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Genesis10 One of Six Companies Where Customers Come First

2006 News Archives

2005 News Archives

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We strive to keep our clients and our consultants up-to-date on current news and company information through newsletters, emails and this web site. Please check back often for the latest on what's going on with Genesis10.

September 24, 2007

Genesis10 One of Six Companies Where Customers Come First

Fortune Small Business contributing writer Justin Martin highlights Genesis10 in his October article titled "6 Companies Where Customers Come First". "Genesis10 has strong testimonial letters from our clients and from our consultants that support our reputation for delivering value above and beyond our competition", said Founder and CEO Harley Lippman. "I am proud of the focus that each and every consultant and employee of Genesis10 places on delivering exceptional customer service" added Lippman. Following are excerpts of the article where Lippman differentiates the Genesis10 approach to customer service. Links to the full article are below.

Customer-service strategy: Genesis 10 devotes much of its time to learning about a client company's culture in advance of new projects, hiring recently departed employees to brief its consultants. Because its team arrives prepared, the firm is able to hit the ground running. CEO Harley Lippman estimates that he beats project deadlines 60% of the time. One secret to success: Lippman ties a significant portion of his team's pay to customer service. Another strategy: The firm says no to many new deals. Lippman explains that while he took on $134 million worth of work in 2006, he turned down gigs potentially worth millions more. He routinely nixes assignments that might stretch his staff too thin, along with jobs that are outside his consulting specialty. That way he avoids diluting his focus. It has paid off. With 120 clients, the firm brought in $134 million in revenue in 2006.

Know your client's culture: Visit the Manhattan headquarters of Genesis 10 and here's what you won't see: cheesy posters with sayings such as "the customer is always right." Neither will you hear its employees repeating customer-focused mantras the way they do at so many firms. "Our commitment goes deeper than that," explains Harley Lippman, the firm's founder and CEO. "We're looking for ways to truly engage with our customers."

View the full articles here:
CNNMoney.com -- Do your customers love you?
CNNMoney.com -- 6 companies where customers come first.

2006 News Archives

December 11, 2006

GENESIS10 HOSTS DR. SUBRAMANI FOR OFFSHORING PRESENTATION

With increasing numbers of U.S. companies outsourcing information technology projects and staff to lower-cost workers outside the United States, challenges arise in communications, managing team dynamics, project structures and cultural differences.

Genesis10 invited Dr. Mani Subramani, an expert on offshore outsourcing and a professor at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, to speak on the subject at the company’s Fall 2006 Business Meeting in Minneapolis.

Dr. Subramani’s presentation, "Managing the Challenges of Globalization and Offshore Projects" spoke to the challenges that Genesis10 consultants increasingly face in responding to their clients’ needs in managing outsourced vendors.

According to Dr. Subramani, companies deliver greater value to their customers through the systematic accumulation, organization and management of experience and intellectual capital. Drawing on these resources help firms like Genesis 10 build "economies of expertise" and gain competitive advantage.

Outsourcing provides the flexibility for companies to effectively deal with labor intensive activities involved in back-end IT tasks such as re-platforming, developing, testing, implementing and maintaining systems. When an organization outsources this type of work, says Dr. Subramani, internal resources can now be freed up to focus on more strategic and innovative activities. Developing and gaining new insight and knowledge can help sustain and grow the organization’s reputation as industry thought leaders, and are more judicious uses of talent and skills that would otherwise be directed towards labor intensive and lower value-added activities.

Through the ability to be at the forefront of what’s next, while simultaneously managing the complex outsourced relationships of clients, companies such as Genesis10 build that value-added approach which keeps the customer returning.

However, there are many issues that make the management of outsourcing engagements complex including differences in perspectives, expectations, culture, time differences and of course differences in skill and domain knowledge between providers and clients. Those companies on the cutting edge of knowing how to manage these complex supplier relationships will have an advantage over competitors.

So how, according to Dr. Subramani, can Genesis10 consultants be prepared for managing outsourced relationships? As clients hire Genesis10, its early involvement in projects can help to shape the design of the project as well as how the task is to be performed.

By creating a trusting environment, Genesis10 consultants, as project managers, can be clear about priorities and documentation. It is critical to specify performance requirements and provide information transparently up front and throughout the duration of the project.

Dr. Subramani says that the key to managing a successful relationship between clients and outsourced vendors is to strike a good balance in the following:

Unexpected vs. planned: While there are invariably changes, unexpected challenges and opportunities, planning and process are critical for preparing for a project.
Flexibility vs. focus: Focus is important to reach the final goal successfully, but along the way, good managers must be able to be flexible and respond to change quickly and efficiently.
Complexity versus clarity: Most projects involve a multitude of complex roads. As a manager, it’s important to maintain overall clarity of the situation to achieve the objectives.
Ongoing relationship vs. best of breed: Stable, consistent vendors will remain during any number of ups and downs that a client may face, but it is important to remain on top of the game to bring credibility and visibility to a new situation.
Commitment vs. detachment: While showing commitment to a project is essential, it is important to know when to walk away from a project that may not be working or from negotiations between vendors and clients that are having a negative impact on the project’s final outcome.
Image vs. reality: Conveying confidence, expertise and a competent climate for work is helpful to selling the expertise. Consultants must be grounded to what they can do and what their limitations may be.

Genesis10, through careful management of its clients’ projects and its involvement in the management of outsourced projects and vendors, is in a unique position to develop economies of expertise that can help the firm to maintain and build a significant competitive advantage now and into the future.

For more information on this topic, or to receive a copy of Dr. Subramani’s presentation, please contact Stephanie Schreurs at sschreurs@genesis10.com.

December 4, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Stephanie Schreurs
651-203-6580
sschreurs@genesis10.com

GENESIS10 NAMES JIM BARCLAY VICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

DES MOINES, Iowa – (December 4, 2006) – Genesis10, a New York City-based leader in business and technology consulting, announced that Jim Barclay, has joined the Des Moines, Iowa office of Genesis10 as the vice president of business development.

Chandler Cayot, managing partner, sales of Genesis10, said, "Jim’s expertise will serve as a great asset as we continue to grow our operations in Iowa. His extensive experience will help Genesis10 to meet and exceed our goals for the Des Moines office."

Prior to joining Genesis10, Barclay spent the last 10 years in the consulting world serving clients in an array of industries in U.S. and European Fortune 500 companies. Barclay also served as a manager at Ernst & Young.

More recently, Barclay spent the past three years working as a program/project manager for Genesis10 leading projects with key clients in Des Moines. One recent project had Barclay managing one of the largest projects in the history of the client, serving over 500 people with a budget of more than $20 million.

Barclay began his new position on Nov. 16.

About Genesis10
Genesis10 is a business and technology consulting firm with 10 offices nationwide and one in Canada. Founded in 1999, Genesis10 has more than 2,000 consultants specializing in project management, business analysis, business transformation and large-scale systems infrastructure and application integration for more than 100 companies in a variety of industries including banking and financial services, insurance, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, telecommunications and more. For more information, please visit www.genesis10.com.

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New Marketplace, New Opportunities
by Laura French

In the years leading up to 2000, IT consultants were a hot commodity. Salaries were high, and steady employment was the norm. Then, for a few years after Y2K, technology budgets were lean, and so was the market for consultants.

"There’s never been a better time for someone who loves project work and is good at it."

Now, consulting careers are booming again, according to Laura Kelly, senior vice president of Genesis10, a national firm with an office in Woodbury. But this isn’t the old consulting world come back or life. It’s a whole new marketplace.

Consulting As A Career: It’s Back
To show the changes in the consulting world over the past decade, Kelly draws a control/cost matrix on a piece of paper. The vertical axis is control-who ultimately has control of the project. The horizontal axis is cost-the relative cost of the services provided.

In the pre-Y2K days, Kelly says, consulting tended to fall at the two extremes. The Big Five consulting firms provided more control at a higher cost. "They were the thought leaders in developing new business strategies like "customer relationship management" (CRM) and "enterprise resource planning" (ERP)," Kelly says.

At the other end of the spectrum were the "staff augmentation" consulting firms. They provided personnel with a single technical skill, like programming in a specific computer language.

Companies "Rent Expertise"
Kelly says that the new consulting marketplace has moved away from the extremes. The consultants placed by Genesis10 are largely project managers, business analysts and integration specialists.

Y2K projects showed companies the benefit of "renting" technical expertise for a specific project, without having to add people as permanent overhead. Today, Kelly says, many companies have adopted a matrix hiring strategy. "Instead of having all your talent as full time, you have a core group, and reserve resourcing dollars to bring specific talent in when you need it," Kelly says.

Consultants Are Project-Focused
That’s a great opportunity for people who are "passionate about a career in consulting," Kelly says. Genesis10 has 350 consultants in the Twin Cities and 1200 nationwide. (Visit its website at www.Genesis10.com)

A passion for consulting means being project-focused, Kelly adds. "Consultants use their expertise to add value to a client, continually leveraging their "skill set", she says.

Consulting and corporate life both have pros and cons, Kelly says. The company employee works at one location, often creates a social circle at work, and has benefit and training opportunities that aren’t available to consultants.

The consultant works with people from a number of companies, developing a broader network. Every project adds to the consultant’s "toolbox," Kelly says, and the "dream assignments" let the consultant work at the "bleeding edge."

Driven By Business Need
Unlike the 1990’s consulting boom, which was fueled by technology change, the new marketplace is driven by business need. That means the opportunities are likely to continue. "There’s never been a better time for someone who loves project work and is good at it," Kelly says. "The opportunity to view consulting as a career is back."

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Laura French is principal of Words Into Action, Inc., and is a freelance writer from Roseville, MN.

This article was published in the November 5, 2006 issue of Star Tribune JOBS and is reprinted here with the permission of the Star Tribune Sales and Marketing Division, Minneapolis, MN.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Stephanie Schreurs
651-702-3300
sschreurs@genesis10.com

GENESIS10 HOSTS PRESENTATION ON OFFSHORE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

MINNEAPOLIS – October 24, 2006 – American businesses are outsourcing increasing numbers of information technology projects to lower-cost workers outside of the United States. But along with the cost savings of offshore projects come the challenges of managing them.

Dr. Mani Subramani, an expert on offshore outsourcing and professor at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, will speak on the subject at Genesis10's Fall 2006 Business Meeting this week. His presentation, "Managing the Challenges of Globalization and Offshore Projects"will include true-to-life issues experienced by Genesis10 project managers, including challenges arising from cultural differences, intercontinental communications, disparate project structures and unique team dynamics.

"Dr. Subramani brings practical experience as well as an academic viewpoint to the subject of offshore project management,"says Jim Kelly, Genesis10 managing partner, who notes that Subramani once worked for Wipro, India’s leading global IT services company.

Genesis10 is the largest project management consulting firm in the Twin Cities and one of the fastest growing mid-tier business and technology consulting companies in the United States. Its biannual business meetings are attended by many of its 2,100 consultants, about 300 of them based in the Twin Cities.

The keynote discussion presented by Dr. Subramani will take place Wednesday, October 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel in St. Louis Park.

About Dr. Mani Subramani
Dr. Mani Subramani is a professor at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management where he teaches in the MBA, Exec MBA and PhD programs, including the course "Managing Globally" (informally known as the "India Seminar"), in which students discuss the trend towards global sourcing of knowledge-intensive services and their implications. The course includes a two-week trip to India where students visit leading Indian service providers and meet key decision makers to understand their perspectives. Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked for seven years in the computer industry in India in software development and product management functions.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Stephanie Schreurs
651-702-3300
sschreurs@genesis10.com

GENESIS10 RANKS THIRD AMONG TWIN CITIES MANAGEMENT CONSULTING FIRMS -- Company moves up two spots on Business Journal list

MINNEAPOLIS – May 16, 2006 – Genesis10, a leader in business and technology consulting, ranks third on this year’s Top 25 Management Consulting Firms list, published May 12 by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal. Last year, the company placed fifth on the list.

Jim Kelly, Genesis10 managing partner, said: "We are proud of the reputation we have earned over the last six years as both consulting firm and employer of choice for project managers, program managers and business analysts in the Twin Cities. We are grateful for the relationships established with clients and consultants as a trusted resource for objective and consistent project consulting."

Genesis10 is one of the fastest growing mid-tier consulting companies in the United States. The company has offices in 10 markets in the U.S. and one in Canada. Its Twin Cities office employs over 300 of the market’s leading project/program management and business analyst consultants to work with clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small privately held businesses in the financial services, manufacturing, insurance and healthcare industries.

About Genesis10
Genesis10 is a business and technology consulting firm with 10 offices nationwide and one in Canada. Founded in 1999, Genesis10 has more than 1,800 consultants specializing in project management, business analysis, business transformation and large-scale systems infrastructure and application integration for more than 100 companies in a variety of industries including banking and financial services, insurance, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, telecommunications and more. For more information, please visit www.genesis10.com.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Stephanie Schreurs
651-702-3300
sschreurs@genesis10.com

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING LEADER GENESIS10 LAUNCHES CHARLOTTE OFFICE

CHARLOTTE, NC, April 25, 2006 – Genesis10, a New York City-based leader in business and technology consulting, has launched a new office in Charlotte’s city center at 401 North Tryon Street. Rob Nicholson has been named senior managing director. The office currently has five full-time employees and 30 consultants who serve Charlotte-area clients in financial services and other industries.

"This is a very exciting venture for Genesis10 because of our focus on and extensive, nationwide experience with the financial services industry, which has such a strong presence in Charlotte. We work with the banks and financial services firms in this market and we’re looking forward to becoming an integral part of the uptown business community," said Nicholson.

Genesis10 is the fastest growing mid-tier consulting company in the United States. The company has offices in 14 cities across the United States and one in Canada. Genesis10’s consultants, many of whom are employees of the company, are experienced senior leaders in disciplines ranging from program and project management to application integration.

Glenn Klein, CFO said: "As the second largest financial center in the United States, we believe Charlotte can become a key hub for our business analysis and project management services, as the need for seasoned business and technology consultants with leadership skills continues to grow throughout the economy. We are confident that Rob Nicholson will help us realize our potential in this market, delivering on our promise of finding the right consultant for the project and the right project for the consultant."

Rob came to Genesis10 from Comsys where he was sales manager. Prior to that, Rob was regional vice president at TSG IT Resources. Rob has a master’s of administration in Human Resources from the University of Scranton and a bachelor’s from Bloomsburg State College in Psychology.

About Genesis10
Genesis10 is a business and technology consulting firm with 10 offices nationwide and one in Canada. Founded in 1999, Genesis10 has more than 1,800 consultants specializing in project management, business analysis, business transformation and large-scale systems infrastructure and application integration for more than 100 companies in a variety of industries including banking and financial services, insurance, manufacturing, healthcare, telecommunications and more. For more information, please visit www.genesis10.com.

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Making Sure Technology Means Business
Laura French, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

Business analysts are the translators between the people who build technology and the people who will eventually use that technology.

Knowing what questions to ask, and how to listen, can make all the difference between a system that meets user needs and one that doesn’t.

Translating Between Business And Technology
Business analysts need some knowledge of both business needs and how to leverage technology to meet those needs. In other words, a business analyst (BA) is a translator between business and technology, and back again.

So, is the business analyst a technology person or a businessperson? The answer varies from one organization to another, according to Laura Kelly, managing director of operations for Genesis 10, a nationwide consulting firm with an office in the Twin Cities. What’s most important, she says, is that “a good BA stands in the middle of the discussion, asks good questions, gets good answers, and gets to the root cause of things.”

The How And The What
Kelly has specialized in business analysis for more than decade, working as a BA herself as well as helping companies fill analyst positions. Although she believes that the BA should be on the technology side of the organization, she says that clients often express the need for skilled business analysts on the business side of an organization. “Often the business manager just doesn’t feel that the business is getting what it asked for from the technology team,” Kelly says.

On technology projects, a requirements document is the standard vehicle that a business uses to communicate with its technology team. “In completing the requirements document, you need to separate the how from the what,” Kelly says. “A good BA will ask the right questions to find out what the business needs to have happen – then let the technology people figure out how to build it.”

Important Trait
Kelly says that understanding of process and critical thinking skills is most important for a good BA. This trait can be found in people from the business operations side of an organization – financial analysts, claims analysts, or portfolio analysts for example. There are also software developers who have a natural bent for business, Kelly says.

To qualify for a BA position, she suggests getting training in one of the current project management methodologies, like Rational Unified Process (RUP) or Six Sigma. Work experience in a particular industry, like insurance or banking, is just as important as classroom training, Kelly says. She encourages clients to develop mentoring or buddy programs to help business analysts develop their skills.

Kelly says business analysis is a great background for many kinds of management positions on either the business or technology side. There’s also an emerging field called business architecture, which drives overall business strategy and defines the direction individual technology projects will take.

The demand for BAs is “huge,” Kelly says. Since a good BA can help an organization put the full power of technology into its business process, the demand is likely to keep growing.

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Laura French is principal of Words Into Action, Inc., and is a freelance writer from Roseville, MN.

This article was published in the February 4, 2006 issue of Star Tribune JOBS and is reprinted here with the permission of the Star Tribune Sales and Marketing Division, Minneapolis, MN.

Fast50?

This has nothing to do with age – this is the Fast Company spotlight on leading creative thinkers. "People who have already made significant accomplishments but whose best is yet to come, and who stand to have a significant impact on the next 10 years." We think this person is Harley Lippman. After all, the man started with nothing, built a multi-million dollar company, sold it, found himself back at ground zero and started again with Genesis10. And while delivering top business and technology consultants to its Fortune 500 clients may not sound extraordinary at the surface, dig deeper to understand why clients rank them at the top of their preferred vendor lists:

http://www.fastcompany.com/fast50_06/profile/index.html?lippman446

Hot Jobs And Hot Prospects
Laura French, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

The information technology bust seems to be over. IT organizations are hiring both permanent and temporary staff to upgrade systems and handle new projects. Still, nobody anticipates a return to the boom times of the 1990s. People who are in or planning to join the ranks of IT workers need to stay informed about what the current hot jobs are- and, more important, what skills and training are needed to obtain those jobs. Here are some trends for 2006.

Hiring Trends
What are the hot jobs for 2006, and how can you be the hottest prospect for one of them? Here are some tips from Laura Kelly, managing director, operations, for Genesis 10, a nationwide consulting firm with an office in the Twin Cities.

Business Analysis: Coming Into Its Own
"Companies are finally starting to see the value of a good business analyst (BA)," Kelly says. To maximize your value, she says, consider training in Use Cases or "any training that helps build a BA's skills in creating and communicating requirements effectively." Her second choice for a value-added business analysis skill would be "either quality process management or Rational Unified Process (RUP)." Building on the role a BA plays in the quality process is key as more companies are turning their improvement focus to quality measures within the IT development life cycle. On the other hand, Kelly says, more and more companies are implementing some or all of the RUP methodology.

Project Management: A New Diverse, IT Culture
The project managers (PMs) in demand are those with experience in business-driven technology change, Kelly says. "We have PMs who are leading global PeopleSoft upgrades with project team members in six countries across the globe. Some team members are business resources; some are technical resources. Managing in an environment where your team members speak different languages, work in different cultures or work in a different time zone creates a whole new level of challenges for the PM. It's emerging as a new, diverse IT culture." To make it work, Kelly says, the PM needs to be able to identify repeatable, predictable modules of work that can be sent to the offshore partner, and then set up a plan to communicate, follow up and answer questions. "Something as simple as a glossary of terms used early in the project can prevent miscommunication later in the project," says Kelly.

Other Hot Trends: Networking, Help Desk And Security
Other clues to hot jobs for 2006 can be found in the “2006 Salary Guide” published by Robert Half Technology. CIOs cited networking and help desk/end-user support as the two job areas experiencing the most growth, at 17 percent each. The highest priority, by far, network security improvements, was cited by 35 percent of CIOs surveyed. Operating-system upgrades was next at 16 percent. Asked what skills were most in demand, a whopping 77 percent of CIOs said Windows administration. Wireless network management came in second at 48 percent. For more information, go to www.Genesis10.com.

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Laura French is principal of Words Into Action, Inc., and is a freelance writer from Roseville.

This article was published in the February 4, 2006 issue of Star Tribune JOBS and is reprinted here with the permission of the Star Tribune Sales and Marketing Division, Minneapolis, MN.

2005 News Archives

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Stephanie Schreurs
212-688-5522 ext. 209
sschreurs@genesis10.com

GENESIS10 UNVEILS NEW WEB SITE, CORPORATE IDENTITY EMBRACING THE COMPANY’S STRONG FOUNDATION AND INNOVATIVE VISION

Click here to watch the video.

NEW YORK – (Oct. 13, 2005) – Genesis10, a leader in business and technology consulting, announced the launch of its new Web site at www.genesis10.com and a new logo and tagline, "Business and Technology Consultants," which defines the company’s strategic direction and represents its reputation for delivering results.

"Genesis10 has developed an innovative approach for delivering high-end consulting services to clients in a cost effective business model," said Genesis10 Founder and CEO Harley Lippman.

"We have experienced exponential growth since the company’s inception in 1999 and we wanted to launch a new identity and Web site that represents our strengths including our people, services and reputation," continued Lippman. "We are excited about this new identity because it solidifies our vision and commitment to align our business model with client needs in order to deliver service and results."

At the new and improved site, Genesis10 offers an easy-to-navigate, clean design, making it even easier for consultants and clients to learn more about Genesis10’s business and technology consulting services.

Consultants can readily search and access opportunities available at Genesis10 locations across the country in the areas of project management/business analysis, application development/Infrastructure; enterprise systems integration; and vendor managed services. The new site also features consultant testimonials and access to client commendations.

The new logo was designed to reflect a strong foundation for customers and consultants to build upon, while the Genesis10 name is strategically located at the top to keep the company top of mind. The earthy color of both the logo and the navigational tools of the Web site reflect the company’s organic growth.

About Genesis10
Genesis10 is a business and technology consulting firm with offices nationwide and in Canada. Founded in 1999, Genesis10 has more than 1,200 consultants specializing in project management, business analysis, business transformation and large-scale systems infrastructure and application integration for more than 100 companies in a variety of industries including banking and financial services, insurance, manufacturing, healthcare, telecommunications and more. For more information, please visit www.genesis10.com.

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