I hope this helps.

Dave J.

Nancy,

The quick answer: Strategy vs. tactics.

A bit less simply…

Consulting provides analysis, advice, plans, and possibly architecture related to a specific SUBJECT MATTER.

Support services provides technological assistance for a specific PRODUCT. This might include bug-fixes,
installation/configuration/sizing, or customization.

A system integrator might provide services from both the consulting and support service menus.

Training is the third leg of the services stool.

I’m sure others will disagree heartily with these definitions. That’s
why it’s so much fun. :-D

The other thing I’ll add is that Support is typically concerned with the features and function of the base product, while Consulting is
typically concerned with applying those features and functions to solve a specific business problem.