What is an IT Contractor?
An Information Technology contractor is a trained professional who chooses to perform important IT functions for a client as an independent contractor. The IT contractor usually operates under the auspices of a working agreement with the customer, and is available for a specified period of time in exchange for the completion of specific tasks within that period of time. There are several reasons why a company may choose to employ and IT contractor rather than hire a full time individual. In some cases, the utilization of the IT contractor is a means of temporarily securing competent information technology support during an interim period. The period may occur when the company’s information technology technician is away from the job for an extended period of time, such as a leave of absence or an extended illness. The IT contractor steps in and takes care of the day to day support until the full-time employee returns to duty. At other times, a company may choose to go with an IT contrac
• Brief history of IT contracting • Permies versus Contractors • How to break rank with permyism What is IT? The NASA (John H. Glenn Research Centre) offers this definition for information technology (IT): Any equipment or interconnected system or subsystem of equipment, that is used in the automatic acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of data or information. The term information technology includes computers, ancillary equipment, software, firmware and similar procedures, services (including support services), and related resources. The term information technology does not include any equipment that 1) is acquired by a contractor incidental to a contract; or 2) contains imbedded information technology that is used as an integral part of the product, but the principal function of which is not the acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, t
