In Information Architecture as in Consulting I believe that it is better to provide solutions, not answers.
An example: an IA is brought in to provide a design for a website (and work with me here, it might be a UXD or a Graphic Designer or a web programmer). They talk to the people that they need to talk to, bounce some ideas off them, and so on. They then create a design that is suitable for implementation. Is this a solution? I would say that it is part of a solution, but not the whole solution - it is an answer, not a solution.
How does it become a solution? Shop the design around, work through any perception issues, gain acceptance for it from all relevant stakeholders, such that when implemented it is what everyone in the client organisation is expecting. THAT is a solution.
Cheers, Andrew
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