Permanent, contractor or the best of both
April 2010Following the recession, business units want to grow. Regulatory and reporting requirements are more complex than ever. IT is under pressure to deliver, but lack-lustre budgets, under staffed teams and harsh timescales mean that developers are often just "keeping the lights on". How did one major Investment Bank solve an urgent regulatory requirement and form a long term partnership in the process?
The message we are receiving from clients is that 2010 is a year of growth and investment in IT systems. The business unit needs tactical projects doing right now, but IT departments are on stretched budgets, are short staffed and simply can't deliver everything that's needed.
In many cases, recruitment drives are in place, but some of our clients are struggling to fill permanent head count with quality personnel in a timely manner.
Contractors can help bridge this type of void. They can provide short term, often quality cover. However, the best performers often come at an extortionate (and rising) daily rate and in six months time, they'll move to your competitor.
But, there is another option; co-sourcing with thecitysecret.
We have recently provided personnel on short term contracts (eg six months) to work on key tactical projects. We have a staff skilled in a variety of architectural, managerial, technical and financial areas.
Working from our secure offices in Richmond, North Yorkshire, we can help you deliver key pieces of work quickly and to the right level of quality. We are located close to travel hubs that allow us to easily visit clients in order to hammer out those allusive requirements and specs and to bring the work back to our base.
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A recent success story saw us providing a short term solution for a Tier 1 Investment Banking client. A confirmation system required urgent enhancements in order to meet new regulatory requirements. The work had to be done right, first time and needed to be done in a short time frame. The client was struggling with both permanent and contractor recruitment and decided to approach thecitysecret. thecitysecret placed an experienced developer with a strong financial background following roles in the City. The developer used their server-side Java, XML, XSLT and database skills together with excellent communication skills in order to work with the client on the project. The developer's financial background helped spot some omissions and errors in the original user spec, which meant they could be corrected prior to expensive and time consuming development work being done. An agile and iterative development methodology meant the business got to see results early in the project lifecycle giving them confidence and allowing them to tweak the requirements and specification as the product matured. The end product was completed on-time, to-budget and the client was extremely pleased with the result. The client has since asked for further work to be done via theictysecret and the developer is now working alongside new team members located at thecitysecret in Richmond and client employees in London, Hong Kong and New York, helping design and developing a major, long term Equity Swaps Risk Renovation project. By using thecitysecret's flexible and highly professional attitude, the client was able to satisfy a key short term regulatory requirement; something they may not have achieved if they had continued to pursue other recruitment methods. Having seen what we can deliver, the client has come back for more. This has proven win-win for the client as they've delivered the short term project to the satisfaction of the business, but have also forged a relationship that means they can keep working with our highly skilled and motivated staff. |
Try us on a short term project; its value-for-money, low risk and like the client above, you might just like what you see and want to use us again!
thecitysecret
+44 (0) 1748 822 160 |
