Is your organization having difficulty determining the best approach to evaluating potential
IS services firms? Travant's white paper on Hiring & Managing an IT Professional Services Firm is a
high-level guide to both selecting an appropriate firm and how to expect to manage them to achieve the
best results.
Our solutions give our clients a competitive edge; therefore, many of our clients require us to keep
project information in strict confidence. We respect their wishes and are therefore unable to state their
company names publicly.
Client Story: Accounts Receivables System for Fortune 500 Retailer
Travant served as a key participant on a high-profile, 30+ team project to design, develop, implement and
support a unique Accounts Receivables System to process a 4+ Terabyte database and several million
transactions per day. Travant was one of two vendors selected for the project. We worked extensively with the
other vendor, client technical team, and client business team to ensure consistent progress. Travant was
accountable for reporting project status and issues regarding the entire team to executive management.
Travant's involvement included responsibility for requirements gathering, design, architecture, development,
optimization, and quality assurance of large portions of the online application. Technologies leveraged
include J2EE, HTML/DHTML/CSS, JavaScript, WebSphere, WebSphere Studio Application Developer,
Oracle (8i & 9i), PL/SQL, Unix (Solaris, AIX), Perl, MS Office VBA, and Korn Shell Scripting. This
application processes several millions of dollars in transactions per day and is consistently balanced to the penny.
Client Story: Art de Triumph, Inc.
Art deTriumph, a retailer of fine works of art, had been selling their products through art shows and conventional
advertising methods. They decided to grow their business by leveraging the Internet to reach greater audiences
for their products. They came to Travant Solutions to establish their Internet presence. Travant researched strategies
for eCommerce, developed the branding and concept for their Web site, and implemented their eCommerce solution.
The solution for Art de Triumph utilizes Active Server Pages, JavaScript and HTML, and integrates Mercantec's SoftCart
product for shopping cart and credit card payment functionality. An Access database is used for the product repository,
and it provides a means to maintain the dynamic store content and other text information on the site. The eCommerce site
runs on Windows 2000 and is hosted by Verio.
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"Travant Solutions considered key aspects of our business: our products, our market,
and our budget, and they implemented the ideal eCommerce solution for us. Travant understood the
priority of our objectives, and that we didn't need every possible feature from day one.
Instead, they focused on enabling key business functionalities quickly in order to bring us online
in a timely and cost-effective manner, while still allowing for future expandability when we're
ready."
- Ron Mertz,
President
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Client Story: Construction Management Application for Fortune 100 Retailer
This client has a mission-critical application that serves to coordinate the schedule for both
new construction, store remodeling, and store aquisitions. In addition to other key information, a list of various
construction project dates is maintained that several other teams through-out the organization
utilized to determine when their participation was required in order to meet the project deadlines.
The application had several defects which resulted in unreliable information being erroneously
published. Travant was asked to evaluate the application to determine the approach and estimates
for repairing the defects. Travant was able to quickly identify the cause of the defects and produce
estimates to repair them. During the design and development process, Travant identified other
previously unknown critical flaws in the application that could potentially result in data loss and
resource locking. Travant completed the repairs early and no subsequent defects were reported.
This client has since utilized Travant for all subsequent system enhancements. Technologies
leveraged include J2EE, HTML/DHTML/CSS, JavaScript, Apache/Tomcat, Informix, and Unix (Solaris).
Client Story: Elliott Affiliates, Ltd.
Elliott Affiliates (EA) is the premier expert in support services consulting for the facilities management industry
for more than 30 years. They provide services nationwide to measure the performance of janitorial services,
landscaping, parking lot management and other aspects of building maintenance. EA wanted to create on-line,
real time systems to further automate their inspection process and provide self service capabilities to their
customers. Using a multi-tier, object-oriented approach, Travant designed and developed a disconnected
architecture that allows field personnel to retrieve customer information to their mobile workstations and then
gather the inspection data. The data is then synchronized with the central server via a web service. The server
processes the data and generates the appropriate reports for distribution and handles ad-hoc report requests.
The solution is an end-to-end Microsoft solution based on the .NET framework: ASP.NET, WinForms, XML Web Services,
Windows Service, SQL Server, and Reporting Services.
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"Travant has built a leading edge system that will support our operations and the success of our clients
for many years to come. They finished the software on-time and on-budget, and Travant was flexible and
responsive to the changes that arose during the development process. The end result is that we have
significantly upgraded our mission-critical systems, which gives us a competitive advantage in terms of features
provided and work capacity."
- Vince Elliott,
President
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Client Story: Elite Exterior Restorations, LLC.
Elite Exterior Restorations (EER) provides exterior remodeling services including roofs, windows, and
doors. Their back office operations consisted of separate silos of functionality for contact
management and sales force tracking, accounting, and proposal generation resulting in duplicate data
entry and general inefficiencies. EER came to Travant to integrate their back-office operations to
stream-line their business processes from the initial prospect management, proposal generation, and
finally accounts receivables. Travant also assisted in streamlining other business processes including
cash flow and vendor discount management. Through documenting best practices and implementing
third-party components, Travant was able to integrate EER's contact management system with both the
proposal generating system and back-end accounting software resulting in more efficient operations and
a reduction in errors.
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"Travant impressed me the most with how they were able to listen the description of
our problems and goals and translated them into something tangible. They quickly
demonstrated they understood what our prime concerns were and were able to clearly
articulate an appropriate solution that satisfied both our technical and business needs, and
most importantly, within our budget."
- Greg Cigan,
Principal
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Client Story: Fortune 500 eCommerce Company
Construction of an Extensive CFM/SFA Application
Travant served as a key participant on a large team that created an extensive CRM / SFA (sales force automation)
application used by a sales crew of over 3000. The software architecture is a .Net Windows forms application written
primarily in C# that utilizes a large SQL Server database. The application not only fuels day-to-day sales
operations, but it also serves as the backbone for current and future internal development efforts to further
increase sales and profit for this very large private organization.
Construction of a Large Inventory Management System
Travant architected and lead the development of a cornerstone element of a large inventory management
system that ran on a large System i server. The system was ported from a collection of batch programs
written in an archaic language to a real-time, queue-driven application written in Java. This system
overcame many technical challenges such as interfacing with a large mix of existing, dated System i
applications. Travant's involvement included responsibility for requirements gathering, design, architecture,
development, optimization, and quality assurance of the application. In addition Travant mentored and
trained the client's staff in object-oriented techniques and development in Java. The project was very successful and
served as a template for future work.
Enhancement of a High Volume eCommerce Web Site
Travant served as a key participant on a team that implemented several important enhancements to one of the
highest volume E-commerce sites in the country. Object-oriented analysis and design techniques, including
use case analysis, object modeling and database schema design, were utilized in developing these enhancements.
The code was written in ASP.Net and C#. JavaScript/AJAX techniques were utilized to create a rich-interaction
web environment.
Client Story: Gift of Hope
Gift of Hope is a not-for-profit organ procurement organization that serves much of the State of Illinois and is
responsible for saving many lives by facilitating the transfer of organs and tissues. Gift of Hope provides
critical services to educate hospitals about procedures for organ transfer, and they maintain relationships with
physicians and coroners, as well as with the families of those who donate organs to help others. Accordingly, Gift
of Hope needs a robust solution for managing all of these relationships, tracking touch points, and ensuring that
correspondence is sent on a timely basis. Gift of Hope utilized Travant to search for and implement an appropriate
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solution to manage its operations. Travant conducted use case
analysis and other process mapping techniques to establish and document Gift of Hope’s requirements. Travant drafted
a request for proposal and distributed it to several CRM software vendors. Travant also constructed a scoring mechanism,
arranged for vendor demonstrations, and facilitated the software selection process. When a decision was made, Travant
managed the implementation in multiple phases across Gift of Hope’s organization.
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"We were highly dependent on the memory of each staff member to follow up with their contacts and run our
operations. Travant explained how a CRM solution could help us to reduce the amount of time spent on administrative
efforts, focus more on our mission, and create an internal base of knowledge that could be shared with all of our
staff members. They guided us through the selection process, and they ensured that our implementation was successful."
- Anna Gonzalez,
Information Systems Director
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Client Story: Heads and Threads International LLC
Total Document System
Heads and Threads International LLC (HTI) is a worldwide importer and distributor of nuts, bolts and other
fasteners. As a service to their customers, HTI verifies the quality of materials that it receives from mills and
requires associated certification documents. Providing this information to customers has traditionally been a
manually intensive process, involving frequent printing and use of fax machines to deliver documents. HTI hired
Travant to construct a web-based system to manage this information. The system enables documents to be provided
electronically or on paper, scanned, stored, and indexed to specific inventory lots and orders. HTI staff can
easily search for documents and automatically print, fax or email them to customers requesting them. Customers
can also retrieve documents associated with products they’ve purchased via the self-service web application.
Travant designed and developed the object-oriented system on the J2EE platform running on a Windows 2000 server
utilizing Open Source technologies: Java, JDBC, JBoss, and MySQL. The system integrates with SAP via BAPI
objects and SAP JCO to retrieve purchase order and customer information and utilizes Active Directory to manage
security. The system integrates with Microsoft Exchange and the OMTool fax server.
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"Travant worked with us to automate our previously manual processes regarding certification documents.
The project to construct the system was completed within the stated time and budget, and the software has
dramatically improved productivity in our quality department.
- Tom Weidle,
Director, Quality/Operations
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Mill Processing System
Heads and Threads International LLC (HTI) is a worldwide importer and distributor of nuts, bolts and other fasteners. In addition to stocking standard parts, HTI also procures custom parts on an as-needed basis for their customers. This involves interacting with the manufacturing mills in Asia to determine who can provide the custom pieces quickest, for the least cost, with the highest quality. This was a manually intensive process and HTI had to interact with each of the mills requesting a quote (RFQ), evaluating the responses, and then selecting a vendor. In order to provide a higher level of service to their custom order business, HTI hired Travant to construct a web-based system to allow HTI and the mills interact online and electronically transmit and respond to mill order RFQs. Travant designed and developed the object-oriented system on the Microsoft .NET platform running on a Windows 2000 server utilizing ASP.NET, SQL Server, and Crystal Reports. A windows service was created to manage the periodic management and monitoring functionality. The system integrates with SAP via BAPI objects and SAP RFCs to retrieve customer and vendor information and to create purchase orders. Active Directory is used to manage security.
Client Story: HyperQuest, Inc.
HyperQuest is an information and process management corporation that markets services to the property and casualty
insurance industry. HyperQuest wanted to improve their product's user interface to make it friendlier and
ensure a better user experience. Travant implemented a new user interface using JSP, HTML, DHTML, JavaScript
and CSS while maintaining cross-browser compatibility between Internet Explorer 5.0 and Netscape 6.0.
Travant worked within the existing product architecture and maintained proper integration with the system's
database and Java Servlets.
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"Travant Solutions was able to bring the right resources to the project quickly,
which resulted in a vastly improved user interface that was completed on time, and for an investment
that was less than the other proposals. Travant understood our application thoroughly, and they
provided tremendous value and knowledge transfer as they worked with our design team and programming
staff."
- Jeff Hogan,
President & Founder
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Client Story: Inspect Solutions, Inc.
Inspect Solutions, Inc. (IS) is a nationwide provider of third-party material inspections. Retailers use
IS to help resolve customer complaints by determining if a defect is manufacturer, installation, or
consumer related. IS maintains a network of certified inspectors across North America to conduct material
inspections (flooring, windows, etc) in the United States and Canada. IS needed a system that provided
it's clients with self-service functionality to make inspection requests allowing them to monitor the
inspection progress and to print final reports. Algorithms were created to assist IS personnel in determining
the best potential inspector for a given inspection request. The system also needed to allow inspectors to
review the inspection requests and enter inspection reports, including uploading files and images, from any
where in North America. Using object-oriented methodology, techniques, and patterns, Travant designed and
constructed a web-based Inspection Management System (IMS) in C# using ASP.NET with MS SQL Server 2000 as the
data repository. Additionally, am XML web service was created in C# to allow the IMS to interface with IS'
accounting system for a streamlined accounts payable and accounts receivable process. As IS has realized over
100% growth of revenues since the implementation of IMS v1.0, significant functionality has been added over
a long period of time, through multiple application releases, allowing IS to meet it's client's ever changing needs.
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"Travant started by analyzing our business requirements which allowed them to design the most
efficient system in both functionality and cost. Instead of the "big bang" approach, Travant proposed
a phased approach which allowed us to roll out initial functionality to satisfy our key-clients
followed by a long-term solution that will enable us to grow and expand our business.
- Ron Gould,
President
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Client Story: MonoLisaGram, Inc.
MonoLisaGram provides advertising specialties and promotional items to businesses of all sizes.
With their extensive manufacturing facilities and inventory sources to fulfill embroidery and
screen printing needs, MonoLisaGram was looking to increase the utilization of their capacity and
further reach out to their customers. MonoLisaGram came to Travant to construct an external web
application to help them manage client activities and facilitate increases in orders. Travant
implemented the software using ASP, JavaScript and HTML, and integrated it with leading apparel
inventory sources to provide direct order fulfillment capabilities.
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"A prime factor that differentiates MonoLisaGram from its competitors is service. We know
that increasing our level of service and ensuring a simple buying process for our customers will result
in growth for us. Travant Solutions showed us how we can leverage technology to achieve this growth.
They were instrumental in the implementation of our web site, electronic communications with our
customers, and in using technology to manage customer relationships. Travant enabled us to provide
our customers a means to plan for their promotional events and get the targeted products they need on
a very timely basis. This has increased our orders and improved customer loyalty."
- Lisa Howard,
President
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Client Story: PocketCard, Inc.
PocketCard was in the process of expanding their stored value ("smart card") offering to the teen
market. Travant was brought in to audit the existing system and assist in expansion of functionality. Travant
worked with PocketCard's staff to repair existing code issues and create new functionality to enable credit
card funding of stored value accounts. The system was constructed using the JDK 1.2 ( J2EE: Using Java and
JSP) platform and Oracle.
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"provided expertise in a wide variety of business and technology areas,
including implementation of eCommerce applications, gateways for transaction processes, and back
office solutions. Because of this, we were able to achieve our technology objectives on time and
at reduced cost relative to hiring additional resources to obtain the diversity of capabilities
we required."
- Dan Verdeyen,
Vice President of Application Development
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Client Story: Produce Reporter Company
Sage CRM
PRCo is the preeminent source of performance, credit and marketing information for all facets of the produce industry since 1901.
PRCo manages an immense amount of data and is constantly seeking better ways of gathering and using intelligence to serve the
industry. PRCo implemented Sage CRM and has used it to improve almost all of their internal and customer-facing processes. Sage CRM
has given PRCo the means to leverage their extensive database of companies and people in their industry to seek out new customers and
improve retention of current customers. Travant configured and tailored PRCo's Sage CRM solution to create an enterprise system that
PRCo uses for studying and rating companies and generating content for their publications, as well as for managing leads,
opportunities, marketing campaigns, and customer support. The resulting system interfaces with Quark, RightFax, Documatch,
Teleforms, as well as the remaining legacy systems.
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"Travant understood our business thoroughly. They showed us how to take full advantage of Sage CRM's capabilities and
tailored an enterprise system that has evolved our organization's premier database. We now have the tools in place to rapidly
analyze and publish high integrity information for our customers, create new and flexible information products, and mine our
database for new customer, cross-selling, and up-selling opportunities."
- Mark Erickson,
Vice President of Technology and Publications
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Blue Book Online Services
PRCo is the preeminent source of performance, credit and marketing information for all facets of the produce industry since 1901.
Travant recently completed the successful implementation of a custom SageCRM software package. PRCo was ready for the next step of
leveraging their new enterprise platform by replacing their decade old Electronic Blue Book (EBB) windows based software that was
distributed on a quarterly basis to their customers via CD with a web-based application that their customers could easily access to
view real-time data. PRCo also took this opportunity to keep the popular EBB functions, enhance other existing functions, and
provide a variety of time-saving new functions. The BBOS system also allows PRCo to easily publish industry related new items in
the BBOS application and via RSS feeds. Travant designed and developed the object-oriented system on the Microsoft .NET
platform running on a Windows 2003 server utilizing ASP.NET, SQL Server, and Reporting Services. A web service was created to
allow B2B functionality for corporate customers to download data directly into their systems. A windows service was created to
manage the periodic management and monitoring functionality. The system integrates with PRCo's customized SageCRM software
package to provide the BBOS users with direct, real-time access, to decision critical information.
Blue Book Online Services Mobile
The Blue Book Online Services Mobile (BBOS Mobile) is a streamlined version of Produce Reporter's Blue Book Online Sevices.
A subset of functionality was selected that would be most beneficial to users on mobile devices. Using object-oriented techniques,
the BBOS Mobile web application leverages the same business object framework as the BBOS, but utilized a new web interface targeted
specially for mobile devices. Both screen sizes and sreen component navigation mechanisms (stylus pointers, track ball, key pad)
were taken into account in the screen design. Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and OpenWave browsers are all supported.
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"Blue Book Online Services (BBOS) has been a complete success with our customers—particularly in terms of its functionality,
appearance, and ease of use. This market success showcases Travant’s technical acumen. Yet, the project’s on-time and on-budget
completion demonstrates the Travant team’s project management expertise. Beyond delighting customers, BBOS also earned a 2008
"Model of Excellence" award from InfoCommerce Group. Travant has played a critical role in all of these achievements and we are
very appreciative for their contributions during each phase of our current technology plan."
- Jim Bartelson,
Executive Vice President
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Client Story: SwiftMD
SwiftMD is an online healthcare provider that offers physician services 24 hours per day via their website and
telephone. Their team of physicians provides consultations for thousands of members, including individual families
that subscribe to the service as well as corporate employees that receive SwiftMD as a group health benefit.
SwiftMD came to Travant to establish their IT infrastructure and build their premier web-based application.
Travant guided SwiftMD in choosing an electronic medical records (EMR) software product for physicians to record
progress notes, diagnoses, and prescriptions. Travant then designed and developed the SwiftMD web application to
provide member services, a message center, and electronic commerce for billing. The software leverages the .NET
platform using C#, ASP.NET, SQL Server, and Reporting Services. Travant integrated the SwiftMD web application with
the EMR software using the Health Level 7 (HL7) data format specification to transfer patient demographic and
appointment information via TCP/IP connections. Travant enabled members to view their medical records online in
the SwiftMD web application using Continuity of Care Record (CCR) to retrieve data from the EMR.
To manage SwiftMD’s larger group health plan customers, Travant created import mechanisms to easily populate the
system from customers’ human resources systems. Included in these is the ability to import a HIPAA 834 compliant
file.
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"As a startup healthcare company, we needed help to define a technical solution to carry out our vision
for providing services to our members. Travant created the software that runs our business, and they provided
excellent guidance for us to implement our initiatives. They have been a great advocate. "
- Amy Wray,
Chief Operations Officer
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Client Story: ThinkFirst Foundation
The ThinkFirst! Foundation is an international non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention of brain,
spinal cord, and other traumatic injuries through the education of individuals, community leaders, and the
creators of public policy. ThinkFirst wanted to update both their external web site used to promote the
ThinkFirst cause and their internal web site used by the chapters to share resources. ThinkFirst was interested
in an end-to-end solution including selecting a new hosting provider and having the ability to maintain and
enhance their web site. Travant implemented the new website using ASP, HTML, DHTML, JavaScript and CSS while
maintaining cross-browser compatibility between Internet Explorer 5.0 and Netscape 6.0. Travant worked to port
existing dynamic functionality while implementing additional functionality of the web site. The data repository
was upgraded from MS Access to MS SQL Server resulting in a single repository for all ThinkFirst data allowing
for easier access to information.
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"Travant was able to create a custom look and feel while providing expert guidance as to how to implement the new site. They provided tremendous value by centralizing our internal and external data into a single database. This allows us to offer self-service chapter maintenance and eliminate duplicate data entry. The website is designed with standard tools in such a way that ThinkFirst owns every image and every line of code. This gives the Foundation newly found freedom to maintain our website independently and allows us to create and develop new pages, insert edit text/graphics and explore the endless possibilities of interactive content. Their professional expertise has been vital for us to obtain autonomy of our own website. We would also like to thank the team at Travant Solutions for their friendly support during this process."
- Gigi Thomas,
Website and Database Administrator
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Client Story: TrueSource, Inc.
TrueSource provides a leading software solution to analyze an organization's procurement activities and implement metrics and controls on spend. TrueSource utilized Travant to extend their premier software application by creating functionality to categorize purchasing transactions and establish rules and trends. The components that Travant constructed for TrueSource are considered key components to emphasize in their sales cycle, and they greatly simplify the implementation process of the TrueSource solution. Travant designed and developed the software on the J2EE platform with targer servers running both Windows 2003 Server and Linux. The solution accessed an Oracle database and utilized a variety of Open Source technologies as well as ETL technologies. Travant also guided TrueSource with its technical architecture strategy to ensure that their product utilizes current technologies and operates efficiently.
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"Travant produced commercial quality software that became key components of our solution offering. They worked well with our in-house development team and provided excellent guidance for them."
- Rod True,
President, TrueSource
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Client Story: Visibillity, Inc.
Visibillity provides a collaborative litigation management solution that results in quality decision-making
processes and minimizes the cost of litigation. Through its web application, Visibillity improves and
streamlines the partnership between insurance companies and law firms. As Visibillity expanded its service
offerings, they looked to Travant to leverage an additional software development team to produce new
product functionality. Travant constructed and integrated this product functionality using
Visibillity's architecture platform: ASP, HTML, and JavaScript with a SQL Server database. As a result,
Visibillity was able to implement new functionality in a rapid timeframe without removing internal development
staff from other critical tasks.
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"Travant Solutions provided outstanding software engineering talent and produced high-quality
results. They seamlessly integrated their deliverables with our existing software application in a rapid
timeframe."
- Yves Baseke,
Product Release Manager
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ravant Solutions® provides professional services to
clients of different sizes, ranging from start-up to Fortune 100, with a variety of needs. The following
are examples of industries and specialty areas, in which our staff have experience:
Hiring & Managing an IT Professional Services Firm