On-Demand Group president Heather Manley has positioned her Minneapolis-based information technology staffing firm for growth.
By TODD NELSON, Special to the Star Tribune
Last update: May 16, 2010 – 3:41 PM
Staffing consultants like On-Demand Group were among the first to feel the effects when the economic slowdown hit an already saturated market for information technology expertise.
So Heather Manley, On-Demand president, wanted to make sure her company was one of the first to benefit from the recovery.
Her strategy included stepping up her already active practice of networking with women’s business organizations as well as potential clients and consultants her company could work with. She also redoubled efforts to obtain certifications that help women-, minority- and veteran-owned small businesses compete for federal and corporate contracts.
“I’m a little bit of a Pollyanna, a little bit of a positive Nelly,” Manley said. “I took it as an opportunity. So every lunch, every breakfast, every dinner, I was out networking. I spent a lot of time networking and creating relationships, so when the market did move, they would know who we were and where we would fit into their organization.”
She even plotted the relocation of the company, completed this month. On-Demand Group moved from Burnsville, where her father and older brother had founded it in 1995, to Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood.
Manley said the move reflected the company’s new ownership — she and brother Sean bought On-Demand Group from their father in 2007. The new location also is more visible and more accessible to consultants and clients and also makes the company eligible to apply for HubZonecertification, which provides contracting assistance to companies in economically distressed areas.
Manley’s actions appear to have paid off.
Business, which dropped off in fall 2008, began picking up last August. While 2009 revenue was flat at $2 million, it is on pace to rise to $3.5 million to $4 million, Manley said. If that continues, she expects to hire a salesperson or two this year and one to three recruiters to scout for additional IT consultants.
“We don’t advertise anywhere,” she said. “It’s all word-of-mouth and networking. To be able to grow what we’re projecting to grow this year all off of just networking is amazing.”
The company had a strong first quarter as clients cautious about adding overhead continued to hire consultants instead of making new hires.
On-Demand Group provides IT expertise by placing mid- and senior level consultants with midsized to Fortune 500 and government clients on a contract, contract-to-hire and direct-hire basis.
The company has 45 consultants in its network, including developers, architects, database administrators who work in .Net, Java, business intelligence and many other applications, Manley said.
Customer diversity helped
On-Demand Group’s diverse client base — with companies in legal services, financial services, manufacturing both locally and around the country — helped it weather the recession, Manley said.
Manley has applied and honed her networking skills with local chapters of the Women Presidents’ Organization and the National Association of Women Business Owners, among other groups.
Her tireless networking and other contributions helped earn her NAWBO’s 2009 Young Business Woman of the Year Award, said Jennifer Brigham, president of NAWBO’s Minnesota chapter (www.nawbo-mn.org). Manley is now a NAWBO board member.
“She is really, really good at networking,” Brigham, president and CEO of Brigham Group Staffing, which primarily serves technical manufacturing companies and has offices in Minneapolis and Baldwin, Wis. “Not just meeting other people at networking events but really targeting her network toward influential people and people that can benefit both ways.”
On-Demand Group compared well to local and national competitors when Life Time Fitness was looking for IT consultants a couple of years ago, and Manley’s company “over-delivered from what we were expecting,” former recruiting manager Rebecca Warren said.
“A lot of times smaller or boutique firms don’t have the pipeline that larger organizations do, so I was concerned about the time it was going to take to get a consultant in,” Warren said. “I was surprised to get the same level of service from Heather’s firm as I would from a larger national firm. We had candidates within 24 hours and that was a fantastic level of service.”
Manley also admits to being known as “the acronym queen,” because of the number of certifications she has obtained.
Acronyms aplenty’
She and her brother bought the firm with the intention that it would be a woman-owned business, so she naturally pursued that certification from the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). Such certifications help small businesses market themselves to corporate and government clients by helping them meet goals for working with diverse suppliers and vendors.
From there, Manley has gotten certification from the Institute for Green Business Certification (IGBC); Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) certification from the Metropolitan Council; and small business development certification (SDB) for disadvantaged firms from the U.S. Small Business Administration, among others.
“IT is a saturated industry in the Twin Cities,” Manley said. “You have to continually figure out ways to distinguish yourself and have those additional added values without passing any costs on to the client.”
Jim Biggs, information systems supervisor with the Minnesota Department of Revenue, said he has had two “super high-caliber programmers” from On-Demand Group working in his department for more than 10 years.
“In the business we’re in of processing somebody’s tax returns, if somebody isn’t doing the job, we need to replace them quickly,” Biggs said. “We haven’t had that need with Heather’s people for sure.”
The expert says: P.J. Voysey, former president and CEO of IT support company Techies, said Manley is smart to recognize that the Twin Cities IT market is crowded and seek to differentiate her company.
“Anyone with a few connections and a phone can get into this industry because it’s not capital-intensive,” said Voysey, a turnaround specialist. “However, the companies who differentiate themselves and provide service and quality will prosper and grow.”
Certifications help to legitimize a company, and Manley is using them effectively, Voysey said.
During the next growth phase, the owners’ biggest challenge will be building a team to manage the back office while keeping their focus on business development, Voysey said. Building the sales team also will take careful planning, to hire and retain people who will strengthen the brand.
“Hired salespeople don’t have the same natural loyalties as the owners, so a company plan needs to be created to keep them motivated,” Voysey said.
Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Woodbury. His e-mail address is todd_nelson@mac.com.-
