In June of 2012, a global management consulting firm contacted Surge to discuss a potential partnership. This Fortune 500 financial services company discovered Surge by clicking on a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Google ad and was impressed with what they saw on Surge’s site and submitted a request, which was immediately sent to Surge’s inside sales team.
Within 24 hours the company’s rep received an email and phone call from Surge’s inside sales team. During this call the sales team qualified the business as a legitimate potential client and scheduled an initial discovery meeting the next day with one of Surge’s sales directors.
The discovery meeting lasted about 30 min and was held completely over web meeting. During the meeting, Surge’s sales director gave a 15 min presentation and responded to questions primarily centered on capabilities. This particular company is in the business of providing consulting services to some of the world’s largest companies, and had recently begun offering leveraged solutions such as Business Intelligence (BI) tools to its clients. Their technology consulting business unit was expanding rapidly and they were being forced to look at alternative staffing options.
As is the case with most large organizations, this firm had its own internal technology staff, including designers, developers, project managers, and testers. However, they were having trouble finding highly qualified, senior level US based software engineers and architects to augment their current staff and ultimately take the lead on customer engagements. Another factor was affordability, since most software consulting firms charge upwards of $200/hour for senior level talent, eliminating any margin should this particular client sub-contract the work. The engagements were highly complex, both technically and managerially, such that offshore or junior developers were not an option. Surge is one of only a few software consulting firms that does not employ junior and/or offshore developers.
Surge provided a refreshing alternative by offering America’s best software engineers on demand at rates 30-50% less than the competition. Surge is able to offer this compelling solution by hiring the best developers regardless of geographic location, giving them the flexibility to telecommute 100%, providing online collaboration tools and infrastructure, establishing agile/scrum project management practices using certified scrum masters and continual accountability, creating a positive, supportive, and rewarding work environment, carefully tracking business metrics, and keeping overhead costs low.
After the discovery meeting and a follow up call, the prospective client was impressed with the infrastructure and deep level of talent at Surge and wanted to take the next step. This talent is acquired through various grassroots efforts, which has led to over 50% of Surge’s team members being referred by other team members. Great developers know other great developers and are willing to refer them if they are happy and incentivized. Every Surge developer goes through a rigorous evaluation, which includes live coding in front of a senior architect, prior to being hired. This process has helped Surge land some of the best programming talent in the industry. Surge currently employs 125 senior technology professionals in the US and Canada.
The next step for the firm was to discuss a possible engagement on a client-facing project for one of the largest chemical distributors in the US. This distributor wanted to build a next generation web-based business intelligence tool and underlying BI platform to help their sales team price their products using competitive and market pricing information (see screen shot below). There were a couple of internal people working on the project but they needed at least three additional senior software engineers / architects, a tester, and a project manager. Within days Surge identified internal resources that matched the requisite skillsets and submitted a proposal. After interviewing and vetting the candidates prior to engaging, a fairly common request, at least with new engagements, the client was ready to move forward. Almost 6 weeks after the initial contact, Surge and the client entered into a Master Services Agreement (MSA) with the first Statement of Work (SOW) starting one week afterward. It’s been three years since the inception of the project and it’s still going strong to this day.
After a few weeks working with Surge, the client began commenting on how impressed they were with the team that Surge provided. In fact, the Surge team was outperforming not only other outside consultants but also their own internal team. It took only a few weeks before the client identified a second potential project for Surge. Almost three years later, Surge has engaged on more than a dozen projects for the client, including projects with marquee corporations. In addition, the client has requested Surge to work on a variety of internal projects. Such high-quality work and repeated success qualified Surge to enter a Master Services Agreement with the parent company, making Surge the preferred vendor for all of their tech resource needs.
