Mitch Paioff, guest columnist for IT Business Edge, is the author of the book, “Getting Started as an Independent Computer Consultant.” You can read an excerpt from the book in the Knowledge Network. He recently spoke with Tom Campbell, CEO of Quick Solutions, an IT staffing firm based in Columbus, Ohio. This is the last of a three-part series of Mitch’s interviews with IT staffing firm CEOs. Don't miss insights from Deborah Vazquez of PROTECH and Mike Logan of Axis Technology.

Paioff: Tom, could you talk to me about Quick Solutions and, more specifically, what your core businesses are?
Campbell: Quick Solutions is an information technology consulting firm. We have approximately 200 employees, 165 of which are IT consultants. We do a variety of consulting work. Our core competency is in the application development and project management areas. We do infrastructure work, business intelligence, business analysis and quality assurance. We do a fair amount of interactive media work and we also do a lot of staff augmentation.

We were one of the fastest growing, privately held companies in America, for four straight years, from 1997 through 2000. We had a lot of growth during that period, and then worked our way through the Y2K era. We have a pretty diversified client base throughout Central Ohio. We have a great reputation in the marketplace, a good brand, and we have a lot of QSI alumni out there.

Paioff: Over the last six to 12 months, what changes have you experienced in your business?
Campbell: Well, the biggest issue, of course, has been the recession and the crisis in the financial markets. Every business has been affected. This crisis that we’re going through now is really unprecedented in my lifetime. I’ve been in the business community here now in Central Ohio for almost 30 years, and this is by far the biggest crisis that I’ve seen to date.

The effects on the overall economy have had a dramatic impact. Every company is really looking inward and as businesses have slowed down, companies have been forced to look for ways to reduce costs. It depends on the industry - some do it opportunistically, and some do it out of necessity based on the industry that they’re in. Take financial services, for example. Companies like Chase and Nationwide, and other firms that are in the financial services industry, have been rocked with a lot of different problems, all of which are replayed over and over again in the media on a daily basis.

So they’re forced to cut back. The housing market and industries related to the housing market, obviously, or the construction industry, and the commercial real estate industry, have all taken a beating. The number of people losing their jobs has affected consumer spending. Then it hits retail and the whole supply chain of all the manufacturers that supply products that are purchased by consumers. It is really an industry-wide recession. So it’s really affected every aspect of business out there. Companies are looking for ways to reduce costs.

When it comes to IT, they’re looking internally. They’re looking at hardware expenditures and software purchases. They are also looking at their headcounts and how their IT departments are staffed. And they’re also looking very closely at external resources and consulting firms, and not just IT consulting firms, but professional services firms in general. This situation is affecting law firms, accounting firms, and any firms that are out there providing professional services.

So the tendency of firms is to first cut back on outside services. They’re looking at consulting services and looking at ways they can cut or reduce costs in the consulting realm. Then, when they exhaust that avenue, then they start to look internally, and they look at ways to reduce cost by reducing their own staff. So we tend to feel it first when the downturn occurs. I think IT consulting firms feel the pain pretty quickly.

The downturn in consulting services is very, very widespread and it’s affected most of the staffing firms. But there is work out there. What happens is that the environment gets much more competitive as everybody is trying to survive and find work. All of the consulting firms are out there competing and competing hard.

There is pricing pressure and margin pressure, and there are a lot of firms that are just trying to survive through this whole thing. Many, I think, will not, especially the smaller firms that don’t have a diversified client base. So there’s a lot of competition, and that makes it tough when you’re going out there trying to win deals.

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