Case Study: Race for Talent

Eliminate risk. Reduce costs. Gain control.

“We are in an extremely competitive race for digital talent.”

The Customer

This Fortune 500 company is a worldwide leader in energy, water, and hygiene technologies and services. With nearly three million customer locations, they are recognized as market leaders with an eye on sustainable solutions.

The Problem

While solid innovation strategies were in place, the lack of available talent to execute on big ideas seriously compromised their success. With an extremely competitive market for STEM talent, finding qualified IT resources was expensive and often impossible. US-based contractors were even more costly and often resulted in intellectual property risk. Typical budget constraints and traditional funding models constrained execution, innovation, agility, and progress.

The Solution

To address this talent gap, the Company partnered with SMC Squared and used its proprietary Strategic Assessment Model (SAM). The SAM enabled a customized approach to assess current IT capabilities and talent strategies. It provided a framework to map future development needs and leverage SMC Squared’s extensive experience in building and managing dedicated global teams.

At the heart of the solution was a Global Insource Center (GIC) that was built in Bangalore completely on SMC Squared’s dime. This included the creation of a legal entity, the acquisition of required leases, the physical buildout of the space, and the hiring of key office, HR and managing director roles—all at no upfront expense to the Company.

Refreshingly, it’s not us versus them. These employees are part of our team. They are recruited-for-fit, developed, and managed as long-term assets to our Company.

Chief Digital Officer

Operating as a lean start-up, this global center of excellence for digital technology enables us to overcome resource constraints, while also reducing reliance on external contractors.

Chief Information Officer

Ongoing, SMC Squared uses its US Enablement framework to manage the GIC and meet quality guarantees, while saving over 40% in operational costs and delivering on a 1:1 (India to US) productivity ratio.
The framework also enables the US-based director—a non-billable, value-added role—to drive a global development mindset among the US and India resources across Agile, DevOps, and traditional methodologies. The approach is quick to recognize opportunities and risks that drive effective project management, predictable outcomes, and quality that exceeds US standards.

In just twelve months they were able to grow “right-sized “ teams in over twelve capability areas including mobile, machine learning, RPA, and Salesforce. The Company reclaimed control over their global development work in a powerful and transformational way, with a total-cost-of-ownership unheard of in traditional IT services and outsourcing models.

As the Company moves through a three-year operational plan, this “Global One Team” approach has proven highly-productive and cost-effective in leveraging synchronized resources between India and the US.
“Operating as a lean start-up, this global center of excellence for digital technology enables us to overcome resource constraints, while also reducing reliance on external contractors,” noted the Chief Information Officer.
The SMC Squared model allows for a transfer in year three without a buyout fee. Combined with no upfront capital requirements, it’s perfect for companies wanting a no-risk, fast-track path to execute on big ideas through highly-coordinated, cost-effective global IT resources.

At-a-Glance

INDUSTRY
A Fortune 500 global leader providing B2B technology and services in the energy and environmental sectors.

ISSUE
Difficulty finding and recruiting quality digital engineers.

TECHNOLOGIES
Mobile & web development; Salesforce; RPA-UiPath; DevOps-Azure; Test Automation-Selenium; Data Integration/API–Mulesoft; Data Engineering/Data Lake–Cloudera, Hadoop; Data Science; MDM–Informatica

SOLUTION
A Bangalore-based Global Insource Center built, funded, and operated by SMC Squared for three years with the option to transfer at no cost.

By the Numbers

New engineers in six months across twelve core competencies.

%

Savings in operational costs

No start-up costs or transfer fees.

Scale Your Tech Output: Step 1

Complimentary Strategic Assessment Meeting. Send us a message and tell us when would be a convenient time to learn more about what a Global Insourcing solution can do for your organization.