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Company in the Spotlight: No rest for Blue Hammock
Start-up opens office in India, eyes more growth
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Sunday, August 13, 2000
By Bob Starzynski, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Seven months out of the starting gate and Blue Hammock is already searching for talent
halfway around the world.
The Downtown consulting firm, which provides technology solutions for other companies to
manage their customer relations, opened a recruiting and training office in Hyderabad,
India, this week. By the end of September, the company should start bringing Indian
consultants stateside under the H-1B visa program. That program allows companies to
sponsor foreigners to work in this country for up to six years.
"We are training them now and recruiting heavily to bring more on board," said
Robert Lang, Blue Hammock's chief executive and one of the company's founders. At least a
handful of employees will come over from India next month to join an operation that
already employs more than 50.
And yes, Blue Hammock did just open shop at the beginning of the year.
The two founders, Lang and Eric Carlson, had worked together at Mastech Corp. (now iGate
Capital) and had pieced together several customer management technology initiatives before
striking out on their own. When they opened shop, they also brought on Sam Prakash to head
their technology work. Prakash was a founding employee at Cambridge Technology Partners,
where Lang and Carlson had previously worked as well.
Although Blue Hammock tackles very intricate technology projects for such companies as
FreeMarkets, Fujitsu and ADP, the business model is fairly simple.
Companies today are increasingly interested in using technology to manage everything
relating to their customers -- their buying habits, their buying history and their
demographics, as well as analytical studies of customer interest in certain services or
products. Blue Hammock sets up such systems.
But the company does not use its own proprietary software. It has created vendor
partnerships with some of the biggest names in electronic customer relationship management
-- Broadbase Software, Siebel Systems, Genesys and E.piphany.
Of course, the most important challenge for information technology consulting businesses
is recruiting the talented and experienced engineers and programmers to handle the project
work. That issue has been Lang's biggest hurdle.
"If people exist in Pittsburgh who can fill these positions," he said,
"show them to me." He said Blue Hammock has been recruiting aggressively in the
Pittsburgh area and had to go to India to build out the consulting ranks more quickly and
efficiently.
"The schooling in India is more technical and mathematical," he said. "And
the quality of life is not as high [as in the United States]. They know that their ticket
to the States is a computer science degree." Hence the office in Hyderabad.
Just last week, the new facility tested 300 prospective employees. Of those, 50 qualified
and moved on in the recruiting process. Ten of those qualified candidates are under
consideration to be hired, trained and deployed as Blue Hammock consultants.
The big-picture plan for the Indian office is to be more than just a hiring agency for
Blue Hammock. In several months, Lang expects that the Indian facility will have enough
infrastructure and foundation to be a full-fledged offshore technology development shop
for the company.
With $2.5 million in angel funding in the coffers, a $1 million investment from a company
named Exciga (which is a partner with Blue Hammock on the Indian office), and another $4
million expected soon from institutional investors, Blue Hammock should have enough money
to move the Indian office to the next level.
Lang said there also will be sufficient money to expand into other international markets
as well, such as Australia and Europe. And the company will expand its U.S. operations by
putting offices in places such as San Francisco, Atlanta and either Dallas or Houston.
BLUE HAMMOCK
Business: Customer relationship management consulting
Headquarters: Fort Pitt Commons, Downtown
Employees: At least 50
History: Company was created by former Mastech and Cambridge Technology Partners employees
in January 2000. Since then, it has signed four vendor agreements, brought in $2.4 million
in financing, opened a recruiting and training facility in India, and started doing
projects for clients.
Web site: www.bluehammock.com
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